Notes From The Road: A Message From Chick Corea Live from the Tokyo Jazz Festival

Here's an update from Chick Corea from his current tour...

1 September 19 – from Tokyo, Japan

Hi all!

The Akoustic Band and the Elektric Band were back at it for a jam-packed, exhilarating three days of shows in Japan this past week!

Kicking things off in Osaka was The Akoustic Band at Billboard Live, a high-end entertainment club housing well-known acts from all over the world. The trio performed to two sold-out crowds and featured a rich setlist of songs, including "Humpty Dumpty," "In A Sentimental Mood," a Scarlatti sonata and, fittingly, "A Japanese Waltz." The night was a hit, and the responses from the two wonderfully appreciative Japanese audiences certainly reflected that. 

Next was the highly-anticipated Tokyo Jazz Festival. The setting for this festival was NHK Hall, an immaculate-sounding 3,500-seat auditorium owned and operated by the largest broadcasting network in Japan: NHK. A completely full house greeted the Akoustic Band with booming applause as they entered and kept it going throughout the night—from the opening "On Green Dolphin Street" through the encore of "Spain." Friends and fellow musicians backstage, by the likes of Avishai Cohen, Kamasi Washington, etc., also expressed how magical it was to see the trio do their thing that night.

Osaka, Japan // 28 August 2019

The following night, and the final night of Tokyo Jazz, was the Elektric Band—performing for the first time together in over a year. The group came out and absolutely "galvanized" the sold-out crowd with "Charged Particles" and continued on with favorites like "CTA", "Alan Corday", and finally, a smoking performance of "Got A Match?" (a snippet of which you can catch here). No one in the crowd wanted that night to end. One musician backstage said afterwards, of the experience of watching the Elektric Band play: "It was like watching 5 superheroes on stage, firing off laser beams the whole night."

Though it was a short stint in the Land of the Rising Sun, it was a wildly successful one, replete with high-flying musicianship and elated audiences. Chick will find himself back on the road at the beginning of October with Christian McBride and Brian Blade—stay tuned!

Regards,

Jordin & the Corea road crew