In Defense Of Phil Spector, John Lennon and Saxophones

Like most of his British contemporaries, John Lennon was a jazzer and blueser down to the soles of his Cuban-heel boots.

It took me four years to break down and buy the reissued CD of his 1975 Rock 'n' Roll. I can't imagine what I could have been thinking in waiting so long. The fact that Yoko had a hand in its production is daunting, and the trash-talking about Phil Spector's pistol-waving bravado and Rasputin-like production approach, Lennon's contractual obligations, May Pang's treachery, night club binges with Harry Nilsson, etc., etc., etc. goes on and on, but all that is a lot of distracting, unnecessary noise. Shockingly enough, the remix is wonderfully done, and Phil Spector's statement that Lennon had the perfect rock and roll voice is vindicated, again. Various critics have bitched and moaned about how the guitars and drums have been mixed up (or down) in the re-mastering and the saxophones and keys have been mixed down (or up), but I'm telling you, from one who was a fanatical fan of this album from its original release on vinyl and cassette, this is the shit. This isn't rock and roll, blues or jazz, it is simply great music, the tunes the Beatles were covering early on in Hamburg and which John Lennon loved so much he once commented that they had done their best work by the time they left Germany. If you've ever danced with someone you love, these tunes will make you want to get up and dance again. Ben E. King's version of the Lieber and Stoller tune "Stand By Me" may have captured the imaginations of a few million Stephen King fans, but for the rest of us, John Lennon is still The King. Like it or not, his rendition has become the definitive version. The same could be said for many of the rest of the tracks on this recording. Lennon knew from Joe Cocker's version of "With A Little Help From My Friends" what the shoe felt like on the other foot, too, so when his version of "Stand By Me" became a radio hit, he appreciated the irony. His versions of these classics work as well as they do because he so dearly loved the original versions (N.B., his only personal comment anywhere in the liner notes comes at the end of the album's production credits, when he writes: "YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE"). I promise you, as good as Buddy Holly is on his own version of "Peggy Sue", wait 'til you hear John Lennon. Wait 'til you hear the funk-inflected, oceanic waves of saxophones on "Bony Maronie" and "Bring It On Home To Me", or on the reissued CD's bonus track "Angel Baby". Wherever Glenn Miller is now, he has a copy of this CD.

One more thing: Jurgen Vollmer's cover design on this belongs in the Museum of Modern Art.

P.S. Phil Spector may well have gotten away with murder. I don't know. In every video clip I saw during his trial, he looked like a medicated whack-job. But back in his glory days, he certainly knew how to make a record.

5 Peaces In A Time of War: Corea-McLaughlin Project Announced With North American, Asian and European Tour Dates October 2008 Through May 2009

In case you were wondering how Chick Corea could follow the musical spectacle of a Return To Forever reunion tour, which is sure to be the jazz event of the season, with anything but an anti-climax, here's how: he and John McLaughlin are booking engagements together as the Five Peace Band for late this Fall and early next year. Their booking agency, Ted Kurland and Associates, says they are available in Europe from October 21 - November 23, in Asia from January 31 - February 22, 2009 and in North America March 17 - May 3, 2009. Ted Kurland's one sheet says they will be "Playing music from then and now with Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride and Vinnie Colaiuta." No dates have yet been announced.

With a quick glance at the other three "Peaces", Kenny Garrett on saxophones, Christian McBride on bass and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, one can see that whatever form the "music from then" is going to take, we will not be seeing the Beatlemania versions of the bands Corea and McLaughlin played in with Miles Davis, or of their own bands Return To Forever and Mahavishnu Orchestra. In fact, no matter how one looks at the musicians in this Five Peace Band, it is impossible to imagine exactly what is in the works here. The question that comes to mind is: WHAT COULD THEY (McLaughlin and Corea) POSSIBLY BE THINKING?


Well, here's what they are thinking...

The writing of this book of material is undoubtedly going to be a co-authorship between Corea and McLaughlin, at least on the "music from. . .now", but Chick's bopping vector is obvious in the selection of these sidemen. Also obvious is that John McLaughlin must be as big a fan of the work Christian McBride and Kenny Garrett did with Chick on the Remembering Bud Powell project as I am. Along with trumpeter Wallace Roney and saxophonist Joshua Redman, Garrett and McBride were part of an all-star lineup of young lions who got to eat their fill of Bud Powell's masterworks with "old lion" Chick Corea and really "old lion" (and Bud Powell alumnus) drummer Roy Haynes, in the summer of 1996. If you missed it, both of these "old" kings of the jazz jungle were playing like 19-yr.-olds, and the cubs invited along were certainly big enough to play nice and rough with the big cats. Fortunately, they laid down some of the richest and most satisfying bop/post-bop ever recorded on Remembering Bud Powell (Stretch Records). Chick really put this band through some steeplechase paces with nine arrangements of Bud Powell's most ambitious compositions ("Tempus Fugit", "Dusk in Sandi", "Oblivion") plus a nice rendition of his own tune "Bud Powell", an homage he had been doing in concert with Gary Burton for years. It is very difficult material. Throughout his career, Corea's arrangements have been legendarily unapproachable by amateurs, but these arrangements go beyond being merely demanding, and require journeyman technique as a beginning point. Thus he chose musicians who reveled in the challenge and ultimately shattered the sound barrier with their masterful chops, swinging so hard on this recording that they knock you out. The CD isn't just a TKO, it is a real knockout, a great, great recording. Better still, it turns out Corea then topped himself by filming this group in performance and issuing a DVD. It was pivotal for me personally because I had been shopping for my first DVD player at the time and happened to read a music reviewer's comment that if one needed a tipping point, a definitive reason to jump into this new technology, live jazz performances were that reason, and the performances on Remembering Bud Powell were an absolutely killer place to start... Live recordings had always been my favorites, and still are, for the simple reason that they put you there for the complete experience. The writer's serendipitous recommendation turned out to be what I needed. I bought a dual-function VHS/DVD player so that I could still watch my old 1/2" videotape cassettes, but within minutes of hearing and seeing these passionate Powellians tear into a live performance of "Glass Enclosure" with digital picture and sound quality, I was utterly enthralled.

Kenny Garrett and Christian McBride are successful older lions now with flecks of grey in their manes. God only knows what they think they are in for under the leadership of Corea-McLaughlin. But one thing is certain about these five un-easy peaces: they will be able to play it.

The choice of Vinnie Colaiuta to do the drumwork is a possible clue as to what may be in store. He's worked extensively with Corea, but his recent work on McLaughlin's Industrial Zen (Abstract Logix, 2006) was part of a surprise return to electric fusion by McLaughlin. Colaiuta has literally played every kind of music that employs a drum kit, so fusion isn't necessarily the direction this project is headed. But it could be. His background playing with everyone from Frank Zappa to Sting bas certainly taught him what a downbeat is for.

The most salient feature of this collaboration between John McLaughlin and Chick Corea is discernible in the name they have chosen for their musical assemblage: the Five Peace Band. Both men are deeply spiritual people. Both were born during World War II and came of age during the Viet Nam war. Both are intelligent, well-spoken men who feel a responsibility for the human race and have chosen to express their desire for peace throughout the Iraq war by creating peace wherever they go around the world, pouring oil on troubled waters, lifting people's spirits and spreading goodwill -- not, as some less responsible musicians in the jazz community choose to do, by condemning national leaders who spend long days and nights trying to solve the problems of the world, or by resorting to sophomoric anti-American, anti-Western platitudes. None but the rabidly insane desire war. Sane people know this, and they also know the difficult truth that freedom in the modern world has always come at a price and required a lot of hard work. McLaughlin and Corea both understand this and want to work determinedly to create a better world.

Like Chick's long-term friendship and duet relationship with that other jazz-rock giant, Herbie Hancock, this is a pairing that promises great things which no one, not even they, have yet dreamed of, because their relationship derives from an even higher, philosophical connection that transcends music. Individual accomplishment, with no thought given to immediate approbation or agreement, is what drives someone artistically and is, ironically, what ultimately rewards the artist with widespread acceptance. Joining two such artists adds an exponent to the differential equation. As Chick commented from the stage one night 30 years ago, while introducing a duet with Herbie, what makes such a collaboration so special is that "there is only one of him [Herbie]." Just as there is only one John McLaughlin, only one Chick Corea. It is not mere coincidence that these jazz pioneers, along with their friend Wayne Shorter, all played together with Miles Davis as he exhorted them to seek new "directions in music". More to the point, it is not mere coincidence that each has now spent his adult life in religious devotion to seeking spiritual Truth. A Scientologist, a Yogi and two Buddhists sprang from this converging of cosmic forces, and the religious/philosophical brotherhood thereby forged has continued to this day. The pairing of Chick Corea and John McLaughlin portends greatness not simply because they and Garrett, McBride and Colaiuta are all such monstrously talented musicians, but because they are going to use their talent and technique to communicate love for their fellow man. Their keys and strings and reeds and sticks will come together in sublime confluences they themselves have not yet forseen, as they serve a higher purpose: peace.

Peace.

More about getting tickets to see Return To Forever this summer

Some of the venues Return To Forever has booked for this summer are selling tickets through their own box offices, some are selling their tickets through ticketmaster.com, and some are selling them both ways. The way to know which method(s) the venue is employing is to use the linked venue dates below. The Ticketmaster website has been getting updated fairly quickly as ticket prices are set by the venue, so probably the most painless approach is to regularly search "Return To Forever" on ticketmaster.com and if you don't see your venue listed there, check the link that says "venue" on the venue listing below. If the venue isn't making tickets available until a later date, you can click on the "tickets" link below to see if return2forever.com has posted the date ticket sales will begin.

Tickets are now on sale for the dates in Denver, CO, Portland, OR, Vancouver, BC Columbia, MD and New York, NY.

Tickets for Phoenix, Montreal and Orlando will be available tomorrow, March 19th, starting at 10 a.m.

Following is a listing of announced tour dates from chickcorea.com. Remember to click on the link that says "venue" if you are looking for the venue's own ticket prices and seating chart. Click on "tickets" if you want to see when they will become available:

MAY
29-30
Austin, TX Paramount TheatreVenue Tickets
31
Houston, TX Verizon Wireless TheaterTickets

JUNE
1
Dallas, TX Nokia Theatre at Grand PrairieTickets
3
Denver, CO Paramount TheatreVenue Tickets
4
Salt Lake City, UT Kingsbury HallVenue Tickets
6
Portland, OR Schnitzer Concert HallVenue Tickets
7
Medford, OR Britt Festival Venue Tickets
8
Seattle, WA Paramount TheatreVenue Tickets
9
Vancouver, BC Canada The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts Tickets
11-12
San Francisco, CA The Grand At The Regency CentreVenue Tickets
13
Los Angeles, CA Gibson AmphitheatreVenue Tickets
14
Phoenix, AZ Dodge TheatreTickets
17
St. Louis, MO Fox TheatreVenue Tickets
18
Omaha, NE Holland Performing Arts CenterVenue Tickets
19
Minneapolis, MN The Orpheum TheatreVenue Tickets
20
Chicago, IL The Chicago TheatreVenue Tickets
21
Detroit, MI Freedom Hill AmphitheatreVenue Tickets
22
Indianapolis, IN Murat TheatreTickets
24
Cleveland, OH Plain Dealer PavilionTickets
25
Toronto, ON, Canada Sony CentreTickets
26
Ottawa, ON, Canada Ottawa Jazz Festival - Confederation ParkVenue Tickets
27
Montreal, Canada Pelletier HallTickets
28
Saratoga Springs, NY Freihofer's Jazz FestivalVenue Tickets

JULY
2
Vilnius, Lithuania Utenos ArenaTickets
4
Warsaw, Poland Congress HallVenue Tickets
5
Budapest, Hungary Budapest ArenaTickets
6
Belgrade, Serbia Belgrade ArenaTickets
8
Paris, France OlympiaTickets
9
Vienne, France Vienne Jazz FestivalVenue Tickets
10
Madrid, Spain Via Jazz FestivalTickets
11
Girona, Spain Cap Roig FestivalTickets
12
Lorca, Spain TBATickets
13
Valencia, Spain TBATickets
16
Neuhardenburg, Germany TBATickets
18
Montreux, Switzerland Montreux Jazz FestivalTickets
19
Essen, Germany Gruga HallVenue Tickets
21
London, England IndigO2Tickets
23
Nice, France Nice Jazz FestivalTickets
25
San Sebastian, Spain TBATickets
30
Miami, FL Fillmore Miami BeachTickets
31
Clearwater, FL Ruth Eckerd HallVenue Tickets

AUGUST

1
Orlando, FL House Of BluesVenue Tickets
2
Atlanta, GA Cobb Energy Performing Arts CentreVenue Tickets
4
Baltimore, MD Merriweather Post PavilionVenue Tickets
5
Philadelphia, PA Mann Center For The Performing Arts w/Béla Fleck & the FlecktonesVenue Tickets
6
Boston, MA Bank Of America Pavilion w/Béla Fleck & the FlecktonesTickets
7
New York, NYUnited PalaceTickets

Return To Forever Reunion Tour Announces 49 North American and European Dates for May-August

The recently reunited jazz-rock band Return To Forever announced the dates today for their first North American and European tour in 30 years: 28 cities in the U.S., 3 in Canada and 16 in Europe (including a July 18th appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival) in 9 weeks. These guys may be a bit grayer, but their legendary energy level looks to be intact as they prepare to pick up where they left off and tour at the same ferocious pace they always kept. http://www.return2forever.com/index.cfm/index.cfm?pk=viewall&cd=MAE&pid=400145 The shows will end Aug 7, 2008 in the capital city of jazz, NY, NY, at the 3,200+ seat United Palace Theatre United Palace Theatre , ... http://www.eventticketscenter.com/Event.aspx?EventID=8018, a hall known for catering to the cognoscenti. The tour will begin May 29th at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, TX, which like most of the venues that were announced today, have not yet opened the ticket office. If the ticket prices for the VIP and "really good" seats with backstage passes, etc. at the New York and Portland shows (the only two venues with tickets for sale at this writing) are any indication, you'd better get on the stick and file your tax return so you can qualify for your IRS bonus check. Which is to say, if you are accustomed to the ticket prices for live jazz in nightclubs, you are about to get a rock-and-roll reality adjustment. These four musicians are all unquestioned members of the Jazz Hall of Fame. But more than that, in the world of jazz-rock, fusion, progressive rock, etc., they dwell high atop Mount Olympus with the gods. They are going to play rock venues and in the process make some god-like rock star money, at least by jazz standards.

I won't blink at paying for my ticket, though. This is Return To Forever. This is the Return To Forever lineup that changed the jazz world in 1974, and is going to change it again.

True, times have changed. A whole generation of jazz fans have been born since anyone has seen a band like this. Miles has moved on. There isn't going to be another one of him. There won't be another Tony Williams or Joe Zawinul, either. But life with all its infinite possibilities is still in us today. Miles and Tony and Joe certainly knew that.

Besides the four horsemen of Return To Forever there are a quite a few other gods still around from the pantheon of post-Bitches Brew jazz. There's the inestimable Herbie Hancock (who just won another Grammy) and his Headhunters. With Weather Report there was (and is) the incredible saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter as well as Joe Z. With Mahavishnu Orchestra there was the one and only John McLaughlin and the great Billy Cobham. All are still with us (scores of demi-gods as well). But these are not religious deities, they are musical ones. They are alive.

In Return to Forever there was (and still is, more than ever) Chick Corea, the most innovative jazz composer of his generation, Monk's successor, and the most technically facile and expressive pianist since Bill Evans and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Also Stanley Clarke, the monster of the New Bass, i.e., he could play the traditional upright acoustic bass like a cross between Django Reinhardt and Ron Carter, and picked up where Paul McCartney and Larry Graham (Sly and the Family Stone) had left off, thumping, plucking, strumming, chording, playing the electric bass like no one who had ever played it before. And Lenny White, the loose, muscular, both-hands and both-feet drummer from Queens whose endless creativity and funkiness had early on earned him a recording session with Miles Davis on Bitches Brew (little known fact: he was the first choice to be Journey's drummer, but he turned down the gig to play with Chick). And Al DiMeola, the Berklee wunderkind who successfully filled the big, big shoes of Bill Connors when that master of legato electricity left the band. His soulfulness suffered by comparison (we all missed Bill) but as his mind-blowing speed and precise technique developed beyond anyone's expectations, we learned that not all souls are alike, and that in fact, he was the perfect guitarist for the job.

These are the guys who, along with their fellow gods, popularized jazz in the early 70's at a level Miles had envisioned (and to some extent achieved, in places like the Fillmores East and West and the Hollywood Bowl). Just about the time Miles was deciding to take his 5-year vacation from performing, his proteges began to launch it all to the next level and the level beyond that, filling stadiums with the rocked-out jazz craziness he and the pioneers had started. Along with Hendrix and Clapton, these were the performers that were inspiring other musicians, like a young Gordon Sumner before he had been nicknamed Sting, who once described Chick Corea's virtuosic music with Return To Forever as "scorched earth" -- a curiously combative image, one which sounds exactly like what it is, a very affectionate and admiring, but competitive, fellow musician's comment on the experience of sharing the world stage with a level of musicianship that was like trying to share a corn field with Maj. General William Sherman as he marched from Atlanta to Savannah in 1864, musicianship so exceptional that it could seem to leave little room for anyone else on the battleground... In truth, a little competition never hurt anyone who was good. But Return To Forever was a tough act to follow.

Buy your tickets when they become available, folks. I'll post any tour news as soon as I discover it.