McLaughlin Mondays # 6 - The Double Rainbow

After the mysterious falling out between members of the first Mahavishnu Orchestra after only two years together, McLaughlin quickly formed a new lineup, replacing Rick Laird with a very talented bassist named Ralphe Armstrong and violinist Jerry Goodman with French maestro Jean Luc Ponty. Gone also was Billy Cobham, with Narada Michael Walden taking his place behind the drums. For good measure, McLaughlin drafted Gayle Moran on keyboards in place of Jan Hammer, effectively pulling off a complete makeover of the band.I saw this lineup perform a live rendition of their groundbreaking 1974 album “Apocalypse” at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Outside the venue there were members of the Sri Chinmoy movement anxious to share their philosophies and beliefs, and the spiritual mood carried forward into the show itself, with McLaughlin attired completely in white, soft spoken, and requesting a brief meditation with the audience prior to performing (as he frequently did around that time).This new Mahavishnu lineup were less raucous than the previous one. Jean Luc Ponty was ready and willing to step up and take center stage along with McLaughlin, and I remember being blown away by the intensity of their musical dueling together at that show. What made “Apocalypse” a really interesting album was the extensive orchestral contribution, courtesy of a young Michael Tilson-Thomas conducting, and some interesting scoring by Michael Gibbs. Throw in George Martin as producer and the London Symphony Orchestra performing, and you have a massive classical component to mix with the jazz fusion fireworks of the new Mahavishnu lineup. As a kid brought up on rock music of the 60s and early 70s I had always been fascinated by the odd melding of electric instruments and classical orchestras – Deep Purple’s “In Rock” being a prime example. Here on the track below I still get the same tingle up the spine as the orchestra is accompanied by a straight away rock drum kit thru the intro and into the transition to the band at 3mins in.But perhaps the real star of this piece is not McLaughlin himself, but his guitar, the fabled Rex Bogue-built “Double Rainbow”. Two years in the making, this incredible instrument finally debuted on the “Apocalypse” album. It looked and sounded simply amazing. Here’s a rare image of the instrument in the hands of its maker.McLaughlin lost this beautiful guitar along the way after lending it to someone, so the story goes. I can't help but wonder as to its fate. More about its creation “here”: http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/Dave/mclaughlin/art/rainbow.htmlEnjoy.MM