Five Peace Band
"I have a picture of me with Chick and Miles in Ann Arbor from '69. I think about Ann Arbor every day.." ~John McLaughlin
So all in all, the concert that I saw tonight ended up being one of the most incredible musical experiences I have ever had. The famous jazz musicians that I had unfortunately never heard of until just weeks ago put together one of the most impressive jazz performances I could possibly imagine. Not much needs to be said about Chick Corea on piano or John McLaughlin on guitar; both were amazing. McLaughlin really rocked out the entire night, including a five minute solo which would be the greatest guitar playing I have ever seen. On Wikipedia under his history with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, it says his playing was defined by 'distinguished by fast solos and exotic scales.' As I love nothing more in music than seeing precision matched with beauty and speed, this was all that I could want to hear in a guitarist. Hearing him made me feel like I had finally got to hear Hendrix play live. Chick was inspiring; if one day I can ever play all the keys that accurately I would love to play all those runs on the piano. Christian McBride played the string and electric basses, including one solo which was the most impressive play that I have ever heard from a string bass; his fingers moved up and down the instrument so quickly he looked and sounded like he was playing one of McLaughlin's bits. Kenny Garrett played on the alto sax, and I believe that although McLaughlin stole the show, Kenny may have been the strongest performer on the night, including his own amazing solo. Brian Blade played on the drums, which I was excited to see. He was a member of the Wayne Shorter Quartet that performed in September ('08), where I thought that he put the most emotion into his play and was thus most fun to watch.
I went to the concert with Mark from my hall, and for the first half we sat in the balcony behind this drummer-four-year-old kid-Julian Pavone who was on Oprah and his dad who wouldn't stop texting throughout, and fortunately for the second half we were able to move down with Ryan in the Mezzanine because there happened to be a pair of empty seats next to him. The concert went from 8-11:30pm, which was amazing because no one really wanted it to end. Afterwards we snuck in the back door and got to meet Corea, Garrett and McLaughlin briefly and get their autographs on our programs. Cool.
Program (http://www.ums.org/s_current_season/artist.asp?pageid=500)
· McLaughlin : Raju
· Corea : The Disguise
· McLaughlin : New Blues, Old Bruise
· Corea : Hymn to Andromeda
· McLean : Dr. Jackle
· Encore - Zawinul/Davis : In A Silent Way/It’s About That Time
So all in all, the concert that I saw tonight ended up being one of the most incredible musical experiences I have ever had. The famous jazz musicians that I had unfortunately never heard of until just weeks ago put together one of the most impressive jazz performances I could possibly imagine. Not much needs to be said about Chick Corea on piano or John McLaughlin on guitar; both were amazing. McLaughlin really rocked out the entire night, including a five minute solo which would be the greatest guitar playing I have ever seen. On Wikipedia under his history with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, it says his playing was defined by 'distinguished by fast solos and exotic scales.' As I love nothing more in music than seeing precision matched with beauty and speed, this was all that I could want to hear in a guitarist. Hearing him made me feel like I had finally got to hear Hendrix play live. Chick was inspiring; if one day I can ever play all the keys that accurately I would love to play all those runs on the piano. Christian McBride played the string and electric basses, including one solo which was the most impressive play that I have ever heard from a string bass; his fingers moved up and down the instrument so quickly he looked and sounded like he was playing one of McLaughlin's bits. Kenny Garrett played on the alto sax, and I believe that although McLaughlin stole the show, Kenny may have been the strongest performer on the night, including his own amazing solo. Brian Blade played on the drums, which I was excited to see. He was a member of the Wayne Shorter Quartet that performed in September ('08), where I thought that he put the most emotion into his play and was thus most fun to watch.
I went to the concert with Mark from my hall, and for the first half we sat in the balcony behind this drummer-four-year-old kid-Julian Pavone who was on Oprah and his dad who wouldn't stop texting throughout, and fortunately for the second half we were able to move down with Ryan in the Mezzanine because there happened to be a pair of empty seats next to him. The concert went from 8-11:30pm, which was amazing because no one really wanted it to end. Afterwards we snuck in the back door and got to meet Corea, Garrett and McLaughlin briefly and get their autographs on our programs. Cool.
Program (http://www.ums.org/s_current_season/artist.asp?pageid=500)
· McLaughlin : Raju
· Corea : The Disguise
· McLaughlin : New Blues, Old Bruise
· Corea : Hymn to Andromeda
· McLean : Dr. Jackle
· Encore - Zawinul/Davis : In A Silent Way/It’s About That Time