Formed in 1971, and highly inspired from his time playing in the late '60s electric bands of Miles Davis, McLaughlin formed The Mahavishnu Orchestra, a band that quickly rose to international stardom upon the release of The Inner Mounting Flame. Highly regarded as a guitarist's guitarist, and equally adept at jazz, rock, classical and flamenco, he moved to the States from his native England in '69 to join drummer Tony Williams' Lifetime, but was quickly drafted by Miles for studio work on such landmark recordings as In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew and Big Fun. He came out the other side as a major star.
By the time Mahavishnu Orchestra headlined Montreux in 1974, its ranks had swelled to include the famed French violinist Jean-Luc Ponty (ex-Frank Zappa), drummer Narada Michael Walden, keyboardist Gayle Moran, bassist Ralphe Armstrong, flautist Bob Knapp, multi-horn player Steve Frankovitch, violinists Steve Kindler and Carol Shive, saxophonist Marsha Westbrook and cellist Phillip Hirschi.
Ten years later, with sax maestro Bill Evans adding heavyweight jazz credibility, the band --also with Mitch Foreman on keyboards, Jonas Hellborg on bass and Danny Gottlieb on drums--scored a triumphant return.
There are only three known video tracks to document the '74 set but they represent 73 minutes of footage. Three other tracks are included as bonus audio-only music. The '84 set has nine tracks running over two hours in length.
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