• John McLaughlin, The Essential John McLaughlin, Columbia/Legacy
• John McLaughlin, Jaco Pastorius, Tony Williams – Trio of Doom, Columbia/Legacy
• Mahavishnu Orchestra; Live In Monteaux, 1974/1984, Eagle Eye Media
• Jaco Pastorius, The Essential Jaco Pastorius, Columbia/Legacy
Easily the most renowned guitarist from the fusion era, John McLaughlin first caught notice in America in 1969, when former Miles Davis drummer Tony Williams brought him over from his native England to play in the nascent Tony Williams Lifetime. Davis spotted McLaughlin at Lifetime’s debut performance, and quickly drafted him on a number of sessions, including In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew.
Two years later, McLaughlin formed Mahavishnu Orchestra. The group’s sound – intense, high energy riff-rock coupled with virtuoso jazz chops and Indian rhythms – was like nothing heard before. Their debut, Inner Mounting Flame was an instant hit. After a second studio album, the original band imploded in 1973.
McLaughlin formed a new, expanded version of the group, including Jean Luc Ponty on violin, fellow Sri Chinmoy disciple Narada Michael Walden on drums, and Gail Moran on piano and vocals. While the group may have been more in tune spiritually, the volatility was missed.
After three albums with the new Mahavishnu Orchestra, he formed Shakti in 1975, an all-acoustic group featuring his guitar alongside tablas, ghatam and violin.
He’s continued with a wide range of projects – both electric and acoustic – ever since.
The Essential John McLaughlin offers a generous two-disc sample of material from every era of his career, going back as far as 1963, with Graham Bond – with a pre-Cream rhythm section of Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce – and covers work with Miles, Tony Williams Lifetime, Carlos Santana – dueting on Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ – as well as solo albums and both versions of Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Film of the original Mahavishnu Orchestra lineup is thrilling, but elusive – nothing has been released officially at this point. A DVD of the second version of the band in performance is frustrating; only three of the tracks include video, although they clock in at well over an hour, with the rest only available in audio. Too often the group meanders on at length, never really getting anywhere. Fellow adherents of Sri Chinmoy – easily identified by their all-white outfits and blissed-out smiles – give the performance an at times unintended humor – something akin to a Saturday Night Live skit lampooning the wacky cults of the seventies.
A second disc featuring a 1984 incarnation – billed as Mahvishnu – is quite different. Saxophone replaces violin, and McLaughlin spends most of his time on the ill-advised guitar-synthesizer. On it’s own merits, it’s quite enjoyable, but outside the name, there’s very little in common with what had come before.
In 1979 McLaughlin performed a one-off gig with Jaco Pastorius and Tony Williams billed as the Trio of Doom for Havana Jam, a festival held in Cuba. It was memorable due to all the wrong reasons; Pastorius’ unpredictable behavior kicked in that day, and his playing at times was far removed from what the other two were doing. The live recording was shelved, and instead the trio went into the studio the following week to record tracks for the festival’s two subsequent ‘live’ albums, with dubbed audience noises added.
Of the five tracks recorded in the studio, only three ended up being used. Now, for the first time, all five tracks – plus the complete live performance – are compiled.
There’s a massive amount of power, and a few impressive moments – chiefly, Williams drumming – but for the most part, the performances are simply unfocused. A sad reminder of what could have been.
Over the course of his remarkable, comet-like career, Pastorius – who audaciously dubbed himself ‘The World’s Greatest Bass Player’ – changed the way bass guitar was perceived.
From the moment his self-titled debut album was released in 1976, through his years with Weather Report, he simply had no peer. Playing fretless electric bass, his was an entirely new voice, likened to a Jimi Hendrix of the instrument.
Sadly, he battled mental illness and substance abuse. Within a decade of his debut he was homeless and rapidly deteriorating. By the time he died – after a beating by a nightclub bouncer in 1987 – he no longer owned an instrument. He was 35 years old.
The Essential Jaco Pastorius brings together 27 tracks, including solo work – all but one track off from his debut – notable guest appearances with Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock and others, along with ten tracks from Weather Report. Together they make a solid argument for his boasts. More than twenty years after Jaco’s passing, no one has come close to taking his mantle.
© John Cody 2008