Five Peace Band

First, let me say that it was a GREAT show. They played from 7 to 10:35ish with an intermission inbetween the two sets.
The whole night was filled with edgy be-bop, that almost parted the audience into two categories - those who were there for a night out with their dates and true jazz fans who recognize how rare it is to see living jazz royalty like this share one stage. Throughout the night, the musical conversations between the players was independent, yet fed off each others energy. It reminded me much of the Ornette Coleman Free Jazz records I used to listen to in the music library at the Hartt School.
Christian McBride played electric for most of the night. He had a great tone and laid down a solid groove, which allowed everyone else to float freely.

One thing that really grabbed me was the connection between Brian Blade and Chick. Even when they weren’t making eye contact or paying visual attention to each other, they were just tagging each others rhythms the whole night. Brian Blade was absolutely masterful. He played with such dynamics. It was a real treat for me.

Kenny Garrett sounded amazing, though he looked a bit standoffish. He would blow a solo, then promptly move from his placeholder on the stage into the background behind the stage lights. He blew one solo that was perfectly crafted. It was breathtaking! It started out very melodic, with full mellow longtones. The band supported his dynamics with each graduation. The solo crescendoed with raging chromatic phrases. After the solo, he moved off the stage and never really exposed that kind of musicality to the audience for the remainder of the night.

John McLaughlin is obviously a great technician and composer. His compositions  fit the title of his last release - Industrial Zen. They were technical, brash at times and yet organic. When he soloed, he was so chop heavy that it kind of lost my interest after a while. He would play a fury of notes, one after another, hardly taking a breath inbetween.

The audience started to fatigue during the second set and people started leaving two by two. This is actually when it got good for me. The audience really split in two at this point in the night, because the band wanted to keep playing longer than the average listener wanted to listen. I say average listener with kindness. Wives dragged by their husbands. Older yuppies who thought they were gonna hear a bunch of standards or Chick’s Elektric Band cuts. Finally, those people left when the band was done. Chick thanked the audience for coming, but I detected a slight bit of sarcasm.

Once the hall filtered out, we moved up and sat in those $175 seats and got the treat of the night. The band came back out and played one last gem. Chick’s tone when addressing the audience changed dramatically to a very sincere tone, as did their playing during the last cut. They know exactly who their audience is.