Listen to Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea Duel on Pianos in 1978
Forty years ago on this date, the two legends joined forces in San Francisco for a masterclass in jazz piano.
Photo: Getty ImagesDid you know that Paste owns the world’s largest collection of live music recordings? It’s true! And what’s even crazier, it’s all free—hundreds of thousands of exclusive songs, concerts and videos that you can listen to and watch right here at Paste.com, from Dizzy Gillespie to The Kinks to Public Enemy to HAIM. Every day, we’ll dig through the archive for the coolest recording we have from that date in history. Search and enjoy!
Get free access to the vault with the new Paste Music & Daytrotter mobile app
Chick Corea was a busy man in 1978, releasing no fewer than five albums on three labels and touring as a solo pianist. He also performed as part of a duo with Herbie Hancock and with his first post-Return To Forever band, which included drummer Steve Gadd, bassist Eddie Gomez, and saxophonist Joe Farrell, a former RTF member. Corea was coming off a 1976 Grammy win for Return To Forever’s Romantic Warrior LP, and had eclipsed contemporaries such as Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson as the most in-demand jazz pianist.
Read: The 30 Best Albums of 1978
After the fury of the rock-jazz fusion quartet version of Return To Forever, Corea was eager to return to an acoustic format that allowed him greater musical flexibility and improvisation; hence this recording from a tour with his friend and mentor, Herbie Hancock. This recording from March 8, 1978, comes from the legendary tour with Hancock, when the pianists performed as a duo, dancing and weaving into and around each other with virtuosic flair. The two would eventually release both a studio and live album before returning to their respective solo projects.