Guitarist John McLaughlin’s career has taken him to pretty much every area of the interpretive universe, from Lifetime with Tony Williams to Miles to the Far East and post-hard bop. Still, to some, none of his directions have the impact of the original Mahavishnu Orchestra. Birds of Fire (Columbia Legacy CK 66081; 40:31), the group’s sophomore 1972 release, was a snapshot of the band at its interactive best, the fearsome individual parts (McLaughlin, violinist Jerry Goodman, keyboardist Jan Hammer, drummer Billy Cobham, bassist Rick Laird) moving as a unit. From the telepathic solo trading of “Celestial Terrestrial Commuters,” to the sly, Rhodes-fueled groove of “Miles Beyond” to the acoustic delicacy of “Thousand Island Park,” the band established standards for rock-fusion performance, standards that not only included technical excellence, but knowing conceptual and compositional elan.
Originally PublishedRelated Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Harry Connick, Jr.: Direct Hits
Two decades after his commercial breakthrough, Harry Connick Jr. taps legendary producer Clive Davis for an album of crooner roots and beloved tunes
Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro