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John McLaughlin

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John McLaughlin

John McLaughlin (born 4 January 1942), also known as Mahavishnu, is an English guitarist, bandleader, and composer. A pioneer of jazz fusion, his music combines elements of jazz with rock, world music, Indian classical music, Western classical music, flamenco, and blues. After contributing to several key British groups of the early 1960s, McLaughlin made Extrapolation, his first album as a bandleader, in 1969. He then moved to the U.S., where he played with drummer Tony Williams's group Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his electric jazz fusion albums In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, Live-Evil, and On the Corner. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences.

McLaughlin's solo on "Miles Beyond" from his album Live at Ronnie Scott's won the 2018 Grammy Award for the Best Improvised Jazz Solo. He has been awarded multiple "Guitarist of the Year" and "Best Jazz Guitarist" awards from magazines such as DownBeat and Guitar Player based on reader polls. In 2003, he was ranked 49th in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". In 2009, DownBeat included McLaughlin in its unranked list of "75 Great Guitarists", in the "Modern Jazz Maestros" category. In 2012, Guitar World magazine ranked him 63rd on its top 100 list. In 2010, Jeff Beck called McLaughlin "the best guitarist alive", and Pat Metheny has also described him as the world's greatest guitarist. In 2017, McLaughlin was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee College of Music.

Links to Peel[]

Peel was interested in John McLaughlin's career, which in its pre-Mahavishnu phase had overlapped with other artists admired by the DJ. McLaughlin made his name playing alongside Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, later of Cream, in the Graham Bond Organisation (Bond later did a Peel session) and contributed to Jack Bruce's solo albums. On the late 1960s British jazz scene, McLaughlin's contemporaries included some who later did Peel sessions, like Jon Hiseman (Colosseum) and Ian Carr (Nucleus), and Peel played tracks from the guitarist's debut LP, Extrapolation, on Night Ride shows in 1969, The album was widely praised but poorly promoted and soon afterwards McLaughlin left for the USA to join Tony Williams' Lifetime. They were acclaimed by writers like Melody Maker's Richard Williams, and Peel played a track by them on his show of 31 January 1970

In 1977 Peel declared a session by McLaughlin's other band, the acoustic, Indian-influenced Shakti, as one of the best recorded that year, and also aired some of his other music during his career. The DJ also featured records by other Mahavishnu Orchestra members, including Jean-Luc Ponty, who also worked with Frank Zappa, and Jan Hammer, who made an album with Peel favourite Jeff Beck. On 25 November 1976 Peel played three tracks from Narada Michael Walden's LP "Garden of Love Light". But there were few traces of jazz-fusion or jazz-rock in post-1980 Peel shows, and no more tracks by John McLaughlin.

Sessions[]

John_McLaughlin_&_Shakti_-_Peel_Session_1977

John McLaughlin & Shakti - Peel Session 1977

1. Recorded with the Shakti group: 1977-05-09. First Broadcast: 13 May 1977. Repeated: 28 June 1977, 21 December 1977

  • Kriti / Two Sisters / La Danse Du Bonheur

Other Shows Played[]

1969
1970
  • 31 January 1970: (with Tony Williams' Lifetime): Vashkar (LP - Emergency! Volume One) Polydor 583 574
1972
1973
1977

See Also[]

External Links[]

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