To begin my four weeks of Spring concert madness, on Friday, March 20, at the Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley, I saw the Five Peace Band – John McLaughlin: guitar; Chick Corea: keyboards; Kenny Garrett: saxophone; Christian McBride: bass; and Vinnie Colaiuta: drums. The tickets were my Christmas present from my lovely and wondrous wife Victoria Wolcott, who acompanied me to the show.

It’s been a while since I was there and so a decent review is pretty impossible at this point. They played two long sets. The music was a mixture of mostly newer pieces, except for a fantastic cover of Jackie McLean’s “Dr. Jackle” and a 40th anniversary rendition of Miles Davis’ “In A Silent Way/It’s About That Time.” (It was 40 years ago that Corea and McLaughlin first worked together on the recording sessions for Miles’ seminal In A Silent Way album.) The band were obviously having a great time playing together. The highlights for me – the aforementioned “Dr. Jackle;” a stupendous several minutes where Kenny Garrett and Vinnie Colaiuta played together in a duet passage that went from a simmer to a rolling boil to a seething maelstrom of sound; and hearing Christian McBride on electric bass for the first time. Wow!