Jazz Icons Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea Take the Stage at Academy of Music Tonight

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is proud to welcome jazz legends Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea to the Academy of Music tonight, April 11 at 8 p.m. as part of the Kimmel Center's Philadelphia Jazz Appreciation Month programming.

"Touring together for the first time since 1978, this is a unique opportunity for Philadelphia music lovers to experience two eminent jazz influencers of our time on stage together in a rare duo performance," said Kimmel Center President and CEO Anne Ewers.

For more than half a century, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea have been blazing their own paths of artistic innovation at the keyboard. From the great Miles Davis bands of the 1960s, to their unparalleled Grammy award-winning careers, Hancock and Corea have greatly contributed to the jazz cannon as global sensations. Their last touring appearances together produced two seminal live acoustic albums: CoreaHancock (1979) and An Evening with Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea: In Concert (1978).

Herbie Hancock is a true icon of modern music. Throughout his explorations, he has transcended limitations and genres while maintaining his unmistakable voice. With an illustrious career spanning five decades and 14 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for River: The Joni Letters, he continues to amaze audiences across the globe. There are few artists in the music industry who have had more influence on acoustic and electronic jazz and R&B than Herbie Hancock. As the immortal Miles Davis said in his autobiography, "Herbie was the step after Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, and I haven't heard anybody yet who has come after him."

Chick Corea has attained legendary status in music. The keyboardist, composer and bandleader is a DownBeat Hall of Famer and NEA Jazz Master, as well as the fourth-most nominated artist in Grammy Awards history with 63 nods - and 20 wins, in addition to a number of Latin Grammys. From straight-ahead to avant-garde, bebop to jazz-rock fusion, children's songs to chamber and symphonic works, Chick has touched an astonishing number of musical bases in his career since playing with the genre-shattering bands of Miles Davis in the late '60s and early '70s. Yet Chick has never been more productive than in the 21st century, whether playing acoustic piano or electric keyboards, leading multiple bands, performing solo or collaborating with a who's who of music. Underscoring this, he has been named Artist of the Year twice this decade in the DownBeat Readers Poll. Born in 1941 in Massachusetts, Chick remains a tireless creative spirit, continually reinventing himself through his art. As The New York Times has said, he is "a luminary, ebullient and eternally youthful."

Tickets are available from $55-$129. Tickets can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at kimmelcenter.org, at the Kimmel Center box office at Broad & Spruce Streets (open daily 10a.m. to 6 p.m.).

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts - Located in the heart of Center City, Philadelphia, The Kimmel Center's mission is to operate a world-class performing arts center that engages and serves a broad audience through diverse programming, arts education, and community outreach. The Kimmel Center campus is comprised of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (Verizon Hall, Perelman Theater, SEI Innovation Studio, and the Merck Arts Education Center), the Academy of Music (owned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association), and the University of the Arts Merriam Theater. TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is the season sponsor of The Kimmel Center's 2014-2015 Season. American Airlines is the official airline of Broadway Philadelphia. For additional information, visit kimmelcenter.org.