Music Legends - featured Artist John McClaughlin

“Mahavishnu” John McClaughlin is an English guitarist born in Yorkshire on 04 January 1942. John played many guitar genres such as jazz fusion, flamenco, progressive rock and psychedelic rock. I know him mostly as a flamenco guitarist associated with two other greats of the instrument, Al de Miola and Paco de Lucio.

John started playing at age of 11 with his initial enthusiasm focused on Blues and Swing. In 1968 he formed his own band and released his debut album Extrapolation which peaked at 152 on the Album charts

In 1969 McClaughlin moved to New York to join the ground breaking fusion band Lifetime led by Tony Williams. Below is the title track of their first album ‘Emergency’

If this is not your cup of tea, do not give up yet…. his music and skill evolved so read and listen on

Through Williams influence John was invited to join Miles Davis band and as such became an important part of fusion landmarks such as ‘Bitches Brew’ and ‘ A Tribute to Jack Johnson’

Bitches Brew, recorded in 1970.

In 1971 John McClaughlin returned from a self-enforced musical exile as the leader of The Mahavishnu Orchestra and over the next four years they released a number of albums including Birds of Fire, The Inner Mounting Flame and Visions of the Emerald Beyond. The sound was fusion jazz/rock as can be clearly heard in the following track, Birds of Fire

Playing for the BBC in 1972 - live

I want to skip over the next few years up to where he once again decided to go solo in the late 1970’s

At this stage he recorded a guitar trio album called Friday Night in San Francisco with fellow fusion legend Al di Miola and flamenco superstar Paco de Lucia. I doubt there is an acoustic guitar fan who does not know of this album….. here follows Mediterranean Sundance….

Actually this number does not include John, the left channel is Paco De Lucia and the right channel is Al de Miola (thank you Wikipedia discography!! I never knew which two were playing at the time), but is seriously worth a listen

Playing with Paco De Lucia

Now John McClaughlin and Al Di Miola live …. With a track from Friday Night at San Francisco

Playing the electric guitar at the Montreaux festival

John McClaughlin continues to play guitar to this day. In 2015 he released an album titled ‘Black Light’ and fittingly I will end with the track composed as a tribute to the great Paco De Lucia who passed away in February of 2014.

Credits:
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-mclaughlin-mn0000223701/biography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_Night_in_San_Francisco

I am featuring artists from the 60’s and 70’s from diverse genre’s over the next few months. If you love music … FOLLOW and take the journey with me..it is going to be one thrilling ride !! Furthermore I will only be featuring artists from MY vinyl collection, and I shall start all of the posts with a photo of an album cover to authenticate

Previous Music Legends
Leonard Cohen
The Doors
Bob Dylan
The Rolling Stones
60’s Protest Artists
Janis Joplin
And many more here