CHICK COREA – THE SPIRITIUAL PIANIST (Valdir Zwetsch) Revista POP Nº 73, Novembro de 1978.

The day before the interview, Chick had played with Hermeto at Anhembi. And I was still
experiencing the impact of that experience. Perhaps for that very reason, Chick Corea spent the
whole morning browsing stores in São Paulo, looking for Brazilian percussion instruments. When
he arrived, after sending orange juice to the journalists, he immediately spoke of Hermeto: "It is
easy to play with him. We had already played together in New York, working with Miles Davis -
so we came from the same source. Hermeto is like a Miles Davis from Brazil, it's great to play
with him on instruments. He's just a genius!

And Chick, what is he? A spirit. “People are not bodies, they are not minds, they are spirits."
Therefore, according to the logic of Corea, they have no nationality. He himself is American, of
Italian descent and recorded an LP called “My Spanish Heart”: "Technique and style can be
mechanical things. But the feeling, the way you feel the music, this is something spiritual,
without borders. It’s not necessary to be Brazilian to play samba. but you need to feel the spirit
of samba to play it well ". That is why Chick Corea seeks to make his music from the perspective
of a "planetary culture". As he himself says: "We live in a kind of crazy world, in which countries
are very different from each other. And there is only one thing that ties it all together: art. Who
doesn't know that people love to listen to music all over the world? ".

Then, to conclude, the prospect of a "collective music" emerges that would complete the picture
of his spiritual and planetary vision of art. In other words: creative activity would not be the
privilege of artists, but of all people. As an example of what he imagines this type of work might
be, Chick Corea cites the cases of two other North American jazz buffs, Sun Ra and Roland Kirk:
they, in their concerts, give instruments to the audience to play. And it is at that moment, when
he talks about the possibility of carrying out his projects, that Chick Corea gets excited,
remembering once again his "challenge" from the previous day with Hermeto and proclaims:
"Well, your own carnival is an example of that. People all on the streets, making sounds with
anything that makes a noise - that's a beautiful way to make collective music! " And he ends the
conversation saying that he will return to see the carnival "in loco", of course!