Tones for Joan's Bones

Tones for Joan's Bones is the debut album by American jazz pianist Chick Corea, recorded in 1966 and released on Vortex Records—a subsidiary of Atlantic—in April 1968. The quintet features saxophonist Joe Farrell, trumpeter Woody Shaw, and rhythm section Steve Swallow and Joe Chambers.

Corea had previously recorded with Mongo Santamaria, Sonny Stitt, Dave Pike, Hubert Laws, Blue Mitchell and Cal Tjader. This was the first Corea album to feature Joe Farrell, who would go on to record with Corea many times, including in the first and last lineups of Return to Forever. Farrell and Woody Shaw had played with Corea in Willie Bobo's band, and Shaw would record with Corea again on the 1969 album Is. Tones for Joan's Bones was produced by flautist Herbie Mann, with whom Corea had recorded four albums the previous year.

"Litha" was later recorded by Stan Getz, appearing on the 1967 album Sweet Rain, with Corea on piano. "Tones for Joan's Bones" and "Straight Up and Down" were both recorded by Blue Mitchell for his album Boss Horn, which features Corea, and which was recorded several weeks before Corea's album. "Straight Up and Down" later appeared as the closing track of Like Minds in 1998, which features Corea, Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland and Roy Haynes. In 2011, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra included "Tones for Joan's Bones" in its first Chick Corea retrospective concert.

The album has been re-issued on CD paired with the Miroslav Vitouš album Mountain in the Clouds (a.k.a. Infinite Search, a.k.a. The Bass, 1970). The four tracks from Tones for Joan's Bones, along with two previously unreleased tracks from the same session, were released on the 1973 compilation Inner Space.