The piano latin style and improvisation of Chick Corea

Abstract

The purpose of this thematic paper is to show the prominent musical features of piano playing in the basic traditional Latin style and the correlation with this and Chick Corea's Latin piano playing style. This paper focuses on the playing styles pertaining to melody, harmony, chord progressions, chord structures, techniques and improvisation based on chord progressions in standard jazz songs and Chick Corea's music, as he is one of the most influential fusion pianists in jazz music history. The following pieces were studied: 1. Armando's Rhumba, Composed by Chick Corea 2. Some Day My Prince Will Come, Composed by Frank Churchill 3. What I Need, Composed by Sakda Tamseewan 4. Smile, Composed by Charles Chapplin 5. Spain, Composed by Chick Corea The analysis of these selections showed that Chick Corea's playing style resembles the traditional Latin style. The Fo-Fi and arpeggio patterns are collaboratively used and adjustments were made to create uniqueness. Also, basic jazz chord voicings, such as close voicing and fourth voicing, were used in harmonization. In addition, the relationship between chords and scales used in Spain was also analyzed. This research can be a guideline for improving the playing style of pianists in both Latin and standard jazz music styles. The musical selections were performed by the researcher as part of this project.;