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John McLaughlin (musician)
Encyclopedia
John McLaughlin also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English
guitarist
, bandleader and composer
. His music includes many genres of jazz
, and rock
, which he coupled with an interest in Indian classical music
to become one of the pioneering figures in fusion.
In 2010 guitarist Jeff Beck
called him "the best guitarist alive". The Indian tabla
maestro Zakir Hussain
has called him "one of the greatest and one of the important musicians of our times". In 2003 McLaughlin was ranked 49th in Rolling Stone magazine list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
After contributing to several key British groups of the early sixties and making his first solo record Extrapolation
(with Tony Oxley
and John Surman
) he moved to the USA where he played with Tony Williams's group Lifetime
and then with Miles Davis
on his landmark electric jazz-fusion albums In A Silent Way
, Bitches Brew
, A Tribute to Jack Johnson
and On The Corner
. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences.
and Stephane Grappelli
. He moved to London from Yorkshire in the early 1960s, playing with Alexis Korner
and the Marzipan Twisters before moving on to Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames
, the Graham Bond Organisation (in 1963) and Brian Auger
. During the 1960s he often had to support himself with session work which he often found unsatisfying but which enhanced his playing and sight-reading.
McLaughlin moved to the U.S. in 1969 to join Tony Williams' group Lifetime
. A recording from the Record Plant, NYC, dated 25 March 1969, exists of McLaughlin jamming with Jimi Hendrix
. McLaughlin recollects "we played one night, just a jam session. And we played from 2 until 8, in the morning. I thought it was a wonderful experience! I was playing an acoustic guitar with a pick-up. Um, flat-top guitar, and Jimi was playing an electric. Yeah, what a lovely time! Had he lived today, you'd find that he would be employing everything he could get his hands on, and I mean acoustic guitar, synthesizers, orchestras, voices, anything he could get his hands on he'd use!"
He played on Miles Davis
' albums In A Silent Way
, Bitches Brew
(which has a track named after him), On The Corner
, Big Fun (where he is featured soloist on "Go Ahead John") and A Tribute to Jack Johnson
. In the liner notes to Jack Johnson, Davis called McLaughlin's playing "far in." McLaughlin returned to the Davis band for one night of a week-long club date, recorded and released as part of the album Live-Evil and of the Cellar Door
boxed set. His reputation as a "first-call" session player
grew, resulting in recordings as a sideman with Miroslav Vitous
, Larry Coryell
, Joe Farrell
, Wayne Shorter
, Carla Bley
, the Rolling Stones, and others.
), a high-energy, psychedelic fusion album that featured Larry Young on organ (who had been part of Lifetime), Billy Rich on bass and the R&B
drummer Buddy Miles
. Devotion was the first of two albums he released on Douglas. In 1971 he released My Goal's Beyond
in the U.S., a collection of unamplified acoustic works. Side A ("Peace One" and "Peace Two") offers a fusion blend of jazz and Indian classical forms while side B features melodic acoustic playing McLaughlin on such standards as "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
", by Charles Mingus
whom McLaughlin considered an important influence. My Goal's Beyond was inspired by McLaughlin's decision to follow the Indian spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy
, to whom he had been introduced in 1970 by Larry Coryell's manager. The album was dedicated to Chinmoy, with one of the guru's
poems printed on the liner notes
. It was on this album that McLaughlin took the name "Mahavishnu."
In 1973 McLaughlin collaborated with Carlos Santana
, also a disciple of Sri Chinmoy
, on an album of devotional songs, Love Devotion Surrender
, which included recordings of Coltrane
compositions including a movement of A Love Supreme
. He has also worked with the jazz composers Carla Bley
and Gil Evans
.
In 1979 he formed a short-lived funk fusion power trio
named the Trio of Doom
with Tony Williams on drums and Jaco Pastorius
on bass. Their only live performance was on 3 March 1979 at the Havana Jam
Festival (2–4 March 1979) in Cuba
, part of a US State Department sponsored visit to Cuba. Later on 8 March 1979 the group recorded the songs they had written for the festival at Columbia Studios, New York, on 52nd St. Recollections from this performance are captured on Ernesto Juan Castellanos
's documentary Havana Jam '79
.
, keyboardist Jan Hammer
, bassist Rick Laird
and drummer Billy Cobham
and performed a technically difficult and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Eastern and Indian influences. This band helped establish fusion as a new and growing style. McLaughlin's playing at this time was distinguished by fast solos and exotic musical scales.
The Mahavishnu Orchestra's personality clashes were as explosive as their performances and consequently the first incarnation of the group split in late 1973 after two years and three albums, one a live recording entitled "Between Nothingness and Eternity". In 2001 the "Lost Trident Sessions" album was released, having been recorded in 1973 but shelved when the group disbanded. McLaughlin then reformed the group with Narada Michael Walden
(drums), Jean-Luc Ponty
(violin), Ralphe Armstrong (bass), and Gayle Moran (keyboards and vocals), and a string and horn section (McLaughlin referred to this as "the real Mahavishnu Orchestra"). This incarnation of the group recorded two more albums, Apocalypse with the London Symphony Orchestra and Visions of the Emerald Beyond
. A scaled-down quartet was formed with McLaughlin, Walden on drums, Armstrong on bass and Stu Goldberg on keyboards and synthesizer, which generated a third "Mahavishnu 2" recording in 1976 largely due to contractual obligations, Inner Worlds
.
based group Shakti
(energy). McLaughlin had already been studying Indian classical music and playing the veena
for several years. The group featured Lakshminarayanan L. Shankar
(violin), Zakir Hussain
(tabla
), Thetakudi Harihara Vinayakram
(ghatam
) and earlier Ramnad Raghavan
(mridangam). The group recorded three albums; 'A Handful of Beauty' (1975), 'Shakti' (1976), and 'Natural Elements' (1977). Based on both Carnatic
and Hindustani
styles, along with extended use of konnakol
, the band introduced ragas and Indian percussion to many jazz aficionados.
In this group McLaughlin played a custom-made steel-string acoustic guitar made by Abe Wechter and the Gibson guitar company
that featured two tiers of strings over the soundhole: a conventional six-string configuration and seven strings strung underneath at a forty-five degree angle - these were independently tuneable "sympathetic strings" much like those on a sitar
or veena. The instrument's vina-like scalloped fretboard enabled McLaughlin to bend strings far beyond the reach of a conventional fretboard. McLaughlin grew so accustomed to the freedom it provided him that he had the fretboard scalloped on his Gibson Byrdland electric guitar.
McLaughlin also appeared on Stanley Clarke
's School Days
and numerous other fusion albums. 1979 also saw the formation of the very short-lived Trio of Doom
, consisting of McLaughlin with Jaco Pastorius
(bass) and Tony Williams (drums). They only played one concert, at the Karl Marx Theater
in Havana
, Cuba
on 3 March 1979, as part of the Havana Jam
festival. Their performance is captured on Ernesto Juan Castellanos
's documentary Havana Jam '79
. They later recorded three tracks at CBS
Studios in New York, 8 March 1979. The same year he teamed up with flamenco
guitarist Paco de Lucía
and jazz guitarist Larry Coryell
(replaced by Al Di Meola
in the early 1980s) as the Guitar Trio. For the tour of fall 1983 they were joined by Dixie Dregs
guitarist Steve Morse
who opened the show as a soloist and participated with The Trio in the closing numbers. The Trio reunited in 1996 for a second recording session and a world tour. Also in 1979 McLaughlin recorded the album Johnny McLaughlin: Electric Guitarist
, the title on McLaughlin's first business cards as a teenager in Yorkshire
. This was a return to more mainstream jazz/rock fusion and to the electric instrument after three years of playing acoustic guitars.
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with L. Shankar on violins, Stu Goldberg on keyboards, Fernando Saunders on electric bass and Tony Smith on drums. After the dissolution of the One Truth Band, McLaughlin toured in a guitar duo with Christian Escoudé
.
With the group Fuse One
, he released two albums in 1980 and 1982.
In 1986 he appeared with Dexter Gordon
in Bertrand Tavernier
's film "Round Midnight
." He also composed The Mediterranean Concerto, orchestrated by Michael Gibbs. The world premier featured McLaughlin and the Los Angeles Philharmonic
. It was recorded in 1988 with Michael Tilson Thomas
conducting the London Symphony Orchestra
. Unlike what is typical practice in classical music
, the concerto
includes sections where McLaughlin improvises.
Also included on the recording were five duets between McLaughlin and his then-girlfriend Katia Labèque.
In the late '80s and early '90s McLaughlin recorded and performed live with a trio including bassist Kai Eckhardt
and percussionist Trilok Gurtu. The group recorded two albums: Live at The Royal Festival Hall and Que Alegria
, with latter featuring Dominique DiPiazza on bass for all but two tracks; parts of the subsequent tour also included Jeff Berlin
on bass. These recordings saw a return to acoustic instruments for McLaughlin, performing on nylon-string guitar. On "Live at the Royal Festival Hall" McLaughlin utilised a unique guitar synth which enabled him to effectively "loop"
guitar parts and play over them live. The synth also featured a pedal which provided sustain when pressed. McLaughlin played parts which sound overdubbed and creating lush soundscapes, aided by Gurtu's unique percussive sounds. This approach is used to great effect in the track "Florianapolis", amongst others.
). Following this period he recorded and toured with The Heart of Things featuring Gary Thomas
, Dennis Chambers
, Matthew Garrison, Jim Beard
and Otmaro Ruíz
. In 1993 he released a Bill Evans
tribute album entitled "Time Remembered: John McLaughlin Plays Bill Evans" with his acoustic guitar backed by the acoustic guitars of the Aighetta Quartet and the acoustic bass of Yan Maresz. In recent times he has toured with Remember Shakti
.
In addition to original Shakti member Zakir Hussain
, this group has also featured eminent Indian musicians U. Srinivas
, V. Selvaganesh
, Shankar Mahadevan
, Shivkumar Sharma
, and Hariprasad Chaurasia
. In 1996, John McLaughlin, Paco DeLucia and Al Di Meola (known collectively as "The Guitar Trio") reunited for a world tour and recorded an album by the same name. In that same year he recorded "The Promise". Also notable during the period were his performances with Elvin Jones
and Joey DeFrancesco
.
score, Thieves and Poets, along with arrangements for classical guitar ensemble of favorite jazz standards and a three-DVD
instructional video on improvisation entitled "This is the Way I Do It" (which contributed to the development of video lessons.) In June 2006 he released the post-bop
/jazz fusion
album Industrial Zen
, on which he experimented with the Godin
Glissentar as well as continuing to expand his guitar-synth repertoire.
In 2007 he left Universal Records
and joined Abstract Logix. Recording sessions for his first album on that label took place in April. That summer, he began touring with a new jazz fusion quartet, the 4th Dimension, consisting of keyboardist/drummer Gary Husband
, bassist Hadrian Feraud, and drummer Mark Mondesir. During the 4th Dimension's tour, an "instant CD" entitled Live USA 2007: Official Bootleg was made available comprising soundboard recordings of six pieces from the group's first performance. Following completion of the tour, McLaughlin sorted through recordings from each night to release a second MP3 download-only collection entitled, Official Pirate: Best of the American Tour 2007. During this time, McLaughlin also released another instructional DVD, The Gateway to Rhythm, featuring Indian percussionist and Remember Shakti bandmate Selva Ganesh Vinayakram (or V. Selvaganesh), focusing on the Indian rhythmic system of konnakol
. McLaughlin also remastered and released a shelved 1980 project called The Trio of Doom, featuring jazz/fusion luminaries Jaco Pastorius
and Tony Williams. The project had been aborted due to conflicts between Williams and Pastorius as well as what was at the time a mutual dissatisfaction with the results of their performance.
On 28 July 2007, McLaughlin performed at Eric Clapton
's Crossroads Guitar Festival
in Bridgeview, Illinois
.
On 28 April 2008 the recording sessions from the previous year surfaced on the album Floating Point, featuring the rhythm section of keyboardist Louis Banks
, bassist Hadrien Feraud
, percussionist Sivamani and drummer Ranjit Barot
bolstered on each track by a different Indian musician. Coinciding with the release of the album was another DVD, Meeting of the Minds, which offered behind the scenes studio footage of the Floating Point sessions as well as interviews with all of the musicians. He engaged in a late summer/fall 2008 tour with Chick Corea
, Vinnie Colaiuta
, Kenny Garrett
and Christian McBride
under the name Five Peace Band
, from which came an eponymous double-CD live album in early 2009.
McLaughlin performed with Mahavishnu Orchestra drummer Billy Cobham
at the 44th Montreux Jazz Festival, in Montreux, Switzerland, on 2 July 2010, for the first time since the band split up. In November 2010, a new book was released by Abstract Logix Books entitled Follow Your Heart- John McLaughlin Song by Song by Walter Kolosky, who also wrote the book Power, Passion and Beauty - The Story of the Legendary Mahavishnu Orchestra. The book discussed each song McLaughlin wrote and contained photographs never seen before.
, Eric Johnson
, Mike Stern
, Paul Masvidal
, Al Di Meola
, Pebber Brown, Shawn Lane
, and Scott Henderson
. His influence did not stop in the 80's, though; hardcore punk
guitarist Greg Ginn
of Black Flag
cited Birds of Fire
by The Mahavishnu Orchestra which inspired him to record more progressive guitar work and even record instrumental songs. Current players still hold him as highly influential, including Omar Rodriguez of The Mars Volta
. According to Pat Metheny
, McLaughlin has changed the evolution of the guitar during several of his periods of playing. McLaughlin is also considered a major influence on composers in the fusion genre. In an interview with Downbeat, Chick Corea
remarked that "...what John McLaughlin did with the electric guitar
set the world on its ear. No one ever heard an electric guitar played like that before, and it certainly inspired me. John's band, more than my experience with Miles, led me to want to turn the volume up and write music that was more dramatic and made your hair stand on end".
, who was also a member of his band in the early 1980's. He is currently married to Ina Behrend with whom he has a son, Luke (b.1997). Ref. http://www.abstractlogix.com/interview_view.php?idno=23
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
, bandleader and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
. His music includes many genres of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, and rock
Rock
Rock, rocks, the rock, or the rocks may refer to:-Geology and minerals:* Rock , naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids* Rock salt or halite, mineral form of sodium chloride-People:...
, which he coupled with an interest in Indian classical music
Indian classical music
The origins of Indian classical music can be found in the Vedas, which are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu tradition. Indian classical music has also been significantly influenced by, or syncretised with, Indian folk music and Persian music. The Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music...
to become one of the pioneering figures in fusion.
In 2010 guitarist Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
called him "the best guitarist alive". The Indian tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
maestro Zakir Hussain
Zakir Hussain (musician)
Zakir Hussain , , is an Indian tabla player, musical producer, film actor and composer.-Early life:Hussain was born in Mumbai, India to the legendary tabla player Alla Rakha. He attended St...
has called him "one of the greatest and one of the important musicians of our times". In 2003 McLaughlin was ranked 49th in Rolling Stone magazine list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
After contributing to several key British groups of the early sixties and making his first solo record Extrapolation
Extrapolation (album)
Extrapolation is the debut album by Jazz guitarist John McLaughlin. It was recorded at Advision Studios in London on January 18, 1969 and first released later that year by Giorgio Gomelsky's Marmalade Records....
(with Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley is an English free-jazz drummer and one of the founders of Incus Records.-Biography:Tony Oxley was born in Sheffield, England. A self-taught pianist by age eight, he first began playing the drums at seventeen. While in the Black Watch military band from 1957 to 1960 he studied music...
and John Surman
John Surman
John Douglas Surman is an English jazz saxophone, bass clarinet and synthesizer player, and composer of free jazz and modal jazz, often using themes from folk music as a basis...
) he moved to the USA where he played with Tony Williams's group Lifetime
The Tony Williams Lifetime
The Tony Williams Lifetime was a jazz-rock fusion group led by jazz drummer Tony Williams.-Original line-up:The Tony Williams Lifetime was founded in 1969 as a power trio with John McLaughlin on electric guitar, and Larry Young on organ. The band was possibly named for Williams' debut album as a...
and then with Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
on his landmark electric jazz-fusion albums In A Silent Way
In a Silent Way
In a Silent Way is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released July 30, 1969 on Columbia Records. Produced by Teo Macero, the album was recorded in one session date on February 18, 1969 at CBS 30th Street Studio B in New York City. Incorporating elements of classical sonata form,...
, Bitches Brew
Bitches Brew
Bitches Brew is a studio double album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in April 1970 on Columbia Records. The album continued his experimentation with electric instruments previously featured on his critically acclaimed In a Silent Way album...
, A Tribute to Jack Johnson
A Tribute to Jack Johnson
A Tribute to Jack Johnson is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released February 24, 1971 on Columbia Records. It also serves as the soundtrack for a documentary by Bill Cayton about the heavyweight world champion boxer Jack Johnson....
and On The Corner
On the Corner
On the Corner is a studio album by jazz musician Miles Davis, recorded in June and July 1972 and released later that year on Columbia Records. It was scorned by critics at the time of its release and was one of Davis's worst-selling recordings...
. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences.
1960s
From a family of musicians (his mother being a concert violinist), McLaughlin studied violin and piano as a child and took up the guitar at the age of 11, exploring styles from flamenco to the jazz of Django ReinhardtDjango Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
and Stephane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands....
. He moved to London from Yorkshire in the early 1960s, playing with Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner was a blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a Founding Father of British Blues"...
and the Marzipan Twisters before moving on to Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames
Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames
Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames were a noted British rhythm and blues/soul/jazz/ska/pop group of the 1960s. They had been the backing band for Billy Fury but, after being dismissed at the end of 1961, their pianist Georgie Fame took over as vocalist and they went on to enjoy great...
, the Graham Bond Organisation (in 1963) and Brian Auger
Brian Auger
Brian Auger is a jazz and rock keyboardist, who has specialized in playing the Hammond organ.A jazz pianist, bandleader, session musician and Hammond B3 player, Auger has played or toured with artists such as Rod Stewart, Tony Williams, Jimi Hendrix, Sonny Boy Williamson, Led Zeppelin, Eric Burdon...
. During the 1960s he often had to support himself with session work which he often found unsatisfying but which enhanced his playing and sight-reading.
McLaughlin moved to the U.S. in 1969 to join Tony Williams' group Lifetime
The Tony Williams Lifetime
The Tony Williams Lifetime was a jazz-rock fusion group led by jazz drummer Tony Williams.-Original line-up:The Tony Williams Lifetime was founded in 1969 as a power trio with John McLaughlin on electric guitar, and Larry Young on organ. The band was possibly named for Williams' debut album as a...
. A recording from the Record Plant, NYC, dated 25 March 1969, exists of McLaughlin jamming with Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
. McLaughlin recollects "we played one night, just a jam session. And we played from 2 until 8, in the morning. I thought it was a wonderful experience! I was playing an acoustic guitar with a pick-up. Um, flat-top guitar, and Jimi was playing an electric. Yeah, what a lovely time! Had he lived today, you'd find that he would be employing everything he could get his hands on, and I mean acoustic guitar, synthesizers, orchestras, voices, anything he could get his hands on he'd use!"
He played on Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
' albums In A Silent Way
In a Silent Way
In a Silent Way is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released July 30, 1969 on Columbia Records. Produced by Teo Macero, the album was recorded in one session date on February 18, 1969 at CBS 30th Street Studio B in New York City. Incorporating elements of classical sonata form,...
, Bitches Brew
Bitches Brew
Bitches Brew is a studio double album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in April 1970 on Columbia Records. The album continued his experimentation with electric instruments previously featured on his critically acclaimed In a Silent Way album...
(which has a track named after him), On The Corner
On the Corner
On the Corner is a studio album by jazz musician Miles Davis, recorded in June and July 1972 and released later that year on Columbia Records. It was scorned by critics at the time of its release and was one of Davis's worst-selling recordings...
, Big Fun (where he is featured soloist on "Go Ahead John") and A Tribute to Jack Johnson
A Tribute to Jack Johnson
A Tribute to Jack Johnson is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released February 24, 1971 on Columbia Records. It also serves as the soundtrack for a documentary by Bill Cayton about the heavyweight world champion boxer Jack Johnson....
. In the liner notes to Jack Johnson, Davis called McLaughlin's playing "far in." McLaughlin returned to the Davis band for one night of a week-long club date, recorded and released as part of the album Live-Evil and of the Cellar Door
The Cellar Door Sessions
The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 is a boxed live album released in 2005. It was recorded on several 1970 concerts at the Washington-based nightclub The Cellar Door....
boxed set. His reputation as a "first-call" session player
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
grew, resulting in recordings as a sideman with Miroslav Vitous
Miroslav Vitouš
Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš , is a Czech jazz bassist.-Biography:Born in Prague, he began the violin at age six, and started playing the piano at age ten, and bass at fourteen. As a young man in Europe, Vitouš was a competitive swimmer. One of his early music groups was the Junior Trio with his...
, Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell is an American jazz fusion guitarist.-Biography:Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from Richland High School, in Richland, Washington, where he played in local bands The Jailers, The Rumblers, The Royals, and The Flames. He also played with The Checkers from nearby...
, Joe Farrell
Joe Farrell
Joseph Carl Firrantello , known as Joe Farrell, was an American jazz saxophonist and flutist. He is best known for a series of albums under his own name on the CTI record label and for playing in the initial incarnation of Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:Farrell was born in Chicago...
, Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
, Carla Bley
Carla Bley
Carla Bley, née Borg, is an American jazz composer, pianist, organist and band leader. An important figure in the Free Jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera Escalator Over The Hill , as well as a book of compositions that have been performed by many other...
, the Rolling Stones, and others.
1970s
He recorded Devotion in early 1970 on Douglas Records (run by Alan DouglasAlan Douglas (record producer)
Alan Douglas is an American record producer who has worked with Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Lenny Bruce and the Last Poets. He runs his own record label, Douglas Records....
), a high-energy, psychedelic fusion album that featured Larry Young on organ (who had been part of Lifetime), Billy Rich on bass and the R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
drummer Buddy Miles
Buddy Miles
George Allen Miles, Jr. , known as Buddy Miles, was an American rock and funk drummer, most known as a founding member of The Electric Flag in 1967, then as a member of Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys from 1969 through to January 1970.-Early life:George Allen Miles was born in Omaha, Nebraska on...
. Devotion was the first of two albums he released on Douglas. In 1971 he released My Goal's Beyond
My Goal's Beyond
My Goal's Beyond is the third solo album of John McLaughlin. The album was originally released on Douglas Records in the US. It was later reissued by Rykodisc....
in the U.S., a collection of unamplified acoustic works. Side A ("Peace One" and "Peace Two") offers a fusion blend of jazz and Indian classical forms while side B features melodic acoustic playing McLaughlin on such standards as "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is a jazz standard composed by Charles Mingus originally recorded by his sextet in 1959 as listed below, and released on his album Mingus Ah Um. Mingus wrote it as an elegy for saxophonist Lester Young, who had died two months prior to the recording session...
", by Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
whom McLaughlin considered an important influence. My Goal's Beyond was inspired by McLaughlin's decision to follow the Indian spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy
Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, also known as Sri Chinmoy was an Indian spiritual teacher, poet, artist and athlete who immigrated to the U.S. in 1964., the founder of the religious organization "Sri Chinmoy Centre Church, Inc." better known as "Sri Chinmoy Centre"...
, to whom he had been introduced in 1970 by Larry Coryell's manager. The album was dedicated to Chinmoy, with one of the guru's
Guru
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...
poems printed on the liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
. It was on this album that McLaughlin took the name "Mahavishnu."
In 1973 McLaughlin collaborated with Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
, also a disciple of Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy
Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, also known as Sri Chinmoy was an Indian spiritual teacher, poet, artist and athlete who immigrated to the U.S. in 1964., the founder of the religious organization "Sri Chinmoy Centre Church, Inc." better known as "Sri Chinmoy Centre"...
, on an album of devotional songs, Love Devotion Surrender
Love Devotion Surrender
Love Devotion Surrender is an album released in 1973 by guitarists Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin, with the backing of their respective bands . The album was inspired by the teachings of Sri Chinmoy and intended as a tribute to John Coltrane...
, which included recordings of Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
compositions including a movement of A Love Supreme
A Love Supreme
A Love Supreme is a studio album recorded by John Coltrane's quartet in December 1964 and released by Impulse! Records in February 1965...
. He has also worked with the jazz composers Carla Bley
Carla Bley
Carla Bley, née Borg, is an American jazz composer, pianist, organist and band leader. An important figure in the Free Jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera Escalator Over The Hill , as well as a book of compositions that have been performed by many other...
and Gil Evans
Gil Evans
Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...
.
In 1979 he formed a short-lived funk fusion power trio
Power trio
A power trio is a rock and roll band format where the traditional power trio has a lineup of guitar, bass and drums, leaving out the rhythm guitar or keyboard that are used in other rock music to fill out the sound with chords...
named the Trio of Doom
Trio of Doom
The Trio of Doom was a short-lived jazz fusion power trio consisting of John McLaughlin on guitar, Jaco Pastorius on bass, and Tony Williams on drums...
with Tony Williams on drums and Jaco Pastorius
Jaco Pastorius
John Francis Anthony Pastorius III , known as Jaco Pastorius, was an American jazz musician and composer widely acknowledged as a virtuoso electric bass player....
on bass. Their only live performance was on 3 March 1979 at the Havana Jam
Havana Jam
Havana Jam was a three-day music festival that took place at the Karl Marx Theater, in Havana, Cuba, on 2-4 March, 1979. It was sponsored by Bruce Lundvall, the president of Columbia Records, Jerry Masucci, the president of Fania Records, and the Cuban Ministry of Culture.The festival included, on...
Festival (2–4 March 1979) in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, part of a US State Department sponsored visit to Cuba. Later on 8 March 1979 the group recorded the songs they had written for the festival at Columbia Studios, New York, on 52nd St. Recollections from this performance are captured on Ernesto Juan Castellanos
Ernesto Juan Castellanos
Ernesto Juan Castellanos, born in 1963, is a freelance author, translator, journalist, filmmaker and researcher who lives and works in Havana, Cuba. In 1996, he started organizing the Cuban Beatles conventions, which opened doors to the world of writing...
's documentary Havana Jam '79
Havana Jam '79
Havana Jam ’79 is an hour-long documentary written, produced and directed in 2009 by Cuban author, journalist and filmmaker Ernesto Juan Castellanos....
.
The Mahavishnu Orchestra
McLaughlin's 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, included violinist Jerry GoodmanJerry Goodman
Jerry Goodman is an American violinist best known for playing electric violin in the bands The Flock and the jazz fusion Mahavishnu Orchestra. Goodman actually began his musical career as The Flock's roadie before joining the band on violin. Trained in the conservatory, both of his parents were...
, keyboardist Jan Hammer
Jan Hammer
Jan Hammer is a composer, pianist and keyboardist. He first gained his most visible audience while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 1970s, as well as his film scores for television and film including "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", from the popular 1980s...
, bassist Rick Laird
Rick Laird
Richard Quentin 'Rick' Laird is a jazz musician, born on 5 February 1941. He is a bass player best known for his place in The Mahavishnu Orchestra....
and drummer Billy Cobham
Billy Cobham
William C. Cobham is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who has called Switzerland home since the late 1970s....
and performed a technically difficult and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Eastern and Indian influences. This band helped establish fusion as a new and growing style. McLaughlin's playing at this time was distinguished by fast solos and exotic musical scales.
The Mahavishnu Orchestra's personality clashes were as explosive as their performances and consequently the first incarnation of the group split in late 1973 after two years and three albums, one a live recording entitled "Between Nothingness and Eternity". In 2001 the "Lost Trident Sessions" album was released, having been recorded in 1973 but shelved when the group disbanded. McLaughlin then reformed the group with Narada Michael Walden
Narada Michael Walden
Narada Michael Walden is an American producer, drummer, singer, and songwriter. He was given the name Narada by guru Sri Chinmoy in the early 1970s and his musical career spans three decades, in which he was awarded several gold, platinum and multi-platinum awards...
(drums), Jean-Luc Ponty
Jean-Luc Ponty
Jean-Luc Ponty is a French virtuoso violinist and jazz composer.- Early years:Ponty was born into a family of classical musicians on 29 September 1942 in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, his mother taught piano...
(violin), Ralphe Armstrong (bass), and Gayle Moran (keyboards and vocals), and a string and horn section (McLaughlin referred to this as "the real Mahavishnu Orchestra"). This incarnation of the group recorded two more albums, Apocalypse with the London Symphony Orchestra and Visions of the Emerald Beyond
Visions of the Emerald Beyond
Visions of the Emerald Beyond is an album by the jazz fusion group Mahavishnu Orchestra, and the second released by its second incarnation....
. A scaled-down quartet was formed with McLaughlin, Walden on drums, Armstrong on bass and Stu Goldberg on keyboards and synthesizer, which generated a third "Mahavishnu 2" recording in 1976 largely due to contractual obligations, Inner Worlds
Inner Worlds
Inner Worlds is an album by the Mahavishnu Orchestra. It was the group's sixth album release.In 1975, violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and keyboardist Gayle Moran left the band. Also, all string and horn accompaniments the group used on its previous album, Visions of the Emerald Beyond, were dismissed...
.
Shakti
McLaughlin then became absorbed in his acoustic playing with his Indian classical musicIndian classical music
The origins of Indian classical music can be found in the Vedas, which are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu tradition. Indian classical music has also been significantly influenced by, or syncretised with, Indian folk music and Persian music. The Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music...
based group Shakti
Shakti (band)
Shakti was a group which played a novel acoustic fusion music which combined Indian music with elements of jazz; it was perhaps the earliest practitioner of the musical genre world fusion....
(energy). McLaughlin had already been studying Indian classical music and playing the veena
Veena
Veena may refer to one of several Indian plucked instruments:With frets*Rudra veena, plucked string instrument used in Hindustani music*Saraswati veena, plucked string instrument used in Carnatic musicFretless...
for several years. The group featured Lakshminarayanan L. Shankar
L. Shankar
Lakshminarayanan Shankar, also known as L. Shankar and Shenkar, is an Indian-born American violinist, singer and composer.-Early life:...
(violin), Zakir Hussain
Zakir Hussain (musician)
Zakir Hussain , , is an Indian tabla player, musical producer, film actor and composer.-Early life:Hussain was born in Mumbai, India to the legendary tabla player Alla Rakha. He attended St...
(tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
), Thetakudi Harihara Vinayakram
Thetakudi Harihara Vinayakram
Thetakudi Harihara Vinayakram , also known as Vikku Vinayakram is a Grammy Award–winning Indian percussionist. Vinayakram plays Carnatic music with the ghatam, an earthen pot. Vinayakram is credit for the progress and development as well as popularizing of the ghatam.-Early life:Vikku Vinayakram...
(ghatam
Ghatam
The ghaṭam is a percussion instrument used in the Carnatic music of South India. Its analogue in Rajasthan is known as the madga and pani mataqa "water jug"....
) and earlier Ramnad Raghavan
Ramnad Raghavan
Ramnad V. Raghavan was a South Indian player of the mridangam. He was born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India, to P. Vaidyanatha Ayyar of Kooniyur, Tirunelveli district, and Brhannayaki....
(mridangam). The group recorded three albums; 'A Handful of Beauty' (1975), 'Shakti' (1976), and 'Natural Elements' (1977). Based on both Carnatic
Carnatic music
Carnatic music is a system of music commonly associated with the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, with its area roughly confined to four modern states of India: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu...
and Hindustani
Hindustani classical music
Hindustani classical music is the Hindustani or North Indian style of Indian classical music found throughout the northern Indian subcontinent. The style is sometimes called North Indian Classical Music or Shāstriya Sangeet...
styles, along with extended use of konnakol
Konnakol
Konnakol is the art of performing percussion syllables vocally in South Indian music, the Carnatic music - South Indian classical - performance art of vocal percussion. It is comparable in some respects to bol in Hindustani music, but allows the composition, performance or communication of rhythms...
, the band introduced ragas and Indian percussion to many jazz aficionados.
In this group McLaughlin played a custom-made steel-string acoustic guitar made by Abe Wechter and the Gibson guitar company
Gibson Guitar Corporation
The Gibson Guitar Corporation, formerly of Kalamazoo, Michigan and currently of Nashville, Tennessee, manufactures guitars and other instruments which sell under a variety of brand names...
that featured two tiers of strings over the soundhole: a conventional six-string configuration and seven strings strung underneath at a forty-five degree angle - these were independently tuneable "sympathetic strings" much like those on a sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
or veena. The instrument's vina-like scalloped fretboard enabled McLaughlin to bend strings far beyond the reach of a conventional fretboard. McLaughlin grew so accustomed to the freedom it provided him that he had the fretboard scalloped on his Gibson Byrdland electric guitar.
Other activities
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
's School Days
School Days (album)
School Days is the fourth album by fusion jazz bassist Stanley Clarke.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Stanley Clarke# "School Days" – 7:51# "Quiet Afternoon" – 5:09# "The Dancer" – 5:27# "Desert Song" – 6:56# "Hot Fun" – 2:55...
and numerous other fusion albums. 1979 also saw the formation of the very short-lived Trio of Doom
Trio of Doom
The Trio of Doom was a short-lived jazz fusion power trio consisting of John McLaughlin on guitar, Jaco Pastorius on bass, and Tony Williams on drums...
, consisting of McLaughlin with Jaco Pastorius
Jaco Pastorius
John Francis Anthony Pastorius III , known as Jaco Pastorius, was an American jazz musician and composer widely acknowledged as a virtuoso electric bass player....
(bass) and Tony Williams (drums). They only played one concert, at the Karl Marx Theater
Karl Marx Theater
The Karl Marx Theater is a theater in Havana, Cuba, formerly known as the Teatro Blanquita, and renamed after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the venue has an enormous auditorium with seating capacity of 5500 people, and is generally used for big shows by stars from Cuba and abroad...
in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
on 3 March 1979, as part of the Havana Jam
Havana Jam
Havana Jam was a three-day music festival that took place at the Karl Marx Theater, in Havana, Cuba, on 2-4 March, 1979. It was sponsored by Bruce Lundvall, the president of Columbia Records, Jerry Masucci, the president of Fania Records, and the Cuban Ministry of Culture.The festival included, on...
festival. Their performance is captured on Ernesto Juan Castellanos
Ernesto Juan Castellanos
Ernesto Juan Castellanos, born in 1963, is a freelance author, translator, journalist, filmmaker and researcher who lives and works in Havana, Cuba. In 1996, he started organizing the Cuban Beatles conventions, which opened doors to the world of writing...
's documentary Havana Jam '79
Havana Jam '79
Havana Jam ’79 is an hour-long documentary written, produced and directed in 2009 by Cuban author, journalist and filmmaker Ernesto Juan Castellanos....
. They later recorded three tracks at CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
Studios in New York, 8 March 1979. The same year he teamed up with flamenco
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
guitarist Paco de Lucía
Paco de Lucía
Paco de Lucía, born Francisco Sánchez Gómez , is a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist and composer. He is considered by many to be one of the finest guitarists in the world and the greatest guitarist of the flamenco genre...
and jazz guitarist Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell is an American jazz fusion guitarist.-Biography:Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from Richland High School, in Richland, Washington, where he played in local bands The Jailers, The Rumblers, The Royals, and The Flames. He also played with The Checkers from nearby...
(replaced by Al Di Meola
Al Di Meola
Al Di Meola is an acclaimed American jazz fusion and Latin guitarist, composer, and record producer of Italian origin. With a musical career that has spanned more than three decades, he has become respected as one of the most influential guitarists in jazz to date...
in the early 1980s) as the Guitar Trio. For the tour of fall 1983 they were joined by Dixie Dregs
Dixie Dregs
The Dixie Dregs are an American band formed in the 1970s. Their mostly instrumental music fuses jazz, southern rock, bluegrass and classical forms in an often unique style.-Formation and early years:...
guitarist Steve Morse
Steve Morse
Steven J. "Steve" Morse is an American guitarist and composer, best known for his work in the hard rock band Deep Purple since 1994. He began his career to form the unique styled instrumental rock band Dixie Dregs in the 1970. Morse's musical inspiration comes from country, funk, jazz fusion, and...
who opened the show as a soloist and participated with The Trio in the closing numbers. The Trio reunited in 1996 for a second recording session and a world tour. Also in 1979 McLaughlin recorded the album Johnny McLaughlin: Electric Guitarist
Electric Guitarist
-Personnel:*John McLaughlin – guitar, producer *Dennis McKay – co-producerTrack 1*Billy Cobham – drums*Stu Goldberg – Minimoog, electric piano, organ*Jerry Goodman - Violin*Fernando Saunders – bass guitarTrack 2*Carlos Santana – guitar...
, the title on McLaughlin's first business cards as a teenager in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
. This was a return to more mainstream jazz/rock fusion and to the electric instrument after three years of playing acoustic guitars.
1980s
The short-lived One Truth Band recorded one studio album, Electric DreamsElectric Dreams (John McLaughlin album)
Electric Dreams is the six solo album by English jazz guitarist John McLaughlin and his "One Truth Band", released in 1978. Between his fourth and fifth solo album he spent several years active with the Mahavishnu Orchestra....
with L. Shankar on violins, Stu Goldberg on keyboards, Fernando Saunders on electric bass and Tony Smith on drums. After the dissolution of the One Truth Band, McLaughlin toured in a guitar duo with Christian Escoudé
Christian Escoudé
Christian Escoudé is a jazz guitarist from France. He grew up in Angoulême and is of Romani people descent on his father's side. His father was a guitarist too and influenced by Django Reinhardt. Christian became a musician at 15 and starting in 1972 he worked in a trio with Aldo Romano. By the...
.
With the group Fuse One
Fuse One
Fuse One were a group of Jazz musicians who collaborated for two albums released on CTI Records and one album released on GNP Crescendo Record Co..The albums Fuse One and Silk were produced by Creed Taylor...
, he released two albums in 1980 and 1982.
In 1986 he appeared with Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...
in Bertrand Tavernier
Bertrand Tavernier
Bertrand Tavernier is a French director, screenwriter, actor, and producer.-Life and career:Tavernier was born in Lyon, the son of Geneviève and René Tavernier, a publicist and writer, several years president of the French PEN club. Tavernier wanted to become a filmmaker since the age of thirteen...
's film "Round Midnight
Round Midnight (film)
Round Midnight is a 1986 film directed by Bertrand Tavernier and written by David Rayfiel and Bertrand Tavernier. It tells the story of an African American tenor saxophone player in Paris in the 1950s who is befriended by an unsuccessful French graphic designer who idolizes the musician and who...
." He also composed The Mediterranean Concerto, orchestrated by Michael Gibbs. The world premier featured McLaughlin and the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
. It was recorded in 1988 with Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is currently music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and artistic director of the New World Symphony Orchestra.-Early years:...
conducting the London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
. Unlike what is typical practice in classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, the concerto
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
includes sections where McLaughlin improvises.
Also included on the recording were five duets between McLaughlin and his then-girlfriend Katia Labèque.
In the late '80s and early '90s McLaughlin recorded and performed live with a trio including bassist Kai Eckhardt
Kai Eckhardt
Kai Eckhardt is a German musician and composer who plays bass, best known for his work with John McLaughlin, Vital Information, the band he co-founded Garaj Mahal and Billy Cobham...
and percussionist Trilok Gurtu. The group recorded two albums: Live at The Royal Festival Hall and Que Alegria
Que Alegria
Qué Alegría is an album by the John McLaughlin Trio, featuring Trilok Gurtu, Dominique Di Piazza and Kai Eckhardt. It was released on the Verve label in 1992.The Allmusic review by Richard S...
, with latter featuring Dominique DiPiazza on bass for all but two tracks; parts of the subsequent tour also included Jeff Berlin
Jeff Berlin
Jeff Berlin is an American jazz, jazz fusion and progressive rock electric bass player.Jeff Berlin's bass playing is somewhat similar to that of Jaco Pastorius, though Berlin plays a fretted bass and has stated his distaste for Jaco imitators.-Early life:Jeff Berlin was born to parents who were...
on bass. These recordings saw a return to acoustic instruments for McLaughlin, performing on nylon-string guitar. On "Live at the Royal Festival Hall" McLaughlin utilised a unique guitar synth which enabled him to effectively "loop"
Tape loop
In music, tape loops are loops of prerecorded magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns or dense layers of sound. Contemporary composers such as Steve Reich and Karlheinz Stockhausen used tape loops to create phase patterns and rhythms...
guitar parts and play over them live. The synth also featured a pedal which provided sustain when pressed. McLaughlin played parts which sound overdubbed and creating lush soundscapes, aided by Gurtu's unique percussive sounds. This approach is used to great effect in the track "Florianapolis", amongst others.
1990s
In the early 1990s he toured with his trio on the Que Alegria album. The trio comprised John McLaughlin, percussionist Trilok Gurtu and bass player Kai Eckhardt (later replaced by Dominique DiPiazzaDominique DiPiazza
Dominique DiPiazza, born in Lyon, France in 1959, is an electric bass player.Di Piazza discovered the bass in 1979. Already a self-taught guitarist, DiPiazza developed a distinctive, but unorthodox 'closed palm' technique of picking with the right hand thumb, index, and middle fingers, giving him a...
). Following this period he recorded and toured with The Heart of Things featuring Gary Thomas
Gary Thomas
Gary Thomas is an American jazz saxophonist and flautist from Baltimore, Maryland. He is a member of Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition band and has worked with John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Jim Hall, Dave Holland, Greg Osby, Wayne Shorter, Ravi Coltrane, Cassandra...
, Dennis Chambers
Dennis Chambers
Dennis Chambers is an American drummer who has recorded and performed with John Scofield, George Duke, Brecker Brothers, Santana, Parliament/Funkadelic, John McLaughlin, Niacin, Mike Stern, Greg Howe, and many others. Despite a lack of formal training, Chambers has become well known among...
, Matthew Garrison, Jim Beard
Jim Beard
James Arthur Beard is an American jazz pianist and keyboardist, contemporary instrumental composer, arranger and record producer.- Life and career :...
and Otmaro Ruíz
Otmaro Ruiz
Otmaro Ruíz is a Venezuelan pianist, keyboardist, composer and arranger.-Career:Ruíz began his formal musical studies at the age of eight on piano, classical guitar, harmony, history and aesthetics. He also was exposed to other artistic activities such as drawing and acting...
. In 1993 he released a Bill Evans
Bill Evans
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
tribute album entitled "Time Remembered: John McLaughlin Plays Bill Evans" with his acoustic guitar backed by the acoustic guitars of the Aighetta Quartet and the acoustic bass of Yan Maresz. In recent times he has toured with Remember Shakti
Remember Shakti
Remember Shakti is a quintet which combines elements of traditional Indian music with elements of jazz. The band consists of English guitarist John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain , U. Srinivas , Shankar Mahadevan , and V. Selvaganesh , who are all of Indian descent...
.
In addition to original Shakti member Zakir Hussain
Zakir Hussain (musician)
Zakir Hussain , , is an Indian tabla player, musical producer, film actor and composer.-Early life:Hussain was born in Mumbai, India to the legendary tabla player Alla Rakha. He attended St...
, this group has also featured eminent Indian musicians U. Srinivas
U. Srinivas
Uppalapu Shrinivas , is an Indian mandolin player of the Carnatic musical tradition of Southern India. Shrinivas plays an electric mandolin and has collaborated with John McLaughlin, Michael Nyman, and Michael Brook...
, V. Selvaganesh
V. Selvaganesh
V. Selvaganesh is an Indian percussionist working in the Carnatic tradition, and is one of the leading kanjira player of his generation. He is also known as "Chella S. Ganesh."-Early life:...
, Shankar Mahadevan
Shankar Mahadevan
Shankar Mahadevan is an Indian music composer and singer. He is a part of the Shankar Ehsaan Loy trio team that composes for Indian films and a playback singer.-Early life:...
, Shivkumar Sharma
Shivkumar Sharma
Shivkumar Sharma is an Indian santoor player. The santoor is a folk instrument from Kashmir and Jammu. Sharma is often referred to by the title Pandit.-Early life:...
, and Hariprasad Chaurasia
Hariprasad Chaurasia
Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia is an Indian classical instrumentalist. He is a player of the bansuri, the North Indian bamboo flute. Chaurasia is a classicist who has made a conscious effort to reach out and expand the audience for classical music.-Early life:Hariprasad Chaurasia was born in...
. In 1996, John McLaughlin, Paco DeLucia and Al Di Meola (known collectively as "The Guitar Trio") reunited for a world tour and recorded an album by the same name. In that same year he recorded "The Promise". Also notable during the period were his performances with Elvin Jones
Elvin Jones
Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....
and Joey DeFrancesco
Joey DeFrancesco
Joey DeFrancesco is an American jazz organist, trumpeter, and vocalist. Down Beat's Critics and Readers Poll selected him as the top jazz organist every year since 2003.DeFrancesco was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania...
.
2000s
In 2003 he recorded a balletBallet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
score, Thieves and Poets, along with arrangements for classical guitar ensemble of favorite jazz standards and a three-DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
instructional video on improvisation entitled "This is the Way I Do It" (which contributed to the development of video lessons.) In June 2006 he released the post-bop
Post-bop
Post-bop is a term for a form of small-combo jazz music that evolved in the early-to-mid sixties. The genre's origins lie in seminal work by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
/jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
album Industrial Zen
Industrial Zen
Industrial Zen is an album by John McLaughlin, released in 2006 through the record label C&B Media. The album reached number nine on Billboards Top Jazz Albums chart....
, on which he experimented with the Godin
Godin (Guitar Manufacturer)
- History :Godin started building Robert Godin's guitars in 1972 in La Patrie, Quebec.Godin Guitars' head office is located in Montreal, and they build their instruments in six factories in four different locations, three in Quebec and one in New Hampshire....
Glissentar as well as continuing to expand his guitar-synth repertoire.
In 2007 he left Universal Records
Universal Records
Universal Records was a record label owned by Universal Music Group, and it is now owned by Manny Patino and Michael Jackson, and operated as part of the Universal Motown Republic Group.-History:...
and joined Abstract Logix. Recording sessions for his first album on that label took place in April. That summer, he began touring with a new jazz fusion quartet, the 4th Dimension, consisting of keyboardist/drummer Gary Husband
Gary Husband
Gary Husband is a British jazz and rock drummer, pianist and composer.- Short biography:Gary Husband is an English jazz and rock drummer, pianist and composer...
, bassist Hadrian Feraud, and drummer Mark Mondesir. During the 4th Dimension's tour, an "instant CD" entitled Live USA 2007: Official Bootleg was made available comprising soundboard recordings of six pieces from the group's first performance. Following completion of the tour, McLaughlin sorted through recordings from each night to release a second MP3 download-only collection entitled, Official Pirate: Best of the American Tour 2007. During this time, McLaughlin also released another instructional DVD, The Gateway to Rhythm, featuring Indian percussionist and Remember Shakti bandmate Selva Ganesh Vinayakram (or V. Selvaganesh), focusing on the Indian rhythmic system of konnakol
Konnakol
Konnakol is the art of performing percussion syllables vocally in South Indian music, the Carnatic music - South Indian classical - performance art of vocal percussion. It is comparable in some respects to bol in Hindustani music, but allows the composition, performance or communication of rhythms...
. McLaughlin also remastered and released a shelved 1980 project called The Trio of Doom, featuring jazz/fusion luminaries Jaco Pastorius
Jaco Pastorius
John Francis Anthony Pastorius III , known as Jaco Pastorius, was an American jazz musician and composer widely acknowledged as a virtuoso electric bass player....
and Tony Williams. The project had been aborted due to conflicts between Williams and Pastorius as well as what was at the time a mutual dissatisfaction with the results of their performance.
On 28 July 2007, McLaughlin performed at Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
's Crossroads Guitar Festival
Crossroads Guitar Festival
The Crossroads Guitar Festival is a music festival and benefit concert first held in 2004 and again in 2007 and 2010. The festivals benefit the Crossroads Centre founded by Eric Clapton, a drug treatment center located in Antigua. The concerts are also intended to be a showcase for a variety of...
in Bridgeview, Illinois
Bridgeview, Illinois
Bridgeview is a village in Cook County, Illinois in the United States. It is located approximately from the Chicago Loop. As of the 2010 census, the village population was 16,446...
.
Louis Banks
Louis Banks is a Grammy Award nominated film composer, record producer, jazz musician-keyboardist and singer...
, bassist Hadrien Feraud
Hadrien Feraud
Hadrien Feraud is a French Jazz fusion-bassist.-Biography:Feraud was born into a family of musicians. His first guitar lessons were from his father when he was eight years old....
, percussionist Sivamani and drummer Ranjit Barot
Ranjit Barot
Ranjit Barot is an Indian film score composer, music director, music arranger and singer. He is a long time associate of A. R. Rahman and has done music arrangements for him in many of his works....
bolstered on each track by a different Indian musician. Coinciding with the release of the album was another DVD, Meeting of the Minds, which offered behind the scenes studio footage of the Floating Point sessions as well as interviews with all of the musicians. He engaged in a late summer/fall 2008 tour with Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
, Vinnie Colaiuta
Vinnie Colaiuta
Vincent Colaiuta is an American drummer based in Los Angeles. Originally from Republic, Pennsylvania, he began playing drums as a child and received his first full drum kit from his parents at the age of 14...
, Kenny Garrett
Kenny Garrett
Kenny Garrett is a Grammy Award-winning American post bop jazz saxophonist and flautist who gained fame in his youth as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and of Miles Davis's band. He has since pursued a critically acclaimed solo career...
and Christian McBride
Christian McBride
Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors...
under the name Five Peace Band
Five Peace Band
Five Peace Band is a post bop/jazz fusion quintet featuring Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride and Vinnie Colaiuta....
, from which came an eponymous double-CD live album in early 2009.
McLaughlin performed with Mahavishnu Orchestra drummer Billy Cobham
Billy Cobham
William C. Cobham is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who has called Switzerland home since the late 1970s....
at the 44th Montreux Jazz Festival, in Montreux, Switzerland, on 2 July 2010, for the first time since the band split up. In November 2010, a new book was released by Abstract Logix Books entitled Follow Your Heart- John McLaughlin Song by Song by Walter Kolosky, who also wrote the book Power, Passion and Beauty - The Story of the Legendary Mahavishnu Orchestra. The book discussed each song McLaughlin wrote and contained photographs never seen before.
Influence
McLaughlin has been cited as a major influence on many 1970s and 1980s fusion guitarists. Examples are prominent players such as Steve MorseSteve Morse
Steven J. "Steve" Morse is an American guitarist and composer, best known for his work in the hard rock band Deep Purple since 1994. He began his career to form the unique styled instrumental rock band Dixie Dregs in the 1970. Morse's musical inspiration comes from country, funk, jazz fusion, and...
, Eric Johnson
Eric Johnson
Eric Johnson is an American guitarist. Though he is best known for his success in the instrumental rock format, Johnson regularly incorporates jazz, fusion, gospel and country and western music into his recordings...
, Mike Stern
Mike Stern
Mike Stern is an American jazz guitarist. After playing for a few years with Blood, Sweat & Tears, he landed a gig with Billy Cobham and then broke through with Miles Davis' comeback band from 1981 to 1983, and again in 1985. Since then, he launched a solo career, releasing more than a dozen albums...
, Paul Masvidal
Paul Masvidal
Paul Albert Masvidal is the guitarist, singer and a founding member of the progressive band Cynic and previously led the alternative rock band Æon Spoke. Born in Puerto Rico, Masvidal grew up in Miami, Florida and currently resides in Los Angeles...
, Al Di Meola
Al Di Meola
Al Di Meola is an acclaimed American jazz fusion and Latin guitarist, composer, and record producer of Italian origin. With a musical career that has spanned more than three decades, he has become respected as one of the most influential guitarists in jazz to date...
, Pebber Brown, Shawn Lane
Shawn Lane
Shawn Lane was an American musician. Although piano was his first instrument, he quickly became a noted player in underground guitar circles and joined Black Oak Arkansas when he was just fourteen years old....
, and Scott Henderson
Scott Henderson
Scott Henderson is a fusion and blues guitarist best known for his work with the band Tribal Tech.-Early days:Born in West Palm Beach, Florida, Henderson began playing guitar at an early age...
. His influence did not stop in the 80's, though; hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
guitarist Greg Ginn
Greg Ginn
Gregory Regis Ginn is a guitarist, songwriter, and singer. He is best known for being the leader of and primary songwriter for the hardcore punk band Black Flag, which he founded and led from 1976 to 1986....
of Black Flag
Black Flag (band)
Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...
cited Birds of Fire
Birds of Fire
Birds of Fire is Mahavishnu Orchestra's second album. It was released in the first half of 1973 and is the last studio album by the original Mahavishnu Orchestra line-up, before the group dissolved, although Between Nothingness and Eternity, a live album, was recorded and released later that same...
by The Mahavishnu Orchestra which inspired him to record more progressive guitar work and even record instrumental songs. Current players still hold him as highly influential, including Omar Rodriguez of The Mars Volta
The Mars Volta
The Mars Volta is a Grammy award winning American progressive rock band from El Paso, Texas. Founded in 2001 by guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the band incorporates various influences including progressive rock, krautrock, jazz fusion, Latin American music, and...
. According to Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...
, McLaughlin has changed the evolution of the guitar during several of his periods of playing. McLaughlin is also considered a major influence on composers in the fusion genre. In an interview with Downbeat, Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
remarked that "...what John McLaughlin did with the electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
set the world on its ear. No one ever heard an electric guitar played like that before, and it certainly inspired me. John's band, more than my experience with Miles, led me to want to turn the volume up and write music that was more dramatic and made your hair stand on end".
Family
John has been married to the French pianist Katia LabequeKatia and Marielle Labèque
The French sisters Labèque, Katia and Marielle , form an internationally known piano duo. They have performed and recorded most of the repertoire for two pianos, spanning the instrumental, chamber, and concerto genres encompassing musical periods from Baroque through contemporary.Katia and...
, who was also a member of his band in the early 1980's. He is currently married to Ina Behrend with whom he has a son, Luke (b.1997). Ref. http://www.abstractlogix.com/interview_view.php?idno=23
Equipment
- Gibson EDS-1275Gibson EDS-1275The Gibson EDS-1275 is a doubleneck Gibson electric guitar introduced in 1963 and still in production. Popularized by both rock and jazz musicians such as Jimmy Page and John McLaughlin, it was called "the coolest guitar in rock."-History:...
- McLaughlin played the Gibson doubleneck between 1971 and 1973, his first years with the Mahavishnu Orchestra; this is the guitar which, amplified through a 100-watt MarshallMarshall AmplificationMarshall Amplification is a British company, founded by drummer Jim Marshall, that designs and manufactures music amplifiers, brands personal headphones/earphones , and, after acquiring Natal Drums, drums and bongos. Marshall amplifiers, and specifically their guitar amplifiers, are among the most...
amplifier "in meltdown mode," produced the signature McLaughlin sound hailed by Guitar PlayerGuitar PlayerGuitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...
as one of the "50 Greatest Tones of All Time." - Double Rainbow doubleneck guitar made by Rex Bogue, which McLaughlin played from 1973 to 1975.
- The first Abraham WechterAbraham WechterAbraham Wechter is an American master luthier, who has been making custom guitars since the 1970s. He is best-known for building 6- and 12-string acoustic guitars, but also builds acoustic bass guitars. He was a student of Richard Schneider, and worked for Gibson for ten years...
-built acoustic "Shakti guitar," a customized Gibson J-200Gibson J-200Gibson J-200 is an acoustic guitar model produced by the Gibson Guitar Corporation.Gibson entered into production of this model in 1938 as its top-of-the-line flat top guitar, initially called the Super Jumbo, changing the name in 1939 to the Super Jumbo 200. It was made at the Gibson Factory in...
with drone strings transversely across the soundhole. - He currently plays Godin electric/MIDI guitars, one of which can be seen on the Eric Clapton's Crossroads Chicago 2007 DVD.
Awards
In 1994, John McLaughlin was granted the Miles Davis Award by the Montreal International Jazz Festival.See also
- Thetakudi Harihara VinayakramThetakudi Harihara VinayakramThetakudi Harihara Vinayakram , also known as Vikku Vinayakram is a Grammy Award–winning Indian percussionist. Vinayakram plays Carnatic music with the ghatam, an earthen pot. Vinayakram is credit for the progress and development as well as popularizing of the ghatam.-Early life:Vikku Vinayakram...
- V. SelvaganeshV. SelvaganeshV. Selvaganesh is an Indian percussionist working in the Carnatic tradition, and is one of the leading kanjira player of his generation. He is also known as "Chella S. Ganesh."-Early life:...
- Kai EckhardtKai EckhardtKai Eckhardt is a German musician and composer who plays bass, best known for his work with John McLaughlin, Vital Information, the band he co-founded Garaj Mahal and Billy Cobham...
- Gary HusbandGary HusbandGary Husband is a British jazz and rock drummer, pianist and composer.- Short biography:Gary Husband is an English jazz and rock drummer, pianist and composer...
- Matthew Garrison
- Trilok Gurtu
- Jonas HellborgJonas HellborgJonas Hellborg is a Swedish bass guitarist. He has collaborated with John McLaughlin, Ustad Sultan Khan, Fazal Qureshi, Bill Laswell, Shawn Lane, Jens Johansson, Michael Shrieve, V. Selvaganesh, Mattias IA Eklundh and Buckethead....
- Chris DuarteChris DuarteChris Duarte is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Duarte plays a style of Texas blues-rock that draws on elements of jazz, blues, and rock and roll.-Biography:...
- Hadrien FeraudHadrien FeraudHadrien Feraud is a French Jazz fusion-bassist.-Biography:Feraud was born into a family of musicians. His first guitar lessons were from his father when he was eight years old....
External links
- John McLaughlin official website
- John McLaughlin French website
- Mahavishnu John McLaughlin by Otacílio Melgaço
- Finding the Way: The Music of John McLaughlin
- JMA - John McLaughlin Archives
- Complete discography
- John McLaughlin video interview at allaboutjazz.com
- John McLaughlin and Billy Cobham Montreux Jazz Festival 2010
- 2010 interview with John McLaughlin on ProgSphere
- John McLaughlin's artist file on the Montreal Jazz Festival's website