North Africa" is a dynamic jazz-fusion composition by legendary keyboardist Chick Corea. It is a standout track from his 2006 concept album, The Ultimate Adventure, which draws heavy inspiration from the landscapes and characters of L. Ron Hubbard's 1939 novella of the same name. The piece is celebrated for its masterful blending of diverse global sounds, a hallmark of Chick Corea’s later work. It integrates Middle Eastern and flamenco harmonies with complex African rhythmic styles. Critics describe the track as having a "Spanish tinge" that migrates south toward Arabic North Africa, creating an exotic, tone-poem quality.The 2006 recording features Corea on acoustic piano and synthesizers, alongside an elite ensemble that included flutist Jorge Pardo, bassist Charles Benavent, Vinnie Colaiuta and Airto Moreira on drums as well as percussionist Rubem Dantas.

The story of The Ultimate Adventure follows Stevie Jebson, a penniless man who volunteers for a mysterious scientific experiment that transports him to a fantastical, desert-themed world. This world is a reimagining of classic Arabian Nights tropes, featuring enchanted cities, powerful jinn, and ghouls. In this new dimension, Jebson encounters the City of Brass, a glittering citadel whose inhabitants have been frozen in a deathlike trance by the treacherous jinn Karoof. Jebson must navigate a land filled with demons and shape-shifting ghouls to find a way back home. He realizes his only escape is to break the spell enslaving the city and free its rightful ruler, Queen Tedmur.

Chick Corea structured the recording using specific tracks to portray the novella's characters, locations, and narrative beats. He used the track "Queen Tedmur" to capture her nobility through a blend of romantic melodies and strong Spanish-influenced rhythms. Other characters like "Moseb the Executioner" are similarly given musical themes. The exotic, desert-inspired backdrops of the book are reflected in the heavy use of Middle Eastern and North African musical traditions. Tracks like "City of Brass" and "North Africa" use synthesizers and percussion to recreate the "stock exoticism”(melodies and intervals associated with the Middle East—to immediately signal the setting to the listener, and mysterious atmosphere of the story's setting. The recording follows the plot's progression with tracks such as "Three Ghouls" representing early encounters, and "Flight from Karoof" mirroring the climax and escape from the story's primary antagonist. To match the cross-cultural "Arabian Nights" feel, Corea integrated Spanish flamenco, Brazilian samba, and electronic textures to create a cohesive musical landscape for the fantasy world. The novella and its jazz adaptation underscore The Arabian Nights through the use of specific narrative tropes and "stock exoticism" that evoke a fantasy version of North Africa and the Middle East. While the book utilizes these themes as a literal backdrop for a pulp-adventure quest, the music translates them to build a sonic landscape. Exoticism in the North African context (often referred to as the Maghreb) is distinguished by its specific intersection of Arab, Berber (Amazigh), and Sub-Saharan African influences. While broader Middle Eastern exoticism often focuses on a "monolithic desert" or "Persian/Ottoman" fantasy, North African exoticism is characterized by a "Black African" rhythmic depth and deep historical ties to Spain. North Africa is often portrayed through a unique lens that emphasizes its role as a bridge between the Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan Africa. And because of the history of Al-Andalus, North African exoticism is inextricably linked with Spanish identity. In the West, this often manifests as a "Flamenco-Arabic” hybrid.

While Chick Corea drew deep inspiration from the sounds of North Africa and the Middle East for his recording of The Ultimate Adventure, unlike jazz pianist Randy Weston who resided extensively in Morocco and composed songs about Casablanca, Tangier, and Marrakesh or saxophonists Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry who collaborated with traditional Moroccan and Tunisian musicians, there is no widely documented record of him taking extensive "inspiration trips" to these regions specifically to study and collaborate. Rather than traveling to find the music, Corea brought the sound of those regions to his studio by working with master musicians. He collaborated with Hossam Ramzy, a world-renowned Egyptian percussionist and composer to integrate authentic Middle Eastern rhythms into his compositions. His deep ties to Flamenco (which has historical North African roots) allowed him to explore these sounds through long-term partnerships with Spanish masters like Paco de Lucía and Jorge Pardo.

As a world-renowned artist, he performed at various international jazz festivals, which likely included stops in major cities across the Arab world, such as the Jazzablanca festival in Morocco, but these were professional tours rather than dedicated research expeditions. Corea was a dedicated Scientologist for much of his life. This personal belief system led him to view L. Ron Hubbard not just as a religious leader, but as a primary artistic influence. As such much of the "North African" atmosphere on The Ultimate Adventure was inspired by Hubbard's novella, which utilized a fantasy, "Arabian Nights" style setting that Corea chose to translate into a "tone poem.” It peaked at number 7 in the Billboard Top Jazz albums and also won two Grammy awards in 2007 for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance (Individual or Group) and Best Instrumental Arrangement.