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British guitarist John McLaughlin (1942) was a product of the same British blues
revival that spawned rock groups such as the Rolling Stones and Cream.
When he formed his first quartet, with soprano and baritone saxophonist John Surman, a bassist and drummer Tony Oxley, McLaughlin was already 26.
His debut album, Extrapolation (january 1969), entirely composed by him
but mostly driven by Surman's improvisations,
was a brilliant transposition of new trends (whether free jazz or progressive-rock or post-bop melody) into the open-minded milieu of the British intelligentsia
McLaughlin mesmerized both jazz and rock listeners with the crisp sound of
his guitar (fitted with an electric pickup and heavy gauge strings).
The following month McLaughlin relocated to New York and joined both Miles Davis' group and Tony Williams' Lifetime.
He also composed New Old Place for Surman's contemporary
Where Fortune Smiles (may 1970).
His second album, My Goal's Beyond (march 1971), declared his passion
for Indian music (Peace One and Peace Two) and experimented
with the acoustic guitar on simple melodic themes (Follow Your Heart).
Devotion (february 1970) was, for all practical purposes, an album
of instrumental psychedelic-rock (guitar, organ, drum and bass), with the electric guitar unleashed to produce all sorts of ferocious sound effects. Nonetheless the eleven-minute Devotion still maintained the Indian attitude.
In july 1971 McLaughlin formed the Mahavishnu Orchestra, one of the premier electric fusion groups, with violinist Jerry Goodman, keyboardist Jan Hammer, electric bassist Rick Laird and drummer Billy Cobham. Despite the strong influence of Jimi Hendrix on their visceral solos and swirling rhythms, their virtuoso playing and delirious interplay created a new stereotype of fusion jazz.
The Dance Of Maya and Meeting Of The Spirits, off
The Inner Mounting Flame (august 1971), the ten-minute One Word, off Birds Of Fire (october 1972), the colossal The Dream, off the live Between Nothingness And Eternity (september 1973), were the most mind-bending work-outs, but many of their pieces had more to do with show business than with music. McLaughlin also vented his late-hippy spiritual enlightenment in duo with rock guitarist Carlos Santana, the cycle of devotional songs Love Devotion Surrender (march 1973).
The original Mahavishnu Orchestra disbanded in 1973, but McLaughlin organized a new edition, featuring violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, that embarked in an ambitious collaboration with a symphony orchestra, Apocalypse (march 1974), arranged by Michael Gibbs. While less hyped than the early albums, this work, particularly the 20-minute Hymn To Him, was a truly innovative fusion of jazz, rock, Indian and classical elements. This edition of Mahavishnu Orchestra was terminated after the mediocre Visions Of The Emerald Beyond (december 1974)
and the slightly more energetic and electronic Inner Worlds (august 1975).
McLaughlin formed the quintet Shakti with four Indian musicians (virtuoso violinist Lakshminarayana Shankar, tabla player Zakir Hussain and a mridangam player) to play acoustic music inspired to Indian music and Hindu religion, but preserving the high-octane, rocking approach of the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
The music decayed rapidly from the avantgarde Shakti (july 1975), with the 29-minute pseudo-raga What Need Have I For This,
to the delicately melodic A Handful Of Beauty (august 1976),
to the almost poppy Natural Elements (july 1977).
McLaughlin was beginning to live of nostalgy.
Electric Guitarist (february 1978) was a series of collaborations with
old friends.
The One Truth Band replicated the format of the original Mahavishnu Orchestra (but with Lakshminarayana Shankar on violin) for Electric Dreams Electric Sighs (december 1978), but the music was electronic funk and disco.
On the other hand,
McLaughlin targeted the audience of new-age music with the albums cut in collaboration with guitarist Al DiMeola and Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco DeLucia: the live Friday Night In San Francisco (december 1980) and the studio Passion, Grace And Fire (december 1982).
The most inspired McLaughling of the period was heard on the impressionistic
albums Belo Horizonte (july 1981) and Music Spoken Here (july 1982), free
of his Indian, rock and flamenco addictions.
McLaughlin reconstituted the Mahavishnu Orchestra one more time for
Mahavishnu (may 1984), that reunited McLaughlin with Cobham,
and
Adventures In Radioland (february 1986), replacing Cobham with Pat Metheny's drummer Danny Gotlieb.
A new Trio with percussionist Trilok Gurtu and bassist Kai Eckhart
recorded Live At The Royal Festival Hall (november 1989) and
Que Alegria (december 1991).
A new project, the Free Spirits, featuring
keyboardist Joey De Francesco,
recorded Tokyo Live (december 1993) and
After The Rain (october 1994), the latter with Elvin Jones on drums,
in a retro-bop style.
Mediterranean Concerto (september 1988) debuted his Concerto for Guitar and Symphony Orchestra (1985).
The Promise (1995) was another set of random collaborations with
old friends, notably tenorist Michael Brecker in the 14-minute Jazz Jungle
The Heart Of Things (1997) for a vibrant quintet
(featuring saxophonist Gary Thomas and keyboardist Jim Beard)
updated the concept of the Mahavishnu Orchestra to the 1990s.
His third "classical" recording,
Thieves And Poets (july 2002), contained the three-movement suite Thieves And Poets for acoustic guitar and chamber orchestra.
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