On Saturday, November 13 at 8:00 pm John McLaughlin returns to New York’s Town Hall. John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension includes: Gary Husband on keyboards, Mark Mondesir on drums and Etienne M’Bappe on bass.
From Al DiMeola, Pat Metheny and Mike Stern to John Scofield, Bill Connors and Scott Henderson, John McLaughlin has been a strong influence on many of the top jazz/fusion guitarists of the last thirty years. McLaughlin’s classic recordings of the 1970s have long been regarded as essential listening for anyone with even a casual interest in fusion. If the British improviser had decided to retire in 1980, he still would have gone down in history as one of jazz-rock’s most influential axe men.
Born in Yorkshire, England on January 4, 1942, McLaughlin is well known for his eclectic taste in music. He was a child when he first fell in love with jazz and the blues, and he was just eleven years old when he began studying and playing the guitar. The 1960s found him playing jazz, rock, and blues in his native England, where he worked with Alexis Korner and Ginger Baker, among others, before moving to New York at the end of the decade.
McLaughlin had a very busy 1969: he recorded his debut album, Extrapolation, and started working with two seminal voices in early fusion: Tony Williams — who employed McLaughlin and organist Larry Young in his trailblazing group Lifetime — and Miles Davis. Never afraid to forge ahead, Davis had done a lot to popularize cool jazz and modal post-bop in the past-and he continued to break new ground when he introduced fusion on his 1969 sessions In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew, both of which feature McLaughlin’s playing. The guitarist was also featured on 1970’s A Tribute To Jack Johnson, another Davis gem of the time.
After participating in Davis’ and Williams’ groundbreaking fusion combos, McLaughlin founded an influential group of his own in 1971: The Mahavishnu Orchestra, which boasted such greats as drummer Billy Cobham and keyboardist Jan Hammer. By the time Mahavishnu broke up in 1975, they had recorded several classic albums for Columbia (including Birds of Fire, Between Nothingness and Eternity, and Visions of the Emerald Beyond) and gone down in history as one of the 1970’s most influential fusion bands.
In 1975, McLaughlin did the unexpected by founding Shakti, an acoustic group that employed traditional Indian musicians (including tabla player Zakir Hussain and violinist L. Shankar, Ravi Shankar’s nephew) and underscored the guitarist’s interest in India’s music, culture, and religion. Shakti reminded listeners that McLaughlin was as appealing on the acoustic guitar as he was on electric, and proved that he wasn’t about to confine himself to playing any one style of music exclusively. Indeed, McLaughlin was heard in a variety of musical settings in the 1980s‹everything from a brief Mahavishnu Orchestra reunion in 1984 to an acoustic guitar summit with Al DiMeola and Paco de Lucia in 1982, to a classical album with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1988.
McLaughlin was no less eclectic in the 1990s, when his Verve projects ranged from 1993’s acoustic Time Remembered: John McLaughlin Plays Bill Evans (a tribute to the late pianist) to sessions featuring organist Joey DeFrancesco (1993’s Tokyo Live and 1994’s John Coltrane-minded After the Rain) to an acoustic McLaughlin/DiMeola/de Lucia reunion in 1996. It was in 1997 that McLaughlin reunited with Zakir Hussain and a reconfigured version of Shakti for several U.K. concerts that were documented on Verve’s two-CD set Remember Shakti.
On his latest recording, To The One, he features six original compositions which were mostly written in July and August of 2009. They were set down in the studio in November and December, with very few overdubs, by McLaughlin’s current performing outfit, the 4th Dimension: Gary Husband (keyboards, drums), Etienne M’Bappe (electric bass), and Mark Mondesir (drums). Compositional devices clearly inspired by Coltrane are fused with elements of McLaughlin’s own multi-faceted approach, all delivered with a group empathy and shared vision that harkens back to Coltrane’s fearless mid – 60’s quartet of Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Jimmy Garrison.
The effect of Jones’ kaleidoscopic approach to rhythm and drumming is especially felt, brilliantly recast and explored via McLaughlin’s gift for complex metrical structures. “Even before I formed the Mahavishnu Orchestra,” McLaughlin explains, referring to his now legendary exploratory outfit of the early-to-mid 1970s, “I have been fascinated by these rhythms and their challenges. To be able to improvise fluidly over a harmonic structure is freeing, but to do it over a complex rhythmic structure adds spice. Thankfully, I’ve had the chance to play with some of the most outstanding drummers in the world.”
“I’m a guitar player‹that’s what I am primarily, that’s what I’ll always be,” McLaughlin has been quoted as saying. “(And) I’m an eternal learner. I don’t want to stop learning because I feel that no matter what I’ve done, I’m really just beginning again. I don’t think I’ll ever stop learning.”
A few days later, McLaughlin will be performing at the fusion lover’s summit, the New Universe Music Festival. The event will take place at the Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh (North Carolina) on November 20th and 21st, 2010.
The lineup for the New Universe Music Festival includes: John McLaughlin and 4th Dimension, The Lenny White Group, Human Element (which includes percussion wizard Arto Tunçboyaciyan), Wayne Krantz, Jimmy Herring, Alex Machacek and Indian sensation Ranjit Barot.
John McLaughlin recordings available: To The One, Electric Guitarist, Floating Point, Extrapolation, Love Devotion Surrender, Inner Mounting Flame, Live at the Royal Festival Hall, Devotion, My Goal’s Beyond, Que Alegria, Industrial Zen, Shakti, Trio of Doom: John McLaughlin Jaco Pastorius Tony Williams, Thieves & Poets, The Guitar Trio, Mahavishnu, John McLaughlin: Concerto for Guitar & Orchestra “The Mediterranean”, Heart of Things: Live in Paris, Remember Shakti: The Believer, Birds of Fire, Devotion, Remember Shakti: Saturday Night in Bombay, Visions of the Emerald Beyond, Between Nothingness & Eternity.
Tickets: $65-$50-$35; available now at Ticketmaster 212-307-4100; online at Ticketmaster.com and at the Town Hall box office (123 West 43 Street). 212-840-2824, on October 22.
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central
The 4th Dimension is yet another great band in a long line of fantastic groups McLaughlin has formed over the years. Shameless plug coming…. I write about all of these groups in my new book “Follow Your Heart: John McLaughlin song by song- A Listener’s Guide.” Hope to see you at Town Hall!