The idea of a guitarist leading a jazz ensemble was still fairly new in 1971. Groups had successfully been lead by Django Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery, but they were always the exception, not the norm. In the wake of the psychedelic rock revolution of the 1960s, and owing to the jazz-fusion movement that had germinated in England and became realized in 1969 with Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, a super-group was to form: the Mahavishnu Orchestra. The brainchild of John McLaughlin, this ensemble was to change the scope of 1970s jazz through a combination of virtuosity, volume, eclecticism, and vision. McLaughlin himself brought “a stunning technique allied to melodic invention and harmonic substance,” became the most influential jazz guitarist since Wes Montgomery, and provided the inspiration for “a rise in instrumental proficiency in rock during the first half of the 1970s” (Nicholson 1998: 146). McLaughlin is not only important during this period as a musician, but also as a jazz outsider who succeeded. In terms of personality, he was far from the stereotypical “bad boy,” and was able to fashion a type of music that distinctly conveyed his spiritual beliefs.
While McLaughlin continues to explore musical avenues to this day, only his work from 1971 to 1973 will be considered here: the first three Mahavishnu Orchestra albums, with the original lineup, and the 1973 collaboration and tour that melded members of the Mahavishnu Orchestra with Carlos Santana and his band. These two musical environments enabled McLaughlin to expand the boundaries of the electric guitar in jazz, all while paying homage to his musical and spiritual influences.
By 1970, John McLaughlin had established himself as a serious jazz musician, having released a solo album, Devotion, and as a Miles Davis sideman on In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew. This solo effort was a premonition of the eclecticism and complexity of the Mahavishnu albums, described as “a milestone of future jazz as a liberated flight by a then-little-known virtuoso who sustained, without vocals, more than sixteen bars of vocabulary at considerable remove from conventionally swinging or boppishly altered blues-based jazz” (Mandel 1999: 76). Through Miles Davis, he was given the opportunity to collaborate with nearly every other rising star of the day, and was granted the ability to play a considerable role in the group’s overall sound. On Bitches Brew, he plays the equivalent role of John Coltrane on Kind of Blue: a sharp, edgy contrast to Miles’ generally cool, laid-back style (Mandel 1999:77). While Miles had become somewhat harsher and louder, McLaughlin could be as piercing and dissonant as the heaviest rock. Thus, thanks to McLaughlin, Miles’s style still fills the role as the cool, ballad spinner (especially on tracks like “Sanctuary” and parts of “Spanish Key.”) Around this time, McLaughlin became involved with the mystic and spiritual leader Sri Chimmony, and applied his teachings to Christianity, thus creating an East-meets-West dynamic. Chimmony gave McLaughlin his nickname, “Mahavishnu,” name of the Hindu god of sustence (Mandel 1999: 78). He adapted the diet of a strict vegetarian, did not smoke or drink, and dressed in Indian garb: atypical for any popular musician. This spiritual system was to be the primary driving force behind the musical directions that McLaughlin explored during his stay with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. McLaughlin thus found his niche as a performer, able to easily lead a band, yet use his speed and distinct sound to contrast with band members.
By 1971, acting on the advice of Miles, McLaughlin sought to bring together a permanent touring group (Nicholson 1998: 145). The result was a group that combined unusual instrumentation to create abnormally fresh music: Rick Laird on bass, Jan Hammer on pianos and synthesizers, Billy Cobham on drums, Jerry Goodman on the electric violin, and of course, McLauglin on electric guitars, guitar synthesizers and occasionally the acoustic guitar. Critics and fans alike were absolutely floored from the moment of the band’s inception. Some argue that the Mahavishnu Orchestra are the ultimate fusion group: for example, in his comprehensive The Jazz Book: From Ragtime to Fusion and Beyond, Joachin Berendt describes them as “possibly the most dense, artistically most satisfying fusion music so far..,” later adding “Nowhere else has it been demonstrated so convincingly, what astounding, liberating, and delightful - and spiritual - effects fusion music can create (Berendt 1981: 365).
The group’s first album, The Inner Mounting Flame, was recorded in August 1971, a month after the group’s initial performance (Nicholson 1998: 146). The first track on the album (”Meeting of the Spirits”) is perhaps the fastest, hardest, and loudest piece. It begins with a booming crescendo, then slowly builds a web of guitar noodling and synthesizer fuzz, until Goodman kicks in on violin: after his “chorus,” McLaughlin jumps in with a blistering solo. Hammer, McLaughlin and Goodman all take solos, and Cobham seems to not only solo, but keep time as well (the tune is in a complex 12/8.) This track is an anthem of sorts for the band, as it ranges “from broiling to lilting,” contains the typically fast solos from each member, and was written so as to allow ample room for improvisation (Jagajivan 1972). “A Lotus in Irish Streams” comes as a marked contrast to this, an acoustic piece that banks primarily on the complexities of McLaughlin’s guitar lines: it is quiet, contemplative and serene. Aside from being aurally pleasing, the music was also on par with the most difficult bop. In a nutshell, “from its use of unusual time signatures, such as in ‘Dawn,’ which contains a shift in meter from 7/4 to 14/8, or in the polymeric and polytonal ‘The Dance of the Maya,’ which contrasts 20/4 against 17/8, to the speed and dexterity of the unison phrasing of keyboards, violin and guitar, new standards were being set in jazz” (Nicholson 1998: 148). The album was a step beyond previous fusion in terms of speed, eclecticism, technical skill and ensemble cohesion.
The album reached number 89 on the Billboard chart, which qualified it as a genuine hit (Nicholson 1998: 148). This was an important feat, as it proved that jazz could be popular in the post-swing idiom. For a group as technically virtuosic as the Mahavishnu Orchestra to go over so well with the popular music market is also a milestone, and a credit to the music-buying public. In the wake of The Inner Mounting Flame, John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra had established an edgy sort of fusion that undeniably showed that jazz could rock just as hard as rock, but contain the complexity and musical satisfaction that all musicians of advanced skill crave.
The follow up album, Birds of Fire, was recorded in 1972 but released in 1973. It contained a structure similar to the first album, with the loudest and most rollicking cut coming first. “Birds of Fire” builds in a way not unlike “Meeting of the Spirits,” eventually giving way to a blistering solo by McLaughlin. He seems to use every trick that his double-neck guitar will allow, from a wah-wah pedal to constant distortion. Yet, one thing remains contsant: he plays high and fast throughout, sometimes to an inhuman degree. The album contains two covers, Miles Davis’s “Miles Beyond” and Wayne Shorter’s “Sanctuary” (which was recorded on Bitches Brew.) In both, McLaughlin takes to playing the melody lines, thereby giving him the role of Miles Davis in the original recordings. In “Santcuary,” he uses his guitar synthesizer, which gives some of his strings horn-like qualities. Through these, he compromises the horn-man as jazz combo leader tradition, developed in the bop and hard bop eras through Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane, with the rock/blues tradition of the guitarist as the leader of the band. Django Reinhardt can be seen in similar terms, but McLaughlin seems to have made a more concerted effort at doing this.
Following Birds of Fire, the original Mahavishnu Orchestra released their final album, Between Nothingness and Eternity: Live. It contained material that had not appeared on their first two albums, and like most live albums, featured extended improvisations. It was at this time that the band showed serious internal problems: “Then the band seemed to burn out, as wildly enthusiastic if less than discerning audiences demanded ever more emphanies for encores” (Mandel 1999: 79). Most of the band did not buy into the spirituality that McLaughlin preached, and so the messages of peace, cosmic awareness and harmony were missing their target. Plus, as the audience grew (in two short years, the band had moved from coffee houses to stadiums,) the band did not. After the live album, the band basically dissolved.
Despite the loss of his band, McLaughlin continued to explore musical directions similar to those of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. In Carlos Santana, he found a like-minded musician and instrumentalist, a man who not only believed in the intense, austere spirituality surrounded by Sri Chimmony, but also a man who played the guitar with reckless abandon. Together, they produced one of the seminal records of the 1970s: Love Devotion Surrender. It is on this album that McLaughlin brought to full realization his goal of presenting music that espoused his spiritual beliefs, and additionally was able to pay homage to one of his musical influences, John Coltrane. Featured is a fusion super-group of sorts, with Mahavishnu alums Jan Hammer and Billy Cobham, Santana band percussionist Armando Peraza and Tony Williams Lifetime organist Larry Young. The album is “A series of ecstatic jams on Coltrane and Coltrane-influenced material,” with two classic Coltrane covers, “A Love Supreme” and “Naima” (Nicholson 1998: 150). The combination of complex guitar duels, hard bop covers, and the spirituality of Sri Chimmony is unlikely, but the album eventually went gold, selling well over 500,000 copies (Nicholson 1998: 150). During the tour that followed the album’s release, the band broker further ground: for example, on the September 1, 1973 show from Chicago, only six compositions are played, yet the show is over two hours long. There are distinctive jams in the vein of Caravanserai-era Santana band, as well as the expected Mahavishnu Orchestra style. While the guitar-work of Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin is the main attraction, long percussion segments, as well as organ peaks, can be found throughout.
Love Devotion Surrender is in many ways the best example of what McLaughlin brought to jazz, and how his work serves single-handedly as something that goes above and beyond all of the normal criticisms against fusion. Without selling out his art or his beliefs, McLaughlin was able to collaborate with a group of similarly virtuosic musicians to create music that reached many people. It was complex music, paid ample homage to past jazz greats, contained the spiritual connotations that he sought to convey and even rocked harder than most so-called rock albums. This is not the simplified, watered-down, instantly accessible fusion that many a critic chided: this music, while popular, contained all of the elements of great jazz and even pioneered some new ones.
John McLaughlin was perhaps the quintessential jazz musician of the early 1970s. His Mahavishnu Orchestra was the first extremely popular fusion group, creating music that the public and critics alike could enjoy. As a skinny, mild-mannered English guitar player, he made an unlikely jazz superstar. Yet, by combining jazz and rock guitar styles, he created music that defied convention and inspired an entire generation of musicians.
Bibliography
Berendt, Joachim. 1981. The Jazz Book: From Ragtime to Fusion and Beyond. Westport,
Connecticut: Lawrence Hill and Company.
Jagajivan. 1972. “Caught in the act: The Mahavishnu Orchestra,” in Downbeat Magazine,
June 8, 1972.
Mandel, Howard. 1999. Future Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press.
Marshall, Dave. N.d. Pages of Fire: The Music of John McLaughlin.
< http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/Dave/mclaughlin/home.html >. Website.
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McLaughlin, John, producer. 1971. The Inner Mounting Flame. Mahavishnu Orchestra.
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McLaughlin, John, producer. 1972. Birds of Fire. Mahavishnu Orchestra. CBS CK 31996.
McLaughlin, John and Carlos Santana, producers. 1973. Love Devotion Surrender. Carlos
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Nicholson, Stuart. 1998. Jazz-Rock: A History. New York: Schirmer Books.
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