"The latest addition to Chick’s remarkable discography is Plays, a captivating and intimate double album of solo performances. While he claims that, “Solo piano is lonely,†Chick finds himself in good company throughout these stellar performances, engaging with several of his favorite composers. The list of icons represents a wide swath of musical history, from the classical repertoire of Mozart and Chopin to formative jazz influences like Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans, on to the Great American Songbook classics, the bossa nova beauty of Jobim, and the modern pop sensibility of Stevie Wonder. With countless classics having become standards over the last half century, Corea himself deserves to take his place in that pantheon, and Plays includes a number of pieces – reprised from past albums or spontaneously improvised – from his own estimable songbook. The album also showcases his charming rapport with enthusiastic audiences in concert halls across Europe and the U.S., who become integral collaborators in these spirited renditions. “I’m part of a lineage,†Corea explains. “The thing that I do is similar to what Monk did, to what Bill Evans and Duke Ellington did, and moving back into another era of music, what Bach and Mozart and Beethoven did. These were all pianists who were composers at heart, who gathered their own musicians together to play. I feel so proud to be a part of that tradition.â€"
