Jazz Articles about John McLaughlin

A Conversation with John McLaughlin

by Walter Kolosky
October 17, 2003

Trying to classify guitarist and composer John McLaughlin's music is like trying to grab a handful of mercury. McLaughlin himself is fond of pointing out that words can't describe music anyway. Music must be experienced. For over forty years McLaughlin's compositions and unparalleled guitar playing have helped us experience blues, rock, jazz, jazz-rock fusion, Indian ragas and classical forms one at a time or co-mingled----as only he can present them. His music may not be describable, but like mercury, it ...

Ithamara Koorax: Love Dance: The Ballad Album

by Chris M. Slawecki
October 7, 2003

Ithamara Koorax has released several albums in Brazil and Japan, but Love Dance is only the second US album for this star from Rio, the follow-up to her debut Serenade in Blue.

With her unmistakable voice, Koorax sings English, Portuguese, and Spanish love songs composed by such masters as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfá, Marcos Valle and Ivan Lins, plus songs by Claus Ogerman and Jurgen Friedrich (in German). Her voice manifests this diversity to its advantage: ...

John McLaughlin: Where Fortune Smiles

by Walter Kolosky
November 20, 2002

The truth be told, Where Fortune Smiles was not originally released under the leadership of John McLaughlin. Its reissue on CD with McLaughlin as leader seems to exist for marketing purposes only. The reissue notes indicate a 1971 recording date, but my memories of its original release on PYE Records suggest that it was recorded a year earlier. (However, memories can fade.) The other members of the quintet--bassist Dave Holland, saxophonist John Surman (also on Extrapolation ), vibraphonist Karl Berger, ...

John McLaughlin Trio: Live at the Royal Festival Hall

by Walter Kolosky
November 20, 2002

Four long years had passed since McLaughlin's last record when JMT released Live at the Royal Festival Hall in 1990. The brilliant percussionist Trilok Gurtu, of Oregon fame, joined him--along with superb bassist Kai Eckhardt--to form an exciting band which was to exist in one form or another (with revolving bassists) for five more years. The mostly acoustic music which fills this album, augmented by electric bass and John's guitar synthesizer, is a mix of standard jazz, fusion and Indian-influenced ...

John McLaughlin and The Free Spirits: Tokyo Live

by Walter Kolosky
November 20, 2002

Ever since 1985, John McLaughlin had not put out a record featuring electric guitar. Tokyo Live, released almost ten years later, showed the music world once again how the guitarist could reinvent himself. This time the new McLaughlin appears in the form of The Free Spirits, a B-3 based jazz-blues trio featuring McLaughlin on a Johnnie Smith electric guitar, organist Joey DeFrancesco, and powerhouse drummer Dennis Chambers. The ailing McLaughlin was recorded on two different nights at the Tokyo Blue ...

John McLaughlin: Time Remembered: John McLaughlin Plays Bill Evans

by Walter Kolosky
November 20, 2002

John McLaughlin has always been a huge fan of the late jazz pianist Bill Evans. He tells fondly of attending a show with Dave Liebman in which Evans went beyond brilliant. He also sadly relates the story that Evans had invited him to his house to play, but the pianist died before it could happen.Evans brought a classical touch to the keys. He created a sound that was pure and strong, but delicate as well. Although he went ...

John McLaughlin: The Mediterranean Concerto

by Walter Kolosky
November 20, 2002

Recorded in 1988 but not released until 1990, The Mediterranean was composed by John McLaughlin and orchestrated by Michael Gibbs. Michael Tilson Thomas conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, as he had for McLaughlin’s Apocalypse fourteen years earlier.As expected, the orchestra sounds, well, orchestral. But, there is something thrilling about hearing McLaughlin’s unusual melodies emanating from such a traditional source. The Concerto sounds nothing like Apocalypse and nothing like jazz, although McLaughlin does improvise in certain sections. It is, ...