Grateful Dead Music Forum

Tennessee Jedi wrote:That Bitches Brew is wailing.
Like everyone has a wah wah
On the live thing I had the guitar guy was pretty hum ho in my opinion (Hum ho?Ho hum?)

John McLaughlin???

I don't know if you were down on John Mclaughlin or not, but do yourself a favor and check out this work of his:

A Tribute to Jack Johnson - Miles Davis (John tears it up on this)

Any Mahavishnu Orchestra

Shakti - John with classical Indian musicians , which is mind blowing. George Harrison may not have been able to fully embrace indian music theory, but john sure can.

Finally, A Friday Night in San Francisco - John Mclaughlin, Paco De Lucia, and Ali Dimeola. 3 Acoustic guitars, all pure bliss.

Heard a story years ago that Barbara Streisand went to see Miles play some time back in the 60s I think it was as she was just starting to get famous.

Well she figured it was time to be invited on stage to sing. She went to Miles' piano player and said, "My Funny Valentine in Bb" (or whatever key) and Miles promptly and with a stern arm booted her off stage.

Yeah Mclaughlin is a Demon for sure.
I'm not sure but I think he wasnt the main guitar guy on that Miles tour and he was sitting in on that night.
With all the other instruments and wah wahs I thought it was just a little too much.Hes one of the Greats.
I cant remember the name of the album@!!#$!!.
I think it had a name like Wed in ....or Tue night with..
Anyway somebody figure out what I'm trying to say and fill me in.

John Mclaughlin - "Saturday night in Bombay" perhaps?

This was a 2001 release with Shakti from a 2000 show.

Or it cold have been the 1980 release of "Friday night in San Francisco"

Review I found:
John McLaughlin brought his revived Indo-jazz project Shakti to Bombay (Mumbai) in late 2000, and the result is this live disc, which features only four compositions but runs over an hour in length. (The title is a deliberate play on 1980's Friday Night in San Francisco.) McLaughlin's electric guitar and Zakir Hussain's tabla remain at the core of the group's sound. U. Shrinivas (on mandolin) and V. Selvaganesh (on kanjira, ghatam, and mridangam, all Indian percussion instruments) remain from the previous album, but there are also a number of Indian guest musicians, giving the music many added dimensions. The most remarkable guests are Debashish Bhattacharya on Hindustani slide guitar, Shankar Mahadevan on vocals, and Shiv Kumar Sharma on santur, an Indian hammered dulcimer. Sharma composed the second track, "Shringar"; nearly half an hour long, it consists almost entirely of a hypnotic dialogue between santur and guitar. Mahadevan's vocal performance on the opening "Luki" resounds with spiritual power, while Shrinivas's "Giriraj Sudha" gives a sunny, optimistic lift to the somewhat mournful set.
PEACE,
Phil

Shooster wrote:I don't know if you were down on John Mclaughlin or not, but do yourself a favor and check out this work of his:

A Tribute to Jack Johnson - Miles Davis (John tears it up on this)

Any Mahavishnu Orchestra

Shakti - John with classical Indian musicians , which is mind blowing. George Harrison may not have been able to fully embrace indian music theory, but john sure can.

Finally, A Friday Night in San Francisco - John Mclaughlin, Paco De Lucia, and Ali Dimeola. 3 Acoustic guitars, all pure bliss.

HUGE McLaughlin fan. Love Fri Night in SF... hilarious when they go into the Pink Panther theme.


Add "Electric Guitarist" to your fine list...

First of all, I think John McLaughlin is about the most talented guitarist I haev ever seen or heard and it is tough to argue against that. His body of work transcends all styles.

Now we all know he is called the Mahavishnu and rightly so. When I was living in NYC my best friend was working for a concert production company. I think it was when JM was touring with Shakti revisited about 5 or 6 years ago. I lived really close to the Beacon Theater and my friend called me and said "if you want to meet him, get your ass over here right now".

So my buddy meets me out by the stage door on the north side of the theater and we walk in and BAM!, there he is, John McLaughlin and I swear, I shit you not, the guy had a visible aura around him like a golden glow. I was not shrooming or anything like that. My friend introduced me to him and I was almost speechless but managed to thank him for all of the beautiful music and countless hours of frustration trying to figure his licks out. He chuckled and said "just play what is inside of you as that is all we are supposed to do as musicians."

I guess the point of the story is that he really is the Mahavishnu.

Crazy,
Sounds like a brush with greatness I would love to have.
It does something to the spirit to, whether real or not, to meet someone you have that kind of respect for.
Great story Crazy.
PEACE,
Phil

I remember reading the Miles autobiography when it came out. I saw Miles in '90 or so and he was still an animal. He was also an asshole, a junkie and one of the most brilliant musicians ever alive. I remember Blair Jackson talking about the Jerry quote from the book in an issue of Golden Road, and how Miles called Steve Miller a "sorry-ass cat who couldn't play his way out of a paper bag". His treatment of his bandmembers is legendary in what a nazi taskmaster he was. He had no respect for anyone who wasn't as good or dedicated as he was. I loved the parts about Hendrix, who couldn't read a note of music, but could play note-for-note anything Miles could throw out there. He was floored by Jimi, rightly so.

I think I figured out what I may be talking about.
The Live Evil album has John McLaughlin sitting in.
The Fillmore 70 albums songs are titled "MOnday Miles" "Tuesday Miles" and so on.
Was confused.

bottom line is Miles Davis is a mad genius, and finding someone to top him is quite a challenge. I love Jerry, but even he knew he couldn't hold a candle to Miles Davis. That being said, check out In a Silent Way, one of my favorites. When people talk about how Miles was so good at knowing when to play, and also knowing when to sit back and not play, they had probably just listened to that record. It's perfect, so chill, so amazing, words cannot describe it. As for Miles' attitude, he was an extrovert and a big asshole, all of that, but hey, that comes with being a genius, and on top of it he was a drug addict.

Mr.Charlie wrote:and on top of it he was a drug addict.

I've heard that. But all I have ever read is that he kicked heroine in the mid 50s.

According to the book he did kick H got fairly heavy into coke then cut back on it somewhat but still would take coke and drink. As I was reading this It really made me wonder about the link between drugs and "great" musicians. Is it chicken and egg thing or just the time period that this great work came out of. If they began today with what we have learned about hard drugs I wonder if (their use)they wound be as prevalent as they were.

Golfnutt-
The chicken or the egg?
I think it has more to do with pain and how people deal with it.
Artist and "Great Musicians" are notorious over sensitive/intelligent creative souls.Drugs and booze go with the landscape.
I dont think that playing an instrument really plays into it other then the fact many "genius" could be great musicians.
Of course Drugs abuse hits all groups of people,its just that being a rockstar glamorizes it.
See Jim Morrison for details.
Excuse me its time.

from everything I heard, he was doing a lot of coke up into the 80's and to his death, yeah, he probably kicked the H earlier on, but it appears he just replaced it with something else.