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Give Five Peace A Chance!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
The John McLaughlin and Chick Corea tour with their Five Peace Band should be one of the jazz highlights of the year. By Brian Wise
It will be hard to top the Five Peace Band tour next month for one of the class acts of the year. Led by guitar maestro John McLaughlin and keyboard wizard Chick Corea.
The band also includes the amazing talents of Christian McBride on bass, Brian Blade on drums and saxophonist Kenny Garrett. It is undoubtedly one of the finest jazz line-ups ever to grace our shores.
This month McLaughlin and Corea celebrate the fact that it is 40 years since they first met as members of Miles Davis’s group, recording the groundbreaking In A Silent Way.
Miles’ line up also included Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland, Joe Zawinul and Tony Williams. Certainly, it was one of the most brilliant line-ups in music history.
All the alumni of that amazing group subsequently went to forge their own splendid careers. McLaughlin and Corea went on to form The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return To Forever respectively and, with their own solo careers, establish their own influence on the jazz realm. Both have been actively recording and touring since. McLaughlin has recently released Floating Point and a DVD about the making of the album. He has also recently toured with Shakti, another of his legendary collaborations.
I was lucky enough to see McLaughlin in the‘70s with Mahavishnu, then I caught him at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival with his 4th Dimension outfit. Both times, separated by a gap of more than 30 years, his playing was amazing.
The outfit McLaughlin is touring with next month is equally brilliant.
“They they’re really special,” he agrees and adds, “it’s very significant because in January we will celebrate 40 years of collaboration and at the same time the recording of what I would call a pivotal recording of In A Silent Way - that’s along time, that’s almost a lifetime, isn’t it?”
“He’s such an unbelievable player -acoustic bass and bass guitar,” says McLaughlin of McBride when I steer the conversation to the members of the Five Peace Band. “I’ve never heard anyone who has such a mastery of both instruments, he’s really phenomenal.”
“Kenny’s really something. I mean, he goes transcendental sometimes, really outstanding.”
Brian Blade is sitting in for Vinnie Colaiuta,who will be here around the same time as part of Jeff Beck’s touring band. “I’ve never played with him,” says McLaughlin, “but I’ve heard so many things about Brian that I’m so excited that he’s going to be with us.”
McLaughlin adds that he has met Beck at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival last year in Chicago and four years ago in Dallas.
“I remember Eric from the 60’s with the Bluesbreakers and Jeff was with the Yardbirds. I mean, we’re all we’re all on social security! They wanna give a social security discount to the punters.”
Having seen McLaughlin, Clapton and Beck in the past two years I can firmly reject this humorous assertion.
“Jeff is a great player,” adds McLaughlin.“Vinnie already committed to a tour with Jeff. But with Brian for the Asian-Australian part of the trip I’m sure I’m just going to be very, very excited. I’m really I can’t wait to start.”
“Of course, [there’s] Chick,” he continues about the other main member of the Five Peace Band. “It’s not really like we’re taking a walk down nostalgia way but at the same time we recognise [that] inJanuary it will be 40 years of collaboration. When I think about Return To Forever - which I saw earlier this year - and the different groups we’ve had over the years, the amount of music he’s produced (I’ve got my fair share out there too) between the two of us we have a big history.
“He’s such an amazing player and such a wonderful human being. We’re very dear friends and we have been since almost 40 years now. So we go on stage together and in fact we do some duets together just simple, sometimes a Monk tune or sometimes just a standard or we even play ‘In A Silent Way.’ Because we even get touched by nostalgia too. It’s so wonderful to be able to play with a person who has such big ears and such a big talent. Anyway, I’m sure you’re going to enjoy it when we get down there.”
Having raised the subject of In A Silent Way, McLaughlin is only too happy to talk about his former mentor, Miles Davis. I mention that my favourite Miles album is A Tribute To Jack Johnson.
“That was Mile’s favourite,” says McLaughlin, “which is which is really special for me.” He tells the story of how he was able to contribute to the compositions on the album and how Miles took him under his wing and mentored him.
“He’s made so many outstanding recordings in his life,” he continues. “Bill Cosby flew in from Philadelphia just to give me a hug and tell me - it was after Miles passed away - and that Miles had told him how great Jack Johnson was. He came over to give me a hug and he went back to Philadelphia. I mean that’s so sweet. There’s many emotional attachments that I have to Jack Johnson. Anyway, I’m going on a little bit about it. For me he can do no wrong,what can I tell you?”
John McLaughlin will be touring with Chick Corea and their Five Peace Band.
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