The famed Material Girl is celebrating four decades of music with the newly announced Madonna: The Celebration Tour.

The tour includes two stops in California.

Madonna performs Sept. 27 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and Oct. 4 at Chase Center in San Francisco.

Tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Jan. 20; madonna.com/tour.

The 35-city U.S. and European trek kicks off July 15th at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC.

“I am excited to explore as many songs as possible in hopes to give my fans the show they have been waiting for,” Madonna says in a news release.

Bob the Drag Queen, a.k.a. Caldwell Tidicue, will also be on the bill as a “special guest.”

Here are the tour dates .

Sat Jul 15 – Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena

Tue Jul 18 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena

Sat Jul 22 – Phoenix, AZ – Footprint Center

Tue Jul 25 – Denver, CO – Ball Arena

Thu Jul 27 – Tulsa, OK – BOK Center

Sun Jul 30 – St. Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center

Wed Aug 02 – Cleveland, OH – Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse

Sat Aug 05 – Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena

Mon. Aug 07 – Pittsburgh, PA – PPG Paints Arena

Wed Aug 09 – Chicago, IL – United Center

Sun Aug 13 – Toronto, ON – Scotiabank Arena

Sat Aug 19 – Montreal, QC – Centre Bell

Wed Aug 23 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden

Thu Aug 24 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden

Wed Aug 30 – Boston, MA – TD Garden

Sat Sep 02 – Washington, DC – Capital One Arena

Tue Sep 05 – Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena

Thu Sep 07 – Tampa, FL – Amalie Arena

Sat Sep 09 – Miami, FL – Miami-Dade Arena

Wed Sep 13 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center

Mon Sep 18 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center

Thu Sep 21 – Austin, TX – Moody Center ATX

Wed Sep 27 – Los Angeles, CA – Crypto.com Arena

Wed Oct 04 – San Francisco, CA – Chase Center

Sat Oct 07 – Las Vegas, NV – T-Mobile Arena

Sat Oct 14 – London, UK – The O2

Sat Oct 21 – Antwerp, BE – Sportpaleis

Wed. Oct. 25 – Copenhagen, DK – Royal Arena

Sat Oct 28 – Stockholm, SE – Tele2 Arena

Wed Nov 01 – Barcelona, ES – Palau Sant Jordi

Mon Nov 06 – Lisbon, PT – Altice Arena

Sun Nov 12 – Paris, FR – Accor Arena

Mon Nov 13 – Paris, FR – Accor Arena

Wed Nov 15 – Cologne, DE – Lanxess Arena

Thu Nov 23 – Milan, IT – Mediolanum Forum

Tue Nov 28 – Berlin, DE – Mercedes-Benz Arena

Fri Dec 1 – Amsterdam, NL – Ziggo Dome

“It’s hard to make a book and let it go, because you feel like it’s unfinished. Not this one,” the San Francisco-based author says of his 2017 novel. “It was a book that I loved writing that then, the reviewers loved. And I was like, ‘Done.’ And I was moving on to the next book.”

But a funny thing happened on his way to his next project.

“Nine months later, I win a Pulitzer Prize for (‘Less’),” Greer says. “I had not thought about the book. It was long gone.”

Winning the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was, of course, a game changer for Greer, whose previous novels were 2001’s “The Path of Minor Planets: A Novel,” 2004’s “The Confessions of Max Tivoli,” 2008’s “The Story of a Marriage” and 2013’s “The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells.”

So, what did Greer do for a follow-up? Something he never expected: Giving the reading world more of “Less.”

“I was not going to write a sequel,” Greer says. “That was not in my mind, because ‘Less’ very definitely has an ending. It’s a complete book — I worked hard for that.

“But I kept sort of fiddling, just for fun, with the things I cut out of ‘Less’ or other fun ideas.”

The result is the just-published “Less Is Lost,” which finds the author expanding upon the storyline of protagonist Arthur Less.

“My agent told me not to write a sequel to a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel,” Greer says. “But if there is anything you get to do after you win a prize like that, it’s sort of write whatever you want and try to pretend no one is paying attention.”

Greer can pretend all he wants, but the fact is that “Less Is Lost” has created sizable buzz in the book world and earned some very favorable reviews.

“It’s a huge relief,” Greer says of the strong reviews. “You should have seen me the week before this published. I was just a nervous wreck, because I thought, ‘No one needs a sequel.’”

Then again, not every character is as fun to read about as Arthur Less, a San Francisco-based writer who many readers assume is based upon Greer himself. Indeed, they share many traits, but there are also important differences.

“I have a little better sense of humor than (Less) does,” Greer says.

The author certainly has “wait a sec, which one is which?” experience. He grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., with an identical twin brother.

“Our loved ones will say that we sound the same — the way we talk,” he says of being a twin. “Our ideas are very similar. We are both very geeky. He’s married to a woman. And I have a boyfriend. And that is the main difference.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree from Brown University, followed by an MFA from the  University of Montana, Greer moved to Seattle, where he scored a cool gig writing about video games for Nintendo.

“That was a dream job,” he says. “They would pay me to play the games.”

In the mid-‘90s, Greer relocated to San Francisco, where he wrote for Esquire, The New Yorker and other publications — and eventually released his debut novel, “The Path of Minor Planets,” in 2001.

More novels followed, but it was “Less” that made him famous. Oddly enough, the novel that ended up winning the Pulitzer Prize for fiction was not the one Greer initially set out to write.

“It was (originally) a serious novel about a middle-aged gay man in San Francisco,” he remembers. “It was so mopey and pitiful — I could not stand to be near it. I just threw it all away — almost all of it — and started over.

“I was swimming in the bay one day, and I just thought, ‘What am I going to do?’ And I thought, ‘I could try making fun of him. I mean, it’s a disaster anyway — why not try that?’ I had never tried that before. And it was such great fun.”

Greer wrote much of the sequel, “Less Is Lost,” in Milan, where he has a second home with his Italian boyfriend. He moved there about three years ago – and yes, the pandemic lockdown made Italian life significantly less glamorous or sweepingly cinematic as one might have hoped.

“It was good for getting my writing done,” he says, “because I didn’t go to the cinema or opera. We did get a lot of gelato and pizza.”

Now that “Less Is Lost” is earning raves, might Arthur Less turn out to be Greer’s version of James Bond?

“That would be great fun,” he says. “I am actually not writing another one at the moment, to my agent’s great relief. But I bet I’ll write another one in the future.”

The books: Frantic to avoid both his upcoming 50th birthday and his ex’s impending nuptials, Arthur Less rushes off – often disastrously – to literary gigs halfway round the world in the original novel. The delightful sequel, “Less Is Lost” (Little, Brown and Company, $29), finds our hapless protagonist more settled but still grappling with various woes by – yes, of course, he’s hitting the road again, this time bouncing across the U.S. in a rusty camper dubbed Rosina.

What’s on Andrew Sean Greer’s bookshelves:

“Booth,” Karen Joy Fowler: “She’s a fantastic Santa Cruz writer, known for ‘The Jane Austen Book Club.’ Every book of hers is different and brilliant. This one is about John Wilkes Booth and the Booth family.”

“The Luminous Novel,” Mario Levrero: “It’s one of these gigantic 800-page books that’s just like someone going on and on in a hilarious way. It’s basically, he gets a Guggenheim grant, and he just obsesses over what he is going to do with it — for 800 pages. That’s either your thing, or it isn’t. I was totally charmed by it.”

“Acting Class,” Nick Drnaso: “It’s a sort of dark and fascinating graphic novel about this group of people who take this mysterious acting class and the way they transform in their imaginations. I found it really riveting. I’m not always a graphic novel reader. It was like some show on Netflix that no one else is talking about. Then you launch its first episodes, and you’re like, ‘That was amazing. Why is no one watching this?’ That’s how I felt.”

Having had to cancel much of his tour with HIs All Starr Band last year after testing positive for COVID — twice — Starr has announced plans for a 2023 trek.

And, thankfully for Bay Area Beatles fans, the tour includes two local dates.

Starr and His All Starr Band — consisting of Colin Hay, Edgar Winter, Warren Ham, Hamish Stuart, Gregg Bissonette and the always amazing Steve Lukather — is set to perform June 11 at The Masonic in San Francisco and June 17 at the San Jose Civic.

“It’s a new year and here are some new tour dates,” Starr says in a news release. “I love playing with the All Starrs and can’t wait to be back out on the road again with this band. I send peace and love to you all and we hope to see you out there.”

Tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Jan. 20, livenation.com (Masonic show), ticketmaster.com (San Jose Civic). See those for websites for information about possible presale opportunities.

Here are the tour dates:

May 19 Temecula, CA Pechanga Resort Casino

May 20 Phoenix, AZ Celebrity Theatre

May 21 Phoenix, AZ Celebrity Theatre

May 24 Las Vegas, NV Venetian Theatre

May 26 Las Vegas, NV Venetian Theatre

May 27 Las Vegas, NV Venetian Theatre

May 28 San Diego, CA Humphreys Concerts

May 31 San Diego, CA Humphreys Concerts

June 2 Eugene, OR Cuthbert Amphitheater

June 3 Bend, OR Hayden Homes Amphitheater

June 4 Seattle, WA Venue TBD

June 6 Denver, CO Bellco Theater – Denver Convention Center

June 7 Colorado Springs, CO Pikes Peak Center

June 9 Lincoln, CA Thunder Valley Casino

June 11 San Francisco, CA The Masonic

June 13 Salt Lake City, UT Eccles Theater

June 15 Los Angeles, CA Greek Theatre

June 16 Paso Robles, CA Vina Robles Amphitheatre

June 17 San Jose, CA San Jose Civic

Check local listings for on sale dates. For more information please visit:www.RingoStarr.com

The 78-year-old artist will be remembered as one of the greatest musicians in rock ‘n’ roll history, a two-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — first as a member of the Yardbirds in 1992 and then in 2009 as a solo artist — whose amazing influence on the instrument is impossible to fully calculate.

Yet, unlike many other iconic rock guitarists — Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and David Gilmour — Beck’s music isn’t in constant rotation at many classic rock radio stations. Indeed, many casual listeners might have a hard time mentioning more one or two of Beck’s song titles.

Of course, there’s no better why to help people understand Beck’s greatness than to let his guitar do all the talking.

With that in mind, and with his loss hanging heavy in the air, here’s a list of five of his greatest guitar songs. Enjoy.

The songs are listed chronologically.

Also, read our review of Beck’s last Bay Area concert.

1. “Heart Full of Soul” (1965)

It was the first single that the Yardbirds released after Jeff Beck joined the group, replacing another guitarist you might have heard of — Eric Clapton.

2. “Going Down” (1972)

Beck’s version of this Don Nix classic, which was popularized by the great Freddie King a few years earlier, is nothing short of a barnburner on the self-titled third (and final) studio album by the Jeff Beck Group.

3. “Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers” (1974)

Beck’s playing is so vivid and emotional on this Stevie Wonder-penned tune, which was a highlight off the guitarist’s second solo offering,  “Blow by Blow.”

4. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (1976)

Beck takes the 1959 jazz standard penned by Charles Mingus and shapes it into blues-rock instrumental gold on his third solo album, “Wired.”

5. “Big Block” (1989)

It’s down and dirty, with a hard-edged Texas-style blues groove grappling with a spacey fusion feel, and it leaps out of your speakers from the get-go. It’s from the guitarist’s sixth solo album, “Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop.”

Forty years later, the British ska act is still going strong under the leadership of energetic vocalist-guitarist Dave Wakeling, who is the sole original member left in the band.

No matter the lineup, though, it seems like Wakeling and Co. are always on tour, filling venues with both older fans who remember the group from its original days and newer listeners who might have first heard about the English Beat from their parents.

Fans of all ages can expect a good time at an English Beat, enjoying such classic numbers as “I Confess,” Mirror in the Bathroom,” “Save It for Later,” “Hands Off … She’s Mine,” “Too Nice to Talk To,” “Can’t Get Used to Losing You,” “Stand Down Margaret” and “Tears of a Clown.”

The group also performs Jan. 21 at Cornerstone in Berkeley (9 p.m.; $30-$34; cornerstoneberkeley.com). Tickets are going fast for these shows.

The English Beat returns to the area next month for a Feb. 24 gig at the Raven Performing Arts Theater in Healdsburg (8 p.m.; $40; raventheater.org) and a Feb. 25 return to the Cornerstone ($30-$34; cornerstoneberkeley.com).

So fans can really start planning their three days, May 26-28, at the incredibly popular festival held at the Napa Valley Expo in downtown Napa.

But here’s hoping the fans already managed to grab some ducats, given that the three-day passes — which just went on sale Jan. 10 — are already sold out.

Thankfully, fans will have another chance when single-day tickets go on sale at noon Jan. 12, bottlerocknapavalley.com. Single-day ducats run $189 to $749.

Here are the daily lineups:

Friday, May 26

Post Malone, The Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Strings, Bastille, Phantogram, Yung Gravy, Thievery Corporation, Lucius, Nicky Youre, War, Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs, The Airborne Toxic Event, KennyHoopla, Jean Dawson, Pete Yorn, Beach Weather, Tom Odell, Starcrawler, The Stone Foxes, Moonalice, Ayleen Valentine, Paris Jackson, Great Northern, Peter Cat Recording Co., Sgt. Splendor, High Noon.

Saturday, May 27

Lizzo, Duran Duran, Leon Bridges, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Carly Rae Jepsen, Tove Lo, Japanese Breakfast, Dayglow, Ashe, Cautious Clay, Lupe Fiasco, Jax, Álvaro Díaz, MEUTE, Maude Latour, Arden Jones, The Unlikely Candidates, Sudan Archives, Danielle Ponder, Particle Kid, Mac Saturn, GARZA, East Forest, The Silverado Pickups, Spring Summer, Napa Valley Youth Symphony.

Sunday, May 28

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lil Nas X, Wu-Tang Clan, The National, Caamp, Sheryl Crow, Quinn XCII, Teddy Swims, Los Lobos, Taj Mahal, The Struts, Warren G (Silent Disco), half•alive, Joey Valence & Brae, The Wrecks, The 502s, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Monophonics, Cimafunk, Little Stranger, The Alive, Thunderstorm Artis, Oke Junior, Mama Said, Honeyboys.

Yes, having skipped over the Golden State with its 2022 tour, Phish has just announced a eight-night West Coast tour that includes a half-dozen shows in California.

The Vermont rock quartet — consisting of vocalist-guitarist Trey Anastasio, drummer John Fishman, bassist Mike Gordon and keyboardist Page McConnell — is set to perform three-night stands in both Northern and Southern California.

And they both are happening at venues that rank among the most beautiful in all the Golden State.

The group plays April 17-19 at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley and April 21-23 at the Hollywood Bowl.

The ticket request period is now underway, and continues through noon on Jan. 16, at tickets.phish.com. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Jan. 20. See phish.com/tours for details.

Phish ended 2022 by “celebrating 40 years as a band at their sold-out NYE (Madison Square Garden) show where a glowing time machine overhead brought back four decades of gags, characters, and other Phish highlights that celebrated the band and their fans — complete with a gospel choir, marching band, aerialists, 30-plus ‘naked guys’ coming out of a 10-foot birthday cake and so much more,” according to a press release.

Here is Phish’s current tour itinerary:

FEBRUARY

23 – Riviera Maya, Cancún, MX – Moon Palace Cancún (SOLD OUT)

24 – Riviera Maya, Cancún, MX – Moon Palace Cancún (SOLD OUT)

25 – Riviera Maya, Cancún, MX – Moon Palace Cancún (SOLD OUT)

26 – Riviera Maya, Cancún, MX – Moon Palace Cancún (SOLD OUT)

APRIL

14  – Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, WA

15 – Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, WA

17 – Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA

18 – Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA

19 – Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA

21 – Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA

22 – Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA

23 – Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA

But apparently it’s a hotly contested race, with multiple different research organizations making their calls on which municipality deserves the crown.

In the last 10 months, we’ve had no fewer than three proud proclamations of what city tops the happiness scale. And those are probably just the ones that didn’t end up in our spam folder!

In all three cases, a Bay Area city has taken the prize — showing that, without a doubt, these results are 100 percent scientifically accurate and do not deserve any degree of scrutiny whatsoever.

The latest winner is — drum roll, please — Sunnyvale, the high-tech mecca that many consider to be the birthplace of the video game industry (since Atari was founded in the city in 1972). Equally important, it’s where you’ll find Comics Conspiracy and Falafel Stop — two mighty sources of joy and happiness, for sure.

Although, from what we can tell, “Kamandi” back issues and amazing hummus did not factor into this research study conducted by the folks at the financial website SmartAsset.

Instead, researchers looked at other types of indicators when analyzing the 200 largest cities in America — 164 of which had available data.

“We looked at 13 different metrics across three categories: personal finance, well-being and quality of life,” according to the report.

And why did Sunnyvale beat out the other 199 to take the title?

“Well-being and quality of life is where Sunnyvale, California, ranks best,” according to the report. “The city has the highest percentage of individuals earning $100,000 or more (62.5%), the third-lowest percentage of adults living below the poverty-level (roughly 5%) and the fifth-highest marriage rate (56.8%). Violent crime in the area is also low (it ranked 9th) with roughly 149 violent crimes per 100,000 residents.”

Of course, all of this very confusing since the folks at Wallethub.com reported that Fremont was the happiest place in the U.S. early in 2022. Then, a few months later, a site called Housefresh.com told us that Concord ranked as the No. 1 happy spot in America.

It just makes one wonder when Belmont might get its turn.

Although falling short of the top spot, Fremont still placed at No. 4 on the list — behind Sunnyvale, Arlington, Virginia, and Bellevue, Washington, respectively.

“Fremont, California ranks No. 3 for both its high percentage of individuals earning $100,000 or more (55.4%) and its low living costs relative to income (32.17%),” according to the report. “The city also ranks No. 2 for both the percentage of adults who live below the poverty-level (4.9%) and its marriage rate (61.6%).”

San Jose was the other Bay Area city to make the SmartAsset Top 10, ranking in at No. 9.

“Roughly 43% of San Jose, California, residents earn $100,000 or more (10th-highest) and less than 7.4% live in poverty (eighth-lowest),” the report reads. “Additionally, Santa Clara County — where San Jose is located — takes the No. 2 spot for both the percentage of residents reporting poor mental health days (10%) and life expectancy (84.7 years).”

California definitely corners the market when it comes to happiness — something that Beach Boys fans have known all along. With the ranking of Roseville at No. 7 and Santa Clarita at No. 9, 50 percent of the entries in the top 10 are cities from the Golden State.

But enough about happiness. Let’s change our focus to misery for a moment and find out what city came in last on the list.

“Birmingham is the least happy city,” SmartAsset.com reports. “This Alabama city ranks in the bottom five across metrics such as personal bankruptcy filings per capita, life expectancy and the percentage of residents living in poverty. Newark, New Jersey, and Memphis, Tennessee, follow as the second- and third-least happy cities.”

Looking beyond those headliner acts, the festival will also feature such acts as Leon Bridges, Billy Strings, Wu-Tang Clan, the National, Caamp, Sheryl Crow, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Carly Rae Jepsen, Lupe Fiasco, Los Lobos, War, Taj Mahal and Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs.

In all, the 2023 lineup — which was announced Monday morning — will feature more than 75 acts performing over three days, May 26-28, at the Napa Valley Expo in downtown Napa.

“Our 2023 lineup is a classic BottleRock lineup, with something for everyone and lots to discover,” says Dave Graham, CEO of festival producers Latitude 38 Entertainment. “Our headliners really reflect what we strive to offer — some of the biggest and hottest acts on the planet while including a variety of genres.

“And since our festival layout is so compact, you really don’t have to choose one act over the other. Every day offers some great options to create your own experience.”

Three-day passes, ranging in price from $389 for general admission to $5,495 for platinum ducats, go on sale at noon Jan. 10 via bottlerocknapavalley.com.

One of the biggest annual selling points of BottleRock is the depth of the lineup — and 2023 is certainly no exception to the rule. Besides the big marque headliner names, the festival offers plenty of buzz bands, rising stars and newer acts on the undercard.

“We pride ourselves on presenting many of the biggest names in the business, but also amazing up-and-coming acts to discover like Nicky Youre, Half-Alive, Alvaro Diaz, Joey Valance & Brae, Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram, Maude Latour and Paris Jackson,” Graham says. “We believe that each of these acts could one day be headlining big stages. This year’s lineup of up-and-coming acts is our deepest ever.”

Here’s the full lineup:

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Post Malone

Lizzo

Duran Duran

Lil Nas X

The Smashing Pumpkins

Leon Bridges

Billy Strings

Wu-Tang Clan

The National

Caamp

Sheryl Crow

Nile Rodgers & Chic

Carly Rae Jepsen

Bastille

Tove Lo

Phantogram

Japanese Breakfast

Quinn XCII

Yung Gravy

Thievery Corporation

Dayglow

Ashe

Lucius

Teddy Swims

Cautious Clay

Nicky Youre

Los Lobos

War

Taj Mahal

Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs

The Airborne Toxic Event

The Struts

Warren G (Silent Disco)

KennyHoopla

Jean Dawson

Lupe Fiasco

Beach Weather

Jax

Tom Odell

half•alive

Álvaro Díaz

MEUTE

Joey Valance & Brae

The Wrecks

Maude Latour

Arden Jones

The Unlikely Candidates

Sudan Archives

Starcrawler

The 502s

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram

Monophonics

The Stone Foxes

Cimafunk

Danielle Ponder

Particle Kid

Mac Saturn

Little Stranger

The Alive

Moonalice

Ayleen Valentine

paris jackson

GARZA

Thunderstorm Artis

East Forest

The Silverado Pickups

Great Northern

Peter Cat Recording Co.

Sgt. Splendor

Oke Junior

Mama Said

Honeyboys

High Noon

Spring Summer

Napa Valley Youth Symphony

He has to be, after all, since he’s hard at work on a big career retrospective box set that he hopes to have in stores by the summer.

“It started out as a four-record set, then it turned into three,” Clarke says during a recent phone interview. “I am trying to figure out how I can get it to two records. But it’s probably going to be three.”

With one foot already in the past, Clarke — one of the greatest jazz bassists of all time – has little trouble zooming back in time to discuss his fabled fusion group Return to Forever.

Clarke will celebrate the wildly influential outfit when he performs with the new band 4EVER during two shows at the SFJAZZ Center. The concerts will also serve as tributes to the late, great Chick Corea, who co-founded Return to Forever with Clarke and others in the early ‘70s.

The shows are also part of SFJAZZ’s 10th anniversary celebration Jan. 12-15, which includes a tribute to the late pianist McCoy Tyner (who, like Clarke, played on the SFJAZZ Center’s opening night) and performances by artists — ranging from Laurie Anderson and Bill Frisell to Mary Stallings and Chris Potter — who have served as a SFJAZZ artistic directors over the years.

Stanley Clarke N 4EVER — featuring guitarist Colin Cook, keyboardist Jahari Stampley and drummer Jeremiah Collier — performs at 7 and 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 13 at the San Francisco venue. Tickets are $30-$95; sfjazz.org.

Here’s my interview with the five-time Grammy winner, whose many accomplishments include being a 2022 recipient of a NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship.

Q: Take me back to the days leading up to Return to Forever. You were in your early 20s when you first met Chick Corea, right?

A: I actually met Chick a little before that. When we started playing, I think was like 18 or 19. Whatever age I was playing with Stan Getz — the first time I played with him — you’ve got to back it up like two years.

When I first started playing with Chick he was in his 20s, late 20s, because Chick was exactly 10 years older than me — 10 years and a couple days. I am 71 now, so he would have been 81 now.

We had a little trio. It was myself, Chick and a drummer named Horace Arnold. Then we expanded the band to include (flutist) Hubert Laws.

Q: And eventually this sort of morphed into Return to Forever.

A: We weren’t calling ourselves Return to Forever (yet). Chick was the most popular guy out of the bunch, so, it was like the Chick Corea Group — which was pretty much how jazz groups were promoted at that time. You know, like the Chick Corea Trio or the Joe Blow Quartet.

Eventually, Chick got the idea, “Let’s try to put together something a little more serious.” So, that’s when it was myself, Chick, Joe Farrell, Airto Moreira and Flora Purim and we made the (1972) “Return to Forever” album and then we did (1973’s) “Light as a Feather.”

And “Light as a Feather” had all those classic songs — “500 Miles High,” “Light as a Feather,” “Spain” — and that’s when it started to kick off for us. And it just went from that point on. We just kept going.

Q: Return to Forever has had a lot of different players over the years. Yet, the classic lineup, many feel, is the one with you, Chick, drummer Lenny White and guitarist Al Di Meola, which originally ran from like 1974 to 1977. How did White and Di Meola get involved with the band?

A: Chick and Lenny go back to the (1970) “Bitches Brew” album with Miles Davis. It worked out really great. Then, finally, Bill Connors, the guitar player (in Return to Forever), left the band.

I think it was my wife at the time found a cassette tape of some guy who was 18 years old in Jersey. It was Al Di Meola.

Q: Oh, wow. Nice find!

A: I think by the time he played with us he might have been 19 — I’m not sure he was 20 — and I do remember his first gig was at Carnegie Hall. The music was very complicated, so he stood there with a music stand — at Carnegie Hall — playing this music. I thought, “Here’s a guy with some (nerve) — to play at Carnegie Hall, with a music stand, playing some music that very few people could play.” And he did it. So, I grew to like him right away.

Q: It sounds like you will be focusing largely on 1976’s “Romantic Warrior” — Return to Forever’s best-selling album — during the shows at SFJAZZ Center. Why do you think that record struck such a chord with listeners?

A: I think there are a lot of things. It was a very innovative sound. It was done at the perfect time. There were a lot of jazz-rock fans. In those days, it was (called) jazz-rock — the fusion thing actually was later.

A lot of the fans were people who grew up listening to Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer — or some of the bands that came out of England, like Renaissance. They were progressive rock bands. They were slightly better musicians than, say, the Rolling Stones or some of the kind of straight rock bands. The best time for rock ‘n’ roll and fusion — what they call it now — was at that time period. A lot of the guys were our friends. A lot of the influences going backwards and forward.

When Ken Burns did that “Jazz” (documentary), he kind of cut it off at 1965. He kept it as jazz as a museum piece, in my opinion. He never really showed it went into other forms — like Steely Dan.

Q: You certainly aren’t alone in making that charge against Burns’ miniseries.

A: Me, Lenny and Chick were actually jazz musicians. Chick played with Blue Mitchell, Art Blakey. I played with Art Blakey, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon. Lenny White played with Freddie Hubbard and many people.

But we were influenced by other things. And we influenced other people as well. So, it was an interesting mix. It was kind of like a soup or something.

Somebody could put on a Yes album and then put on “Romantic Warrior” and the sound was not that much different — matter of fact, hardly at all.

Q: I love the fusion work that the band did on albums like “Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy” and “Romantic Warrior.”

A: When you listen to those songs, they have a lot of different influences. It’s not just jazz. It’s not just rock ‘n’ roll. It has a lot of classical influences there. It’s actually ensemble music. The harmonics are not just based in Charlie Parker or Duke Ellington — they are based in other composers and our own stuff. It was a really exciting time. We knew we had something different and new.

We had our own thing. In my opinion, we were just a little more compositional oriented. We wrote our music out. The charts were done. We wrote scores. It was kind of like a classical composer.

It was a very smart and very creative thing that we did and our fans really enjoyed it.

Q: What were the fans like at the Return to Forever shows in the ‘70s?

A: When they came to our shows, the fans were really great. They had to really keep their eye on us. The most attentive audiences I think I ever played for were those early Return to Forever crowds.

When there was a great guitar solo, or good bass or keyboard or drum solo, they would jump up and scream like they were at a rock concert. We were not use to that.

At the same time, we would get to the ensemble sections and they were really into it.

I have a theory about that — that a lot of those fans were musicians.

Q: That makes a lot of sense, especially given all that was going on musically with those Return to Forever songs.

A: The focus was on all the parts of music. It wasn’t just playing a couple of Monk tunes, then you write something that’s like Monk. It was really about expanding and being honest.

I remember, back in those days, there was a lot of controversy, particularly when Wynton Marsalis came on the scene. There were a lot of people trying to create static like, “Well, you guys are selling out. You’re not really being honest and true musicians.”

My argument was that we were being the most honest.

I listened to John Coltrane as much as I listened to Jimi Hendrix. I listened to Miles Davis as much as I listened to Aretha Franklin.

Chick was like that, too. Lenny White was really like that. And Al Di Meola was like a Carlos Santana fan.

Q: And all that translated to the music.

A: I actually believe, and I probably would be shot down by a lot of jazz writers, that the most honest musicians were the guys who played that (fusion) music — because if you were going to be honest then you could only play that music.

Now, I get that you could put a suit on and wear a tie and basically state that all you ever listen to is Charlie Parker. And that was a very fashionable thing to do.

But I can’t say that all those guys were being honest.

I know a lot of those guys. I know what they listen to. You don’t grow up and not hear an Aretha Franklin record. You don’t grew up, in America, and never hear (Hendrix’s) “Foxy Lady.” That stuff goes in your ear and you get affected. You can choose not to do it. But I don’t think it’s fair to choose to belittle it because you play something that you think is greater.

Q: And it all goes back to the fact that jazz is rarely static — it continues to evolve.

A: It did not end in 1965 – because it will never end. It doesn’t end — this kind of creativity. Whether it is music or art or literature, fundamental creativity just doesn’t go away. It stays there and moves into other forms.