Chick Corea

Only a spiritual being has awareness.

I got a chance to listen to and watch Thelonious Monk and his quartet play two shows a night, for six weeks. It was a great education. There was my university, man.

My one thing is I continue to be interested and want to be a student. I don’t want to be a master. When I’m learning something, I’m in my element.

Miles Davis was a part of my life from 1947 on. I was born in 1941 and I first heard him in 1947 on a 78 rpm. And then I followed his career, starting with his first solo album in 1951. He was an icon and inspiration and a mentor to me.

I get interested in the various ways that music is being done in the culture, and some of it I like thoroughly enough to want to learn about it. The way I have been successful at doing that is to become part of it.

I call myself a teacher because they want me to call myself a teacher, but actually, what I’m doing is I’m studying.

Jazz is one of the best things that you can find in your life, it can always be your friend.

By and large Jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.

I’ve been told that nobody sings the word ‘hunger’ like I do.

They’re not particular about whether you’re playing a flatted fifth or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance to it.

I always had a deep feeling to be one with the very minute I’m in.

There’s a category for me. I like to be referred to as a good singer of good songs in good taste.

The Jazz Age became less and less an affair of youth. The sequel was like a children’s party taken over by the elders.

I don’t dig staying in one groove.

There are four qualities essential to a great Jazzman: taste, courage, individuality and irreverence. These are the qualities I want to retain in my music.

As long as I can say what it is that I need to say, then I’ll fit whatever I’m trying to say around a melody.

Jazz? has no boundaries.

I don’t believe that a lot of the things I hear on the air today are going to be played for as long a time as Coleman Hawkins records or Brahms concertos.

Music has to be accessible.

Musicians have a really big part to play in spreading messages because they’re able to reach a large portion of people on an emotional level. Artists reach people at their heart; it’s the only time we meet in one place and put our differences aside. When you’re in a forum listening to music, all you feel in that moment is love and the understanding.

If you’ve only got one horn playing, I still want the sense of ensemble.