我最初都唔識佢地係什麼人,有幾勁. 不過有位朋友話一定要聽,就去啦!
原來他們倆個是非常有料.在youtube看完John McLaughlin的表現真是嘆為觀止.
以下就是香港藝術節中的介紹.
巨星碰頭，份外精彩！
兩位fusion 爵士樂巨人：兩位fusion爵士樂巨人：柯利亞和麥克勞克林，兩人獲獎無數。在Mile Davis年代合作，四十年後首次碰頭，擦出火花勢所必然！
「變色龍鋼琴手」柯利亞是fusion先驅，超凡的技法和豐富的想像，在樂壇上絕無僅有。他改革爵士鋼琴的演奏法，十根指頭像打在八十八個
鼓上，變化無窮，而他的招牌風格，影響一整代的鋼琴手。麥克勞克林走過七十年代爵士搖滾的瘋狂時期，紅透半邊天，卻忽然到印度潛修。重出樂壇，已然脫胎換
骨，印度Raga融入骨子裏，炫技和複雜的fusion，摻雜東與西的精萃。
香港樂迷，有機會見證兩位fusion先驅攜手合作，連同三位來頭同樣響噹噹的樂手：薩克管手Kenny Garrett、鼓手 Brian Blade 和低音Christian McBride。一個重量級組合，打造新世紀爵士搖滾的新一頁。
兩大各據一方的爵士樂巨人
同台燃燒
文：馬其發
同是60年代中出道，但40多年來除了一次「匯點」合作（1969-1970）外，結他手約翰．麥克勞克林（John
McLaughlin）和鍵琴手奇克．柯利亞(Chick
Corea)絕大部分時間均各自縱橫穿梭爵士樂壇，追星逐月找尋自己的音樂理想了。一位是意大利摻西班牙混血的美國爵士融合鍵琴手，一位是出生於英倫北部
的「世界融合」（world
fusion）結他手，來自不同國度，音樂風格亦不盡相同，二人於40年前合作過一次，之後常擦身而過卻鮮見大規模的合作，想不到40年後的今天，忽地傳
來他們再度合作以「Five Peace Band」名義作大型的世界巡迴演出。
兩位已臻世界級的音樂人各自有其對爵士樂的憧憬與懷抱，現年67歲（生於1941年6月12日）的柯利亞，一直鍾情美式融合、爵士搖滾及
當代爵士音樂的鑽研；而今年已屆66歲（生於1942年1月4日）的麥克勞克林，則偏愛世界融合、印度傳統、爵士管弦及爵士搖滾融合樂類。於60年代末至
70年代初，他們曾有過一次「正面埋身交鋒」的機緣，那時正值爵士樂教父邁爾斯．戴維斯風雲乍起的年代，他找了柯利亞代替赫比．漢考克出任其樂隊的鍵琴手
位置，以迎接當年爵士融合的火紅年代到臨。
結他彈奏 光芒四射
當時邁爾斯正欲找尋一位既可玩奏爵士融合又能有搖滾火氣的結他高手，麥克勞克林透過鼓手東尼．威廉斯的關係，被邁爾斯看中，應邀加入，二人
遂協助邁爾斯炮製了震撼爵士樂壇的兩張傑作《In a Silent Way》、《Bitches
Brew》，還有一張邁爾斯為一套傳記式電影作配樂的《A Tribute to Jack
Johnson》，但鍵琴手位置則換回赫比．漢考克，此大碟的演奏風格是比較放克及搖滾的爵士融合，然而約翰．麥克勞克林的結他彈奏依然光芒四射！此乃他
與邁爾斯合作的第三張傑作。
之後，柯利亞與麥克勞克林都先後離開邁爾斯的樂隊，各自去編織自己的音樂夢想，柯利亞圍繞融合、爵士搖滾、前衛爵士及當代爵士方向，先後
組過回到永遠（Return to
Forever）、圓圈（Circle）、柯利亞電子樂隊及柯利亞樂隊，獲獎無數，其中以回到永遠最為人津津樂道，當中帶出來的樂手如低音結他手史丹利．
克拉克，結他手艾．迪．美奧拉、比爾．康納斯，鼓手拉利．懷特、史提夫．加德，色士風手喬．法雷爾等，日後均成大器，在爵士樂壇各領風騷。
兩大樂隊 相提並論
麥克勞克林亦組過不少圍繞世界融合、印度傳統及爵士搖滾融合的樂隊如Mahavishnu
樂團、Shakti等，但以Mahavishnu
樂團最惹人激賞和動容，他將其篤信印度教的信仰融入音樂當中，結他的彈奏及音樂意念薰染了大量印度音樂及世界融合元素，十分獨特，令樂團蜚聲國際，而樂團
亦被公認為惟一一隊在爵士樂壇可與柯利亞的回到永遠相提並論的爵士搖滾融合樂隊。當中合作過的成員包括鼓手比利．科巴姆、鍵琴手揚．哈默、小提琴手尚-
盧．龐狄及謝利．古爾曼、薩克斯管手比爾．伊雲斯（不是彈鋼琴的那位）等，亦成為日後爵士樂壇的響噹噹人物。
時光飛逝，40年後的今天，兩大各據一方的爵士樂巨人，再走在一起，並找來薩克斯管手肯尼．加勒特、鼓手文尼．科拉達及低音結他手基斯蒂
安．麥克布賴特共組一隊五人樂隊Five Peace Band，此名字曾出現在2007十字路結他音樂節（Crossroads Guitar
Festival 2007），乃麥克勞克林現場表演的一首歌名，在其最新大碟《Floating
Point》中亦有收錄，是一首相當爵士搖滾融合色彩的歌曲，很具時代感，將東西方元素（亦即他一直崇尚的世界融合）巧妙地混合，質素超高。
再次燃燒 光輝歲月
由此可預示，柯利亞與麥克勞克林今次組成作世界巡迴的Five Peace
Band，就是基於這個音樂理念而成立的樂隊，力圖將二人昔日在回到永遠及Ｍahavishnu
樂團黃金般的光輝火焰，再次點燃，好照亮近年有點呆滯的爵士樂壇，讓一群一直懷緬回到永遠、Mahavishnu樂團、當年氣勢席捲全世界的樂迷（如
我！），尋回心中快熄滅的一團火，燃燒逝去的光輝歲月。
馬其發 資深樂評人，從事樂評工作逾廿年，文章散見於各報章及雜誌，現每期於《明報周刊》及《HiFi 音響》撰寫樂評。
Extraordinary musicians and kindred spirits, John McLaughlin and
Chick Corea go back a long way. Now the legendary guitarist and pianist
join forces for the first time since they were members of Miles Davis’s
unforgettable Bitches Brew-era band some forty years ago.
Individually they created the two greatest jazz-rock fusion bands –
McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra and Corea’s Return to Forever both
rating amongst the most popular instrumental groups of all time. Their
musical collaborators over the years are a Who’s Who of jazz, rock,
flamenco and more. McLaughlin’s concerts with fellow guitar greats Paco
de Lucia, Larry Coryell and Al di Meola, and recordings of his own
composition, Mediterranean Concerto, with Katia Labeque and
the London Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas, have made
him an outstanding pioneer of World Music. A 12-time Grammy
Award-winning pianist and best-selling recording artist, Corea is one
of the most prolific and versatile composers of modern times. From
bebop to classical, from jazz fusion to straight ahead, Corea has
touched an astonishing number of musical bases with his standard of
excellence.
Together again after four decades and lining up with top ranking
instrumentalists Kenny Garrett (sax), Brian Blade (drums) and Christian
McBride (bass) in their brand new Five Peace Band, McLaughlin and Corea
stand poised to write a dazzling new chapter in jazz-rock fusion.
Chick Corea and John McLaughlin
Grand Old Men of Jazz
by Clive Davis
Strictly
speaking, it is a little premature to describe Chick Corea and John
McLaughlin as “grand old men”. After all, the two musicians – born
within less than a year of each other – are youthful sixty-somethings.
But with the gradual passing of the old guard from the bebop era, it is
the musicians who came of age in the 1960s who are increasingly seen as
guardians of the flame.
It is hard to think of many other
artists who have such a significant connection with the most fertile
experiments of that turbulent age. Along with Herbie Hancock – a man
who seems able to re-invent himself each season – Corea and McLaughlin
were pivotal figures in Miles Davis’s ground-breaking fusion recordings.
This
is one reason why their decision to join forces in the Five Peace Band
has caused such a frisson among jazz enthusiasts. Having made their
name with Miles, the two men went their separate ways in the decades
that followed. The Five Peace project finally reunites them in a
setting which provides the opportunity to look simultaneously back to
their youth and peer into the future.
It is chastening to think that 40 years have passed since they helped change the course of jazz on Davis albums such as In a Silent Way.
Given that we are still a few years short of celebrating the centenary
of what is generally accepted as the first jazz recordings, the two men
can congratulate themselves on having helped to shape nearly half of
the music’s entire life-span. They have survived long enough to witness
a period in which jazz has evolved into a protean form that overlaps
with classical disciplines and the folk music of Asia, Africa and
Europe.
If purists such as the combative Wynton Marsalis
have won headlines by attempting – with varying degrees of success – to
emulate the forms and traditions of yesteryear, Corea and McLaughlin
have found themselves exploring the frontiers. (Although Corea, too,
can be the classicist when the mood takes him. One of the last times I
heard Corea in London he was performing a Mozart piano concerto.)
McLaughlin, for his part, has devoted more and more of his energies to
exploring the religious and philosophical underpinnings of Indian
traditional music. In the mid-1970 he was deploying outrageous power
chords and mystic showmanship in the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Later his
work took a more intimate, acoustic turn in that ever-popular ensemble,
Shakti, although he has continued to explore jazz-rock textures in his
4th Dimension group.
Working alongside such virtuosi as
Zakir Hussain, the guitarist has done as much as anyone to expand the
vocabulary of improvised music. As pop has grown ever more formulaic
and juvenile, McLaughlin continues to seek a higher path. One of his
avowed passions has been “konokol” -- a system of conveying rhythms
through speech and hand-clapped patterns. He first acquired the
fundamentals of the technique from the hands of the master, Ravi
Shankar, some 30 years ago.
More recently, Corea has been
revisiting his fusion past in a concert tour with his immensely popular
group, Return to Forever. Just as rock music was once the domain of
high-tech “progressive” outfits such as Yes and Genesis, so Return To
Forever represented the most flamboyant – not to say bombastic – end of
the jazz spectrum in the era of bell-bottoms, handle-bar moustaches and
Afghan coats.
At its worst, fusion could be painfully
self-indulgent and addicted to virtuosity for its own sake. Decibels
often took the place of ideas. But in forming the Five Peace Band,
Corea and McLaughlin are attempting to summon up the genuinely creative
aspects of the Age of Aquarius.
Even if both men had never recorded another note after In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew,
both would still be remembered as members of the most adventurous and
controversial jazz groups of the 1960s. Corea had joined Davis’s group
in 1968 as a replacement for Herbie Hancock. Having already gained
crucial early experience with bandleaders such as Mongo Santamaria,
Blue Mitchell and that morose yet magical saxophonist Stan Getz, he
found that Davis wanted him to experiment with electric keyboards. As
he explained in a recent interview:
“One night as I was
walking on stage and heading toward the acoustic piano, Miles turned
around, pointed at the Fender Rhodes and said 'play that.' So I did.
Probably from that day forward, which was about six or eight months
after I got in the band, I played pretty much exclusively electric
keyboards… So I learned as I went along and it was an experiment.”
Some of Corea’s early studio work with Davis can be found on the intriguing album, Filles de Kilimanjaro. But it was a few months later, in early 1969, that the trial-and-error strategy bore full fruit on In a Silent Way. The session struck a superb balance between jazz creativity and the more visceral rhythms of rock. Bitches Brew,
which followed soon afterwards, made a bigger commercial impact, and
gave both Corea and McLaughlin freer rein to improvise, but it is the
more controlled passions of In a Silent Way which have truly stood the test of time. If I had to recommend one album to convey the mood of a decade, it would be this.
Kenny
Garrett joined Davis’s group in the 1980s, when the trumpeter fell
increasingly under the spell of pop ephemera. If the great man’s
performances were variable, at best, Garrett’s forceful soloing
invariably offered some respite. In the years since, he has established
himself as a player who can oscillate between fearsome neo-bop and more
listener-friendly funk.
Vinnie Colaiuta, who cites Tony
Williams as a prime influence, is one of the most accomplished drummers
at the nexus of jazz and rock. A sideman with the likes of Frank Zappa,
Sting and Joni Mitchell, he will be anchoring the rhythm section
alongside Christian McBride, the most accomplished bass player of his
generation, a man who is just as comfortable cooking funk licks as
negotiating the most intricate bebop chord changes.
Poised between past and present, the
Five Peace Band provides a snapshot of the condition of jazz at the
dawn of the 21st century. The oft-derided notion of the “supergroup” is
alive and well, and still making a noise.
Clive Davis writes on music and the arts for The Times and Sunday Times. His blog can be found at www.spectator.co.uk/clivedavis
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