Jazz Articles about John McLaughlin

like 831

John McLaughlin: On The Road, Part 7: Stories from the Road

by John Kelman
October 9, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 Seventeen dates from coast-to-coast over twenty-three days, thousands of miles traveled by air and road, and thousands of happy fans later, guitarist John McLaughlin and his group, The 4th Dimension— keyboardist/drummer Gary Husband, bassist Hadrien Feraud and drummer Mark Mondesir—along with tour manager Christophe Deghelt and soundman Sven Hoffman, have now gone their separate ways. While they'll be ...

like 755

John McLaughlin: On The Road, Part 6: Sound Checks and Closing Night

by John Kelman
October 7, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

While audiences see the end results of a group's labors, there's much that they don't get to experience. Even for the relatively spare set-up of guitarist John McLaughlin and The 4th Dimension, hours of work go on behind the scenes at every venue to make sure everything is as it should be when the doors open. ...

like 793

John McLaughlin: On The Road, Part 5: Ottawa, Canada

by John Kelman
October 6, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

Good bands make due when faced with disadvantage; great bands turn disadvantage into advantage. While Ottawa's Dominion-Chalmers United Church is a beautiful venue for chamber music, or even acoustic jazz, its cathedral ceiling and ten-second natural reverb could have spelled real trouble for John McLaughlin and The 4th Dimension. Even with the ever-capable Sven Hoffman at ...

like 872

John McLaughlin: On The Road, Part 4: Montreal, Canada

by John Kelman
October 4, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

Two and one-half weeks on the road and thirteen dates later, John McLaughlin and The 4th Dimension left the United States for Canada and its final three dates of the 2007 North American tour. The first stop was Montreal, sponsored by the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal at the beautiful two thousand-seat Théatre Maisonneuve in Place des ...

like 588

John McLaughlin: His Goals Beyond

by A. Henkin
September 20, 2007

Fusion these days is a dirty word and fans of the genre are treated with the same smirking disdain as Trekkies or role-playing gamers. Some might posit that fusion's initial burst of energy--sometime between 1967 and 1969 depending on who you talk to--was soon co-opted by hyper-masculine “virtuosos and then, even worse, by commercial interests in the name of smooth jazz. But at its peak, the form was the most exciting thing going and helped introduce players like Miles Davis ...

like 805

John McLaughlin: On The Road, Part 3: Opening Night

by John Kelman
September 15, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7No matter how well rehearsed a group is, opening night represents greater risks than usual--even with a group like John McLaughlin and The 4th Dimension, where improvisational chance-taking and in-the- moment interaction are defining characteristics. There's a nervous energy about a first performance that can often make for some truly magical moments. But it's also a time when minor snags ...

like 820

John McLaughlin: On The Road, Part 2: The Rehearsal

by John Kelman
September 14, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

It may not come as a total surprise, especially from an artist with the longevity and stylistic breadth of John McLaughlin, but riding in a van with the guitarist and his new group, The 4th Dimension-- keyboardist/drummer Gary Husband, bass wunderkind Hadrien Feraud and drummer Mark Mondesir--and listening to them talking about Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, Woody Herman ...