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John McLaughlin: His Goals Beyond
by Andrey Henkin
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 ...
Continue ReadingJohn McLaughlin: On The Road, Part 3: Opening Night
by John Kelman
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 ...
Continue ReadingJohn McLaughlin: On The Road, Part 2: The Rehearsal
by John Kelman
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 ...
Continue ReadingJohn McLaughlin – Jaco Pastorius – Tony Williams: Trio of Doom
by AAJ Italy Staff
La storia di queste mirabolanti registrazioni è davvero emblematica e può servire come esempio della volatilità della percezione umana e in particolar modo della percezione artistica da parte dei protagonisti stessi del momento esecutivo. Nel 1979 Jaco Pastorius era all’apice della sua carriera, era solidamente inserito nel supergruppo Weather Report e, secondo il giudizio pressoché unanime di pubblico e critica, era riuscito a mantenere fede alla sua sparata iniziale che lo aveva visto presentarsi a Joe Zawinul affermando di essere ...
Continue ReadingJohn McLaughlin: On The Road, Part 1: The Interview
by John Kelman
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 It's been nearly a decade since legendary guitarist John McLaughlin toured North America with an electric fusion band. With a new group, The 4th Dimension, and a new label, Abstract Logix, McLaughlin will be hitting the road in September, 2007 for a series of dates that will take him coast-to-coast in the United States, with a handful of ...
Continue ReadingJohn McLaughlin/Jaco Pastorius/Tony Williams: Trio of Doom
by Doug Collette
Trio of Doom was eminently qualified as a supergroup at the time of their formation. In 1969, drummer Tony Williams formed the prototype of jazz-rock fusion groups with his trio, Lifetime. Having entered and exited those ranks, guitarist John McLaughlin had gone on to form The Mahavishnu Orchestra, thus taking the mainstream acceptance of such music to another level altogether. Bassist Jaco Pastorius was vital in elevating Weather Report to rock band prominence when he joined that group.
It's no ...
Continue ReadingJohn McLaughlin/Remember Shakti: The Way of Beauty
by John Kelman
John McLaughlin/Remember Shakti The Way of Beauty Universal Music France 2006
Over the past decade guitarist John McLaughlin, other than working on his Industrial Zen (Verve, 2006) project, has devoted much of his time to a new version of his ground-breaking mid-'70s Indo-Jazz fusion group Shakti. For those unable to attend a Remember Shakti concert in recent years the only way to experience the group in performance was by purchasing Verve's 2002 Remember Shakti ...
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