Doesn't get ANY better than this! The baddest players I have seen in decades! Saw Weather Report and Jean Luc Potty years ago, this is a collection of the best players in decades to play at this level, amazing! Only John McLaughlin could put this together, they blow away nearly anyone out there. My other favorite is Frank Gambale, an excellent fusion guitarist also. John is at his best here and all these guys are Monsters! Bravo! God Bless them all! Excellent!!!
Beautiful fat tone from John's Gibson. And that soprano...Wow! That brother's got some wind in his sails. But they all have to keep up with Dennis! :^)
@Andy Butler That's true, (and you might have added Scott Henderson to that list) but they are all products of the same era, more or less, and none of them had the impulse to go off to India and sit at the feet of a guru - something which had an enormous effect on JM and his music, and which people almost never do in our own secular age. McLaughlin is unique in a way that few others are - Holdsworth, Michael Brecker, Steve Gadd being examples - people who forged a completely new style of playing that redefined the parameters of their instrument and that others copied. Coryell, for instance, is a great guitarist, but I think very heavily influenced by McL, especially in his early years. JM, like Holdsworth, was doing his own thing almost from the egg, as it were!
Amazing collection of masters, Unbelievable. I’ve seen the best bass players in the world over my 49 years of playing bass guitar, but daaamn I’ve never seen a player like Matthew Garrison. He is from another demotion from a parallel universe. 👌🏿👌🏿😂
@Jeff C hardly by me, otherwise I would not have made the comment that the group is under-rated. People who compile their top 10 McLaughlin albums consistently diss MO IV.
@Jeff C "poor rating" are your words. People who study McLaughlin's music rank MO I and II, Shakti, Translators, Free Spirits. 4th Dimension, etc as more groundbreaking than Heart of Things. "Poor rating" are your words, right after you called Neil Raouf a liar
@Jeff C My last response to your nonsense. "Underrated" - as compared with other McLaughlin groups ≠ "poor rating", and it's intellectually (using this term very loosely) dishonest to make such an assertion. Suggest you brush up on the lexicon
Wow! It's amazing to see that John has not lost his ability to take music to new heights. I've been a fan since the Mahavishnu Orchestra days til now and have seen him live a number of times. So glad he's still around to shake things up. This is definitely one of his best bands!
Just killin'. Had the pleasure of catching this band a couple of times. If at all possible please consider posting the entire video if you have it. Thanks...
I think your right, the was at its best but the guitar tones were just not consistent. In this particular track some were good some were not. I have always loved John's music. A legend in my circles
Someone PLEASE tell me who that guy is playing the bass. Geez. Everyone of these guys... Unbelievable.... (edit) I just saw their names at the end of the video. Got it.
@@rhmayer1 allan holdsworth was not influenced by anyone,with his insane stretch chords - he was a total alien.... john mclaughlin even said jokingly, he'd steal everything from allan holdsworth but he didn't understand what the hell holdsworth was doing....
@@volpeverde6441 I respect and agree with your awe about AH. But you even said it - JM was joking, and being extremely modest - which was/is his character. JM is a very spiritual person going way back, pre-Shakti days - very humble and generous. But JM was a HUGE innovator who was really the first to bridge modern jazz guitar, influencing ALL the earliest modern players from Larry Coryell, Jerry Hahn, Jan Akkerman, Terje Rypdal to whoever you can name, even Allan Holdsworth and his early stuff with Soft Machine, etc. McLaughlin may not be as unique and jaw-droppingly from another planet as Holdsworth but definitely Holdsworth heard the early Mahavishnu albums and influenced him. To say Holdsworth wasn't influenced by anyone, whether due to "insane stretch chords" (an early teacher of mine, Dean Kamei, was doing insane stretch chords amazingly with small hands pre-Holdsworth) or his intervallic lines (another teacher of mine, Dave Creamer (ex-Miles Davis) was known for his incredible intervallic lines pre-Holdsworth and pre-Gambale) or whatever, denies Holdsworth's own words where he's stated he was influenced by Coltrane and horn players as well as piano players (though I don't recall him mentioning John McLaughlin by name). It may sound like Holdsworth's playing is completely unlike anyone before him but that says more about the listener. I'm about the biggest Holdsworth fan on the planet, saw him live a number of times, talked to him, bought my rare gold on black IOU album (original pressing, unlike the later gold on red pressings) from him directly after a show, and have raved about him and "discovered" him for many friends. But he didn't sprout that talent and guitar voice overnight. But maybe you didn't mean to be literal. I, like you, have always also maintained that Allan Holdsworth was an alien from another planet, and taken the guitar to another level that no one else has. Here's a McLaughlin-Holdsworth connection that may amuse you. The first time my jaw dropped hearing AH was listening to one of the New Tony Williams Lifetime albums, their 2nd album. (Here's that first AH solo I heard that completely blew my mind - his opening solo; I've never heard anything like that - over a funk groove nonetheless!: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4oQD3_X5npI.html. The first New Tony Williams Lifetime album is chock full of even more incredible AH solos - many of his very best.) But I had already heard (and have in my collection) some earlier Lifetime albums. Who was the original guitar player in Lifetime? John McLaughlin. Holdsworth replaced McLaughlin in the band. Another tangent: also in the original Lifetime was Larry Young on organ and Jack Bruce on bass (from Cream). Later, in Holdsworth's IOU band you have Gary Husband and later Chad Whackerman on drums (both VERY Tony Williams influenced) and Paul Williams on vocals (who sounds very similar to Jack Bruce's singing voice). So, to me I always thought IOU was sort of a recapturing and extension of Lifetime. Later, we find out that the New Tony Williams Lifetime was one of the first bands that Holdsworth felt at home in musically. He was usually frustrated in his prior bands as a sideman. He was saddened when they were forced to disband due to finances. So that reinforced my own opinion that IOU was influenced by Lifetime. Cheers!
Not exactly the best style and setting to really capture a Johnny Smith sound, since there are so many subtle sounds that a solid carved top guitar produces. For instance, you cannot hear the "woodyness" of the carved top in this kind of setting. (A laminate top jazz box, like a ES-175, could get the same tone in this setting.) I'm actually amazed that he avoided feedback. Makes me wonder if he's modified the guitar, in addition to adding the Bigsby (which also changes the original Johnny Smith tone). I'm actually surprised to see him play his Johnny Smith - they are known as one of the most delicate and non-road-worthy jazz guitars. They're fragile and damage easily. I'd be too scared to even add a Bigsby, with the ensuing pressure put on the body every time you hit that whammy bar. But he does sound and play great - no denying that!
I like all kinds of music, I'm open to all, but I can't find anything that moves me in a composition like this... it's devoid of any air, you cannot hum this tune. I know, mad talent, timing like machines, all that, just, not a song, per say...
The melody may not be accessible, granted. I also love good melody to hum, but there are other things besides melody that can move you if you let it. I think the air is there, though like flying a kite, you have to find it.
