Chick Corea’s final concerts come to life on Forever Yours: The Farewell Performance, a poignant solo-piano release that captures his unmatched virtuosity, warmth, and gift for connection just months before his passing.
Chick Corea’s final concerts were never meant to be farewells. In October 2020, the jazz giant walked onstage at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida, with the same spirit of generosity and curiosity that defined his fifty-year career. Four months later, Corea was gone. What remains is Forever Yours: The Farewell Concert, a release that captures the warmth, virtuosity, and playfulness of those last two solo-piano recitals.
Recorded by longtime collaborator Bernie Kirsh and co-produced by Gayle Corea and Jordin Pinkus, the album reflects the way Corea always approached music: as conversation. His dazzling technique and harmonic command were matched by a program that stitched together his own classics, including “Armando’s Rhumba” and selections from Children’s Songs, with tributes to Monk, Powell, Evans, Ellington, Mozart, and Stevie Wonder. “He wanted the composers to have a conversation with one another as he was also having a conversation with them,” Kirsh says. “He really looked up to the musicians he loved, and in these solo performances, he wanted to showcase the similarities between them. ”That instinct for connection permeates the recording.
Corea’s spoken introductions remain intact, filled with his affable humor and insights. Two pieces, improvised in real time for audience members named Sam and Terri, reveal his endless curiosity and openness. Even the house lights tell a story: Corea insisted they never be fully dimmed, so he could see his listeners and feel the shared experience. “He never saw concerts as simply going out on stage and playing,” Kirsh explains. “Solo piano was the purest form of this exchange that he loved.”
The performances also marked a rare return to in-person music during the pandemic. After months of livestream recitals from his Florida studio, Corea craved the presence of a live audience. Florida’s restrictions had loosened just enough, and with careful planning his team made it possible. “Looking back at this particular window of time, it was all very fortuitous that these final performances were able to happen when they did,” says Pinkus.
Forever Yours: The Farewell Concert is both a parting gift and a reminder of why Chick Corea remains a singular voice in music. It captures the artistry, humanity, and light he carried with him until the very end, shining just brightly enough for the audience to see him, and for him to see them.