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Note and gathered a lot of the guys I workedwith in bands of mine, the whole concept of notwanting to go back to something that’s ‘old’ leftme,” Corea said. “The richness I had withmusic was actually the friendships I developedwith my musical partners, and they were timeless.It all seemed fresh to me, even though weweren’t playing new compositions. The jamsessions seemed fresh, and I blew away the ideathat reunions were bad. These relations are endless.So getting together with Stanley Clarkeand Lenny White especially, it was a long timecoming that we hadn’t played together, and itwas very joyous.”What has obviously changed is the electrickeyboard’s inherent technology, though it’s atestament to Corea’s victory in this categorythat he continues to experiment with the soundshe gets from them.“I play an extensive keyboard rig for ReturnTo Forever and paired it down for the FivePeace Band,” Corea said. “I’ve been trying towork out what is the most suitable kind ofinstruments to use to get the kind of musicalimpact that I like. I’ve tried different approachesin programming sounds, improvising my sounddesign as I play. I also enjoy going back to gettingthe sound going from my old FenderRhodes, while there’s a new Mini MoogVoyager that I enjoy playing. But to haularound a huge set of keyboards was like carryinga ball and chain, so I’m trying to make myrig compact. I’m also going to try a looserapproach for my next tour. With the Five PeaceBand, I used a couple Yamaha Motif keyboardsand brought my own patches and only neededto use four of five different sounds that suitedme for the kind of music I was playing.”At first, Corea said that he felt trepidationabout the ways that musical instrument companieshave been trying to duplicate the sound ofan acoustic piano in a digital format. Still, herecognized that it’s not just music, but the relatedworlds of film and computers that haveaccelerated the digital process with affordablesoftware’s convenience. Meanwhile, he addsthat Yamaha’s recent Avant model has madehim more comfortable with the technology.“If I’m playing a Fender Rhodes, I don’tthink of it as a piano—not even remotely,”Corea said. “In the same way, when I play adigitized piano sound, I approach it as thatinstrument, not as a piano, and then I can kindof make it work. But now, with the YamahaAvant, you sit down at that instrument and thein-built speakers bring it close to an acousticpiano feel. The keyboard is exactly an acousticpiano keyboard and whatever they did with thesampling gave it a wide dynamic range.”Last year, Corea recorded with keyboardistHiromi, and their pairing was released a fewmonths ago as Duet (Concord). As he recalledmeeting her in Tokyo when she was a teenager,he marveled at how she has become “quite amusician and a great young pianist.” Such anobservation leads to the question of what advicehe would give any young artist.“Pleasure is being able to do what you liketo do, and there’s so much in life that can goagainst that from authoritarian figures who keepyou from pursuing something you would like todo,” Corea said. “So it’s a matter of strengthand integrity for any young person to pursuesomething they’re interested in. As for education,the old concept of the apprentice systemstill works. You learn from one of the mastersin your area, and that’s how I learned. Any successfulperson, if you look into it, they learnedthat way.”Corea is giving himself plenty of time andspace to keep making his own new pursuitsthroughout the rest of the year. In the fall, he’lltour as a trio with Clarke and White. But he’sparticularly looking forward to a rare summertour as a solo act.“I’ve never toured solo,” Corea said. “I’vealways done solo piano concerts as fillers—acouple here or there upon requests sometimes,but never a whole tour, especially during theactive summer concert months. It’s going to bea refreshing relief after Return To Forever andthe Five Peace Band. I get back to myself andsee where the kid is at.”DBAugust 2009 DOWNBEAT 41