John McLaughlin - Electric Guitarist (1979)

Since John McLaughlin's first two post-Shakti albums -- Electric Guitarist and Electric Dreams -- featured the word "electric" in their titles, it seems that the guitarist wanted to emphasize his more plugged-in side to those who might not have followed along on three previous releases featuring his acoustic world music band. He also thumbed through his impressive phone book to call in some of the cream of the 1977 crop of jazz fusionists to help him out on Electric Guitarist, a true return to form. Ex-Mahavishnu members Jerry Goodman and Billy Cobham assist in kicking things off just like in the old days with "New York on My Mind," a tune that could have been an outtake from his earlier Mahavishnu Orchestra work. Also along for the ride are Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, David Sanborn, Carlos Santana, Jack Bruce, and four legendary drummers including Cobham, Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, and Narada Michael Walden. Unfortunately, the credits don't specify who plays on which track (well-written liner notes would help there), but anyone familiar with the distinctive styles of these artists can easily pick them out. McLaughlin is in fine form throughout, especially when playing clean, staccato, bent notes on the ballad "Every Tear from Every Eye." The majority of the selections stay in a more subtle but amped-up groove as McLaughlin shifts from dreamy to a faster, more straight-ahead tempo on the seven-minute "Do You Hear the Voices that You Left Behind?" A duet with Billy Cobham on "Phenomenon: Compulsion" provides the set's most frantic fireworks as both musicians air out their chops on a breathless, galloping piece with some of the guitarist's most furious picking.

By Hal Horowitz in All Music Guide

Styles:
Fusion
Post-Bop

Tracks:
01 - New York on My Mind (05:46)
02 - Friendship (07:02)
03 - Every Tear from Every Eye (06:53)
04 - Do You Hear the Voices You Left Behind? (07:41)
05 - Are You the One? Are You the One? (04:43)
06 - Phenomenon: Compulsion (03:23)
07 - My Foolish Heart (03:25)

Line-up:
John McLaughlin – guitar
Carlos Santana – guitar (track 2)
Stu Goldberg – Minimoog (track 1), electric piano (track 1), organ (track 1)
Chick Corea – Minimoog (track 4), piano (track 4)
Patrice Rushen – piano (track 3)
Tom Coster – organ (track 2)
Billy Cobham – drums (tracks 1, 6)
Narada Michael Walden – drums (track 2)
Tony Smith – drums (track 3)
Jack DeJohnette – drums (track 4)
Tony Williams – drums (track 5)
Alyrio Lima – percussion (track 2)
Armando Peraza – conga (track 2)
Fernando Saunders – bass (track 1)
Neil Jason – bass (track 2)
Alphonso Johnson – bass (track 3), Moog Taurus (track 3)
Stanley Clarke – bass (track 4)
Jack Bruce – bass (track 5)
David Sanborn – saxophone (track 3)

Carlos Santana & Gato Barbieri - Europa (1977)

Carlos Santana/ Mahavishnu John McLaughlin - Love Devotion Surrender (1973)

A hopelessly misunderstood record in its time by Santana fans -- they were still reeling from the radical direction shift toward jazz on Caravanserai and praying it was an aberration -- it was greeted by Santana devotees with hostility, contrasted with kindness from major-league critics like Robert Palmer. To hear this recording in the context of not only Carlos Santana's development as a guitarist, but as the logical extension of the music of John Coltrane and Miles Davis influencing rock musicians -- McLaughlin, of course, was a former Davis sideman -- this extension makes perfect sense in the post-Sonic Youth, post-rock era. With the exception of Coltrane's "Naima" and McLaughlin's "Meditation," this album consists of merely three extended guitar jams played on the spiritual ecstasy tip -- both men were devotees of guru Shri Chinmoy at the time. The assembled band included members of Santana's band and the Mahavishnu Orchestra in Michael Shrieve, Billy Cobham, Doug Rauch, Armando Peraza, Jan Hammer (playing drums!), and Don Alias. But it is the presence of the revolutionary jazz organist Larry Young -- a colleague of McLaughlin's in Tony Williams' Lifetime band -- that makes the entire project gel. He stands as the great communicator harmonically between the two very different guitarists whose ideas contrasted enough to complement one another in the context of Young's aggressive approach to keep the entire proceeding in the air. In the acknowledgement section of Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," which opens the album, Young creates a channel between Santana's riotous, transcendent, melodic runs and McLaughlin's rapid-fire machine-gun riffing. Young' double-handed striated chord voicings offered enough for both men to chew on, leaving free-ranging territory for percussive effects to drive the tracks from underneath. Check "Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord," which was musically inspired by Bobby Womack's "Breezing" and dynamically foreshadowed by Pharoah Sanders' read of it, or the insanely knotty yet intervallically transcendent "The Life Divine," for the manner in which Young's organ actually speaks both languages simultaneously. Young is the person who makes the room for the deep spirituality inherent in these sessions to be grasped for what it is: the interplay of two men who were not merely paying tribute to Coltrane, but trying to take his ideas about going beyond the realm of Western music to communicate with the language of the heart as it united with the cosmos. After three decades, Love Devotion Surrender still sounds completely radical and stunningly, movingly beautiful.

by Thom Jurek in All Music Guide

Styles:
Jazz-Rock
Fusion
Blues
Post-Bop

Tracks:
01 - A Love Supreme (07:48)
02 - Naima (03:09)
03 - The Life Divine (09:30)
04 - Let us Go Into the House of the Lord (15:45)
05 - Meditation (02:45)

Line-up:
Mahavishnu John McLaughlin - guitar, piano
Carlos Santana - guitar
Doug Rauch - bass guitar
Mahalakshami Eve McLaughlin - piano
Khalid Yasin - piano, organ
Mingo Lewis - piano, keyboards
Billy Cobham - drums, percussion
Don Alias - drums, percussion
Jan Hammer - drums, percussion
Mike Shrieve - drums, percussion
Armando Peraza - congas, percussion, vocals