One of fusion's most virtuosic guitar soloists,
John McLaughlin placed his blazing speed in the service of a searching spiritual passion that has kept his music evolving and open to new influences. Whether shredding on electric or simmering quietly on acoustic,
McLaughlin's intensity and versatility have kept his playing vital. His best early moments appear on some of fusion's greatest recordings, including
Miles Davis'
Bitches Brew and
Tribute to Jack Johnson, as well as his own
Mahavishnu Orchestra's seminal
The Inner Mounting Flame (1971) and
Birds of Fire (1973). In 1976, he formed the acoustic Indo-jazz quartet
Shakti, who released three acclaimed albums, and he continued to balance his time between electric and acoustic projects. The latter's most notable efforts include Friday Night in San Francisco with guitarists
Al Di Meola and
Paco de Lucia in 1981. His fusion outings continued to break new ground, including 1978's
Electric Guitarist and 1995's
The Promise. In the 21st century,
McLaughlin kept delivering diverse projects, but his focus was once again on incorporating fusion from both ends of the rock and jazz spectrum, as evidenced by 2008's
Floating Point, 2015's post-psychedelic
Black Light, and 2021's
Liberation Time.
McLaughlin was born January 4, 1942, in Yorkshire, England, and began playing guitar at age 11. Initially attracted to blues and swing, he worked with British artists like
Georgie Fame,
Graham Bond,
Brian Auger, and
Ginger Baker.
McLaughlin formed his own band in 1968 and recorded the excellent debut
Extrapolation in early 1969. Later that year he moved to New York to join
Tony Williams' groundbreaking fusion band
Lifetime, and appeared on the classic
Emergency! Through
Williams,
McLaughlin was invited to join
Miles Davis' band, and became an important part of fusion landmarks like
In a Silent Way,
Bitches Brew, and
A Tribute to Jack Johnson. In 1970, wanting to explore acoustic and Eastern music,
McLaughlin recorded the classic
My Goal's Beyond; he soon left
Davis, and after one further solo album,
Devotion,
McLaughlin spent some time woodshedding.
He re-emerged in 1971 as leader of
the Mahavishnu Orchestra, a seminal band that did much to define and popularize early jazz-rock fusion, as evidenced by the albums
The Inner Mounting Flame,
Birds of Fire, and
Visions of the Emerald Beyond. Pausing to record Love Devotion Surrender with
Carlos Santana in 1972,
McLaughlin led
Mahavishnu until 1975. Returning to spiritual preoccupations on
My Goal's Beyond, he then formed
Shakti, which fused acoustic jazz with Indian music over the course of three albums.
McLaughlin returned to his solo career in the late '70s, forming a backing outfit called
the One Truth Band, and also recording the guitar trio albums Friday Night in San Francisco and Passion, Grace & Fire with fellow fusion burner
Al di Meola and flamenco guitarist
Paco de Lucia. As the '80s went along,
McLaughlin experimented with classical-jazz hybrid composing; there was also a short-lived
Mahavishnu reunion in the mid-'80s.
In the '90s,
McLaughlin continued to record steadily in both electric and acoustic groups. He signed to
Verve, where he would remain for 13 years. Some of the more notable albums from that period include the acoustic
Time Remembered: John McLaughlin Plays Bill Evans in 1993;
After the Rain with
Elvin Jones and
Joey DeFrancesco in 1995; and 1996's
The Promise, which featured the guitarist in a number of settings, including a reunion with his acoustic trio partners
di Meola and
de Lucia, and a trio with
DeFrancesco and drummer
Dennis Chambers. The drummer was also a part of
McLaughlin's final album of the decade,
Heart of Things, a furious bout of electric jazz.
The 21st century found
McLaughlin in another nostalgic mood, releasing
Remember Shakti: The Believer, a live set featuring the guitarist (playing electric guitar) with electric mandolinist
U. Shrinivas, kanjira and ghatam player
V. Selvaganesh, and legendary tabla player
Zakir Hussain. While it wasn't a
Shakti album proper, it nonetheless echoed that group's intricate and amazing rhythmic and harmonic breakthroughs. The group toured and released
Saturday Night in Bombay a year later.
McLaughlin's Euro-classical-leaning
Thieves and Poets appeared in 2003. The following year, WEA in Germany issued the massive 17-CD box set of
McLaughlin's Montreux Concerts, which featured performances recorded between 1974 and 1996.
Industrial Zen, released in 2006, was a mixed-bag recording where the guitarist's ambitions ran wild. It was his final album for
Verve.
In 2008,
McLaughlin issued
Floating Point, an extension of many of the concepts on
Industrial Zen, on the Abstract Logix imprint. The final track on that album was entitled "Five Peace Band"; it served as the name for a supergroup assembled by
McLaughlin and
Chick Corea for a one-off world tour. The other members were saxophonist
Kenny Garrett, drummer
Vinnie Colaiuta, and bassist
Christian McBride; an album of the same name was released in 2009 on Concord.
To the One, issued in 2010, debuted his new 4th Dimension band, whose lineup included veterans of his other groups:
Gary Husband on keyboards and drums,
Etienne Mbappe on electric bass, and drummer
Mike Mondesir. This group became a collaborative, creative anchor for the guitarist, much as the early
Mahavishnu Orchestra had been.
McLaughlin resurfaced two years later with
Now Here This. The album featured the lone change in the 4th Dimension lineup as drummer and vocalist
Ranjit Barot replaced
Mondesir.
Barot had collaborated with the guitarist on
Floating Point but was long established and celebrated as a film composer, music director, arranger, and vocalist. He was also a longtime associate of filmmaker/composer
A.R. Rahman. This group toured the world and followed up with
Now Here This in 2012. They were captured live on-stage during the last night of a tour at the Berklee College of Music; the set was released as
The Boston Record in 2014.
Over the previous couple of years,
McLaughlin had been in communication again with longtime friend
de Lucia in hopes of recording together. It never happened. The Spanish guitarist passed away in February of 2014.
McLaughlin and 4th Dimension released
Black Light in the fall of 2015. Among its tracks was the acoustic number "El Hombre Que Sabia," a tribute to the flamenco master. A concert album also featuring the ensemble, Live at Ronnie Scott's, appeared in 2017. That same year,
McLaughlin embarked on what he described as a farewell tour, playing songs from
Mahavishnu Orchestra's extensive catalog. In 2018, Abstract Logix issued Live in San Francisco -- a souvenir of a sold-out concert at the historic Warfield Theatre, where the guitarist last played 36 years earlier. His 4th Dimension band played encores of classic
Mahavishnu Orchestra tunes with guitarist
Jimmy Herring's nine-piece orchestra the Invisible Whip.
Back in 2013, in the aftermath of a Remember Shakti quintet tour that
McLaughlin, composer and singer
Shankar Mahadevan, and tabla master
Ustad Zakir Hussain undertook, the guitarist approached the others about forming a group that would experiment with Indian classical music and improvisation. It took six years to synchronize schedules due to the commitments of all three men, and to assemble and/or compose material before recording. In September 2019, the preview track "Sakhi" was released to the internet. The tune had been written in the early '70s for
Shakti and played live but was never recorded until
McLaughlin formed this band. Titled
Is That So?, the studio album was co-billed to all three musicians and was issued by Abstract Logix.
McLaughlin continued to record during the COVID-19 pandemic, composing, arranging, and recording via the internet, a series of tunes with a variety of collaborators in several ensembles. They included 4th Dimension, saxophonist
Julian Siegel, pianists Roger Rossignol and Oz Ezzeldin, drummers
Vinnie Colaiuta, Jean Michel "Kiki" Aublette (who also played bass) and Nicholas Viccaro, and bassists
Sam Burgess and
Jerome Regard. The eight-track
Liberation Time was released in July 2021. ~ Thom Jurek