Mahavishnu September 30, 2008
Posted by Tom Moore in : Uncategorized , trackback
According to Wikipedia, “Mahavishnu (Devanagari: महाविष्णु) is an aspect of Vishnu, the Absolute which is beyond human comprehension and is beyond all attributes.” For those who were listening to music in the early seventies, Mahavishnu was both Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, and his group, the Mahavishnu Orchestra. John McLaughlin had worked as a jazz musician in the late sixties, recording with Tony Oxley and John Surman in his native England, and moving to the USA in 1969, where he recorded with former Miles Davis drummer Tony Williams, as well as appearing on landmark albums by Davis himself (In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, On the Corner, A Tribute to Jack Johnson). He became a devotee of guru Sri Chinmoy, as evidenced by the titles of the two LPs he recorded for producer Alan Douglas, Devotion (with drummer Buddy Miles, heard on the classic Band of Gypsies led by Jimi Hendrix) and My Goal’s Beyond, with stunning recordings of jazz standards for acoustic guitar.
Nevertheless, when McLaughlin formed the Mahavishnu Orchestra in early 1971 (with keyboardist Jan Hammer, violinist Jerry Goodman, drummer Billy Cobham, and bassist Rick Laird) the results were explosive, reaching an immensely larger audience of young people who had been left bereft by the death of Jimi Hendrix the previous fall. The pathbreaking recording by this group, which only lasted until 1973, was The Inner Mounting Flame
with music of an intensity of passion that was all absorbing. This music did not swing, it burned, recalling the spiritual fire of the last recordings of John Coltrane. No one who was present at the live performances of this band will ever forget the experience.
This disc, and the few others recorded by the original Orchestra, are fundamental documents of years that changed music.
Inner Mounting Flame, CD 15447
Birds of Fire, CD 13150
Between Nothingness and Eternity, CD 15445
The Lost Trident Sessions, CD 15503
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