Stanley Clarke and Hiromi along with the PUBLIQuartet

A truly special night of live music awaits! Two of jazz’s greatest living performers and bandleaders take the stage to pay tribute to their longtime friend and collaborator, Chick Corea. And to make it all the better, Stanley Clarke and Hiromi will be joined by the innovative, genre-blending string ensemble PUBLIQuartet.

Bassist, composer, and bandleader Clarke was one of the founders, along with Corea, of the trailblazing jazz fusion band Return to Forever; the two worked together through the band’s 1972–1977 run and in later reunions until Corea’s death in 2021. Pianist, composer, and bandleader Hiromi began performing with Corea in 1996 at age seventeen, an ongoing collaboration that culminated in their critically acclaimed 2007 album Duet.

In 2009, after an introduction from Corea, Hiromi joined the Stanley Clarke Band, and together she and Clarke won a Grammy for the 2011 release The Stanley Clarke Band. All of that history is certain to come to the forefront on our stage as Clarke, Hiromi, and the brilliant members of PUBLIQuartet celebrate the life and legacy of the Massachusetts native and all-time jazz piano legend Corea.

Be sure to arrive early to take in performances by members of the UMass Department of Music and Dance’s elite Jazz Ensemble 1, as well as two bands selected from participants in the department’s annual High School Jazz Festival, who will have spent part of their day learning from Clarke and Hiromi.