Chick Corea (piano), Kenny Garrett (alto saxophone), Christian McBride (double bass), Roy Haynes (drums)

The 70-year-old pianist Chick Corea has created a wide and extensive oeuvre. In his Freedom Band, he is surrounded by great musicians such as bassist Christian McBride, saxophone player Kenny Garrett and the 85-year-old but still vital drummer Roy Haynes

Armando Anthony ‘Chick’ Corea is considered to be one of the most influential pianists in jazz since Bill Evans. He belongs to the same generation that Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett and McCoy Tyner are from and Corea became an energetic pianist and  composer of ingenuity, incorporating influences from Latin to Béla Bartók, rock and free jazz to more traditional forms in his music. He wrote classics like La Fiesta, Return to Forever and Tones for Jones’ Bones and eagerly took part in the fusion movement. He experimented with the Fender Rhodes electric piano, and notably with Miles Davis, appearing on landmark recordings In A Silent Way, Filles de Kilimanjaro and Bitches Brew. When Chick Corea left Davis in the early seventies he threw himself into several projects. In 1970 he had started Circle, an avant-garde group. Just like Keith Jarrett, he  recorded for the German label ECM. With his band Return to Forever, he created a kind of lighthearted and very successful Latin-oriented fusion. Corea won no less than 17 Grammy awards, the last one for his recent instrumental album, Five Peace Band Live with guitarist John McLaughlin, Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride and Vinnie Colaiuta. Some of these musicians formed The Freedom Band, 'a meeting of free spirits in music.'

Roy Haynes is one of the most prolific drummers in jazz. During his over 60-year career he created rhythms for many legendary musicians, from Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy to Stan Getz, Pat Metheny and Chick Corea. He has played various styles, from swing to avant-garde. But he developed a particularly expressive, personal style. ‘Snap Crackle’ was the name he gave it, for his drum work, which is indeed crispy and crunchy.

Christian McBride may only be 37 but he has already travelled an impressive musical path. Not only did he play alongside jazz legends like McCoy Tyner, Wynton Marsalis, Ray Brown and Sonny Rollins, but he also performed with hip-hop, pop, soul and classical musicians like The Roots, Carly Simon, James and Kathleen Battle Brown. He can be heard on hundreds of recordings, he leads his own bands and above all has a masterful sense of timing and a wonderful bass sound.

Kenny Garrett earned his reputation as a young saxophonist in the eighties with trumpeter Miles Davis, with whom he remained for five years. Early on, his fiery alto sax tone caught the public’s attention and Garrett went his own way. He has appeared as a sideman on well over two hundred albums to date. He recorded tributes to Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. Beyond the Wall from 2006 mixed Asian influences in his music.