John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin was born on January 4, 1942 in Yorkshire, England. At the end of the 50s he arrived
in London where he took his first professional steps in rock and blues groups.
In the 60s, he crossed paths with Georgie Fame and Blue Flames, performed with Alexis Korner, the Graham Band Organization and Brian Auger’s group Trinity. In 1968 he formed his own group and recorded his first album: Extrapolation. Two more albums followed Emergency in 1969 and Turn It Over in 1970.
Around the same time McLaughlin contributed to many Miles Davis masterpieces including: In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew and Big Fun in 1969. As well as A Tribute To Jack Johnson, Live Evil in 1970 and On The Corner in 1972.
McLaughlin also recorded with Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Miles and Dave Holland - these tapes remain unreleased.
After becoming a disciple of guru Shri Chinmoy Ghose, McLaughlin took the name Mahavishnu.
After his solo album My Goals Beyond (1970) he set up one of the outstanding groups of the jazz rock years: The Mahavishnu Orchestra. The Inner Mounting Flame (1971) was the beginning of a series of recordings that met with huge enthusiasm from audiences worldwide.
In spite of the success of Birds Of Fire (1972) and Mahavishnu Orchestra (1973) the band disbanded, but did reform episodically with new musicians. They released Visions Of The Emerald Beyond (1974), Mahavishnu (1984) and Adventure In Radioland (1986).
A colloboration with Carlos Santana resulted in the album Love Devotion Surrender in 1972.
McLaughlin then decided to combine Indian music with Jazzwith his group Shakti. As the recognised pioneers of ‘world music’ the band released Shakti (1975), A Handful Of Beauty (1976) and Natural Elements (1976).
Shakti disbanded in 1978 and McLaughlin formed the short lived One Truth Band. He then composed Electric Guitarist (1978). Two years later Music Spoken Here with pianist Katia Labèque was released. He recorded Friday Night In San Francisco the same year and Passion Grace And Fire the following year with Al Di Meola and Paco De Lucia.
McLaughlin rejoined Miles Davis to record You're Under Arrest. Then he took part in Bertrand Tavernier's Round Midnight before forming in 1988 a guitar-bass percussion trio with Trilok Gurtu. Over the next four years he joined forces with Jonas Hellborg, Jeff Berlin, Kai Eckhardt and Dominique Di Piazza and recorded Live At The Royal Festival Hall, The Mediterranean (1990) and Que Alegria (1992).
In 1993 McLaughlin decided to return to his former passion of a trio with an Hammond organ. The Free Spirits Tokyo Live (1994) was the resulting triumph. He then took on the long term and exacting task of re-writing for guitars Bill Evans' music with the classical quartet Aighetta - Time Remembered (1993).
In 1994 he revisited John Coltrane 's music with the After The Rain album. McLaughlin released The Promise (1997) with a prestigious casting which included Jeff Beck, Michael Brecker, David Sanborn and Sting.
Later in 1997 with his new group The Heart of Things, McLaughlin continued to pursue his quest for excellence. The performance at La Cigale in 1998 was recorded live for their second album The Heart Of Things Live in Paris.
The Autumn of 1997 saw the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of India's independence. Shakti reassembled under the name of Remember Shakti. A new live album, Remember Shakti was released. To many Shakti still remains the golden age of John McLaughlin.
The album The Believer (2000) was recorded during Shakti’s European tour in 1999. This was followed by Saturday Night In Bombay (2001). The 2003 recording Thieves & Poets was used for the Monte Carlo Ballet.
Industrial Zen, the latest album from McLaughlin, which is a further step forward in jazz fusion, came out in 2006.
In September/October 2007 McLaughlin undertakes a USA/Canada tour with his new electric group The 4th Dimension.