advertisement


John McLaughlin

T

Tumeni Notes

pfm Member
Any JM fans around here?

220px-John_McLaughlin_Blue_Note_2016.JPG


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McLaughlin_(musician)

4th January will be his 80th birthday, and I haven't seen any sign yet of significant media attention to mark the occasion in the UK. I'm told that European mainland broadcasters are digging through the archives and re-broadcasting past concerts in acknowledgement, but unless I've missed something in my trawl through the New Year Radio Times .....

A good few years back, Jack Bruce's 50th Birthday came round, and it was left to German TV to organise and televise a concert to mark the day.

This saddens me.
 
2022
Never before released
Assembled from the original 16-track analog live session tapes by Al Di Meola
Mastered from analog tapes by Bernie Grundman
Deluxe new packaging with never-before-seen photos
Exclusive essay by Charles L. Granata feat. new interviews with Al Di Meola
60imxlp6045__00189.1638799638_m.jpg
 
Around the early seventies would be my favourite period - My Goal’s Beyond, Jack Johnson, Escalator Over the Hill, Inner Mounting Flame... it was downhill after that for me.
 
haven't heard his (most) most recent stuff.

a Shakti reunion gig I attended at the royal festival hall was a highlight concert experience for me; the only time I've seen him live.

not a great fan of his various synth guitar sounds over the years- but then I don't like that kind of thing generally.
 
Have a lot of his albums and seen him play a few times.

'Radio Activity' opener on 1984 'Mahavishnu' is one of my go to vinyl test tracks
 
Tumeni Notes said:
Any JM fans around here?

220px-John_McLaughlin_Blue_Note_2016.JPG


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McLaughlin_(musician)

4th January will be his 80th birthday, and I haven't seen any sign yet of significant media attention to mark the occasion in the UK. I'm told that European mainland broadcasters are digging through the archives and re-broadcasting past concerts in acknowledgement, but unless I've missed something in my trawl through the New Year Radio Times .....

A good few years back, Jack Bruce's 50th Birthday came round, and it was left to German TV to organise and televise a concert to mark the day.

This saddens me.
Click to expand...

Shame about the PRS though ;) Now a 335 otoh...
 
I've mixed feelings about JMc. He's obviously a hugely talented guitarist but I don't always find his music that engaging

That said, his playing on In A Silent Way is sublime and this is a really fine record

OIP.CDbqtCYSzsvLoihzcFvovgHaHO
 
pickwickpapers said:
haven't heard his (most) most recent stuff.

a Shakti reunion gig I attended at the royal festival hall was a highlight concert experience for me; the only time I've seen him live.

not a great fan of his various synth guitar sounds over the years- but then I don't like that kind of thing generally.
Click to expand...
I also haven’t listened to much of his event stuff but was also at the same gig - it was a great gig !!
 
kjb said:
I've mixed feelings about JMc. He's obviously a hugely talented guitarist but I don't always find his music that engaging

That said, his playing on In A Silent Way is sublime and this is a really fine record

OIP.CDbqtCYSzsvLoihzcFvovgHaHO
Click to expand...

Features John Surman too.

And shares a rhythm section with:
50853415.jpg
 
kjb said:
I've mixed feelings about JMc. He's obviously a hugely talented guitarist but I don't always find his music that engaging
Click to expand...
I feel the same way. I remember Zappa saying something like ‘I don’t always like what he plays, but he’s obviously found a way to operate a guitar like a machine gun and that’s the sort of thing young people go for these days.’
 
Engels said:
Have a lot of his albums and seen him play a few times.

'Radio Activity' opener on 1984 'Mahavishnu' is one of my go to vinyl test tracks
Click to expand...

Way to go. It's not often that I see folk pick a 1984-86 Maha track as first choice.

Were you at the Hammersmith Odeon to see that band in 1984?
 
I have mountains of John McLaughlin. I don’t share the love of the acoustic trio he had with Al Di Meola and Paco de Lucia, but everything he did up to the second Shakti album is pretty awesome. In fact, the two Shakti albums are probably my favourites of his.

I find a lot of his later stuff, like the trio of doom with Jaco Pastorius, not as distinctive and interesting as what came before, but the same can be said for the later work of loads of electric jazz musicians that did great work in the 70’s.

If anyone can suggest later albums by him that are worth investigating, I’ll check them out. I was amazed to to discover Larry Coryell’s post 2000 work, much of which was pretty brutal and great.
 
I am a fan of JM. His early stuff (e.g. Extrapolation, Shakti) is great but his 80s output was pretty weak and dated.

I think he had another series of great music recordings in the 1990-2000s, and can highly recommend his 'Remember Shakti' albums (all live) and the few he did on Verve and JMT. The Remember Shakti albums are similar to his earlier Shakti albums and very much sound more like indian classical music rather than fusion. In fact this is the music that got me into pure indian classical music, both carnatic and hindustani.

I've not been that enamored with his more recent output and do not own any.
 
The live albums from the second incarnation of Shakti are astonishing. (Remember Shakti, The Believer, Saturday night in Bombay). I saw them in Kuala Lumpur about 14 years ago and it was the best gig I ever attended.

I’ve followed JMc since the early Mahavishnu days. A particular other favourite is “after the rain” with Elvin Jones on drums and Joey De Francesco on B3. His work on Miles’s electric albums (Jack Johnson etc) is also great.

Hockman’s post upthread is pretty sound:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top