McLaughlin Mondays # 9 - Devotion in New York,
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Just prior to forming the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and just emerging from his incredible experience as part of the Miles Davis / Bitches Brew lineup, McLaughlin found himself in New York surrounded by incredible musicians, and was immersed in an electrified jazz scene that was, well, electric! Hendrix was in town around the same time, and thru various jam sessions (including some with Hendrix himself), McLaughlin met and subsequently played with drummer Buddy Miles, bassist Billy Rich and keyboard player Larry Young, resulting in his second solo album release “Devotion”. Shades of the yet-to-be Mahavishnu Orchestra were very evident on this album, as were the influences of Miles’ radical pre-fusion amplified jazz that McLaughlin had recently been a principal part of.This week’s “McLaughlin Monday” features the title track from that album. As I was researching this post, I stumbled upon an “unplugged” recording of this same track made about a year later, performed live on a U.S. radio station by John and his wife Eve. Apparently the two of them were often performing in churches and other small venues for little or no money (20p admission!), inspired by their guru, Sri Chinmoy, to spread the word of his teachings set to music. This from a 1971 article in the “Melody Maker”, a venerable U.K music publication of the time. What’s fascinating is to hear McLaughlin talking so enthusiastically about the new lineup (which would be the original Mahavishnu Orchestra)……This article appeared in Melody Maker, 4th Sep 1971; JOHN AND EVE: Beautiful Aural Illusions Richard Williams talks to John and Eve McLaughlin The advert was what the trade calls a two-inch double. It was on page 29 of last week's Melody Maker, and there's a very good chance that you missed it, for it simply said: "John and Eve McLaughlin present a concert of devotional music at Porchester Hall, Queensway; 8 pm Thursday, August 26. All proceeds to Sri Chinmoy Worldwide Mission."Not something that would strike you immediately as the most earth-shattering of announcements. But John McLaughlin is one of Christendom's great guitarists: in recent times alone, he's been one-fourth of Lifetime, and he's recorded with Miles Davis. So last Thursday, a few minutes before eight o'clock, I found myself wandering into the Porchester Hall; which lies in the hinderland between Paddington and Notting Hill. A lady at the cash-desk took my 20p, I passed a table covered with small booklets of Indian wisdom, mounted the stairs and entered the medium-sized concert hall.There were about a dozen people there in the first couple rows, and although the number swelled later it never went above about 30. That small audience, though, did contain Bob Fripp and Ian Wallace from King Crimson, and three members of Stud.On stage there were two microphones, two glasses of water, a bowl ofroses, and directly in front of where the musicians would sit one of thosestand-up photograph holders; which I later discovered, confronted theplayers with pictures of their Indian guru.Quite soon, John and his pretty, fair-haired wife appeared, both dressedin white kaftans, and sat before us in the lotus position; John holding alovely round-backed Ovation acoustic guitar and Eve balancing an autoharpin her lap.Before they began, John delivered a little speech telling us that themusic we were going to hear would include poems by Sri Chinmoy, theirspiritual leader, which he (John) had set to music.Eve strummed the auto-harp, setting up a wave of harmonic movement ontop of which John began to play. For the next 45 minutes they deliveredsongs which held the entire audience completely spellbound, and whichcreated the sort of ambience you don't forget for the rest of your life.They sang together: in unison, in simple harmony, sometimes in canonform, and once Eve sang a brief solo, behind which John strummed quietly.Neither has a particularly prepossessing voice - John's tenor isunremarkable, and Eve tends to sing a little sharp sometimes, although shehas a delightfully untutored tone - but their blend is sympathetic, and ifthe words were often indistinct, then the never-obvious melodies and John'saccompaniments obliterated all technical shortcomings.As promised, the content of the songs was devotional, with titles like"My Friend," "God And The World," and "Devotion" itself. There was applausebetween each, which grew in fervour as the concert went on and the audiencelost all sense of strangeness, and at the end the pair received what mightjustly be called a mini-ovation.Afterwards, John and Eve told me that they've now given several suchconcerts, mostly in churches in New York. They'd been on the radio, andalso performed in the city's Town Hall as part of a Guitar Connoiseurs'Night, which was recorded by Columbia. Two nights before the PorchesterHall concert they'd been taking part in the open-air Bilzen Festival inBelgium - "We were followed on by the Faces. It was great."They address each other by their Indian names: John is Mahavishnu andEve is Mahalakshmi. "Mahavishnu" is also part of the title of John's newDouglas album in the States.But what must surely be John's biggest current pre-occupation is his newband, one of the strangest conglomerations of musicians you're ever likelyto read about. He talked about it:"The first guy I called was Billy Cobham, on drums. As far as I'mconcerned, Billy's got it for me. Then there's Jerry Goodman on violin,from The Flock - I'd never met him, but I heard the album and I knew thathe was just what I wanted, so I called him up. He's...well, amazing."I've got Jan Hammer, who's a Czech, on electric piano. Miroslav Vitoussuggested I should get him and I heard him on a Jeremy Steig record, withDon Alias on drums. Have you heard Don? Well, Billy's got it for me, butDon must be THE great new jazz drummer. Fantastic."Then there's Rick Laird on bass. I used to play with him in Londonyears ago in a trio led by Glenn Hughes on baritone.""I was going to get Larry Young, but he's got a new band of his own,called Joy - lovely name, isn't it? So he wasn't able to give a full-timecommitment to anything else." John has signed with Columbia (CBS here), and an album by the group willbe out in the States in about six weeks. He travelled back to New York theday after the concert, because the band has a lot of touring planned inAmerica, but they hope to be in Europe before the end of the year.Enjoy.MM
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