ECM has released The Visitors, a 12-minute work composed by Chick Corea for vibraphonist Gary Burton and pianist Kirill Gerstein. Commissioned by Gerstein with support from his Gilmore Artist Award, and co-commissioned by Berklee College of Music, the piece premiered at the 2012 Gilmore International Piano Festival.
The Visitors combines western classical and jazz idioms. It features a structure that ranges from fully notated passages to sections that are partially or entirely improvised. Throughout, vibraphone and piano engage in intricate interplay, navigating both energetic ostinatos and delicate counterpoint.
The recording, captured at the 2012 premiere, was recently rediscovered by Burton and Gerstein. It was mixed in Munich in Spring 2025 by Manfred Eicher and Gerstein. Released digitally, the single commemorated what would have been Chick Corea’s 84th birthday, on June 12.
Kirill Gersteinshared: “With Chick no longer with us, and Gary now retired, this is a singular document—both musically and personally meaningful.”
Chick Corea said in March, 2012: “Composing this duet piece for Kirill and Gary was a happy challenge. To have a pianist of Kirill’s accomplishment play my written piano notes inspired me to compose. I thank him for the opportunity. The Visitors is constructed in small sections with a final section that vamps, jazz-style, over a piano ostinato. I wrote it so that there would always be a choice of whether to play the written notes exactly as written or play variations of the phrasings. I conjured encounters with unfamiliar phenomena and wrote a kind of “soundtrack” to that idea. Of course, one could also think of it as their “next door neighbors”. These concepts are always open for wide interpretation. Here’s to freedom in music.”
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