The Essentials: Two From McLaughlin

A great musician and his lost band

I’m launching a new series under this newsletter that will cover what are, to me, the essential albums, the ones I always listen to even after decades, the ones I reach for when nothing else will do. Two of these are from the great guitarist John McLaughlin, and it makes sense to put them together not only for bookkeeping, but because they are closely related and also cover the only release from on of the great bands you may have never heard of.

The second of these two albums, Electric Dreams, came out in 1979. That neatly seals off one of the more remarkable decades in John McLaughlin’s career. From 1969 and the release of Extrapolation, one of the finest jazz albums to come out of England (John Surman and Tony Oxley are on it), he played in Tony Williams’ Lifetime band, Miles Davis’ electric groups on In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Live-Evil, A Tribute to Jack Johnson, On the Corner, and Big Fun¹, created and led the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Shakti, and recorded Devotion Love Devotion Surrender with Carlos Santana, and My Goals Beyond (a fantastic and seriously undervalued album). Those ten years are as substantial and meaningful as those of any musician in the recording era.

At the end came these two albums², the first something of a resume and showcase for the range of his musicianship that covered some of his previous history via individual tracks that brought him together with other musicians he had played with, the second the start of a tremendous band—though one that didn’t last. These are interrelated not only in personnel but in style, one showing how McLaughlin got to the start of the other.

The cover of Electric Guitarist has a cheeky image of a business card that says “Johnny McLaughlin / -Electric Guitarist- / Railway Cuttings, Sunnyside, Yorkshire,” clipped to a picture of McLaughlin as a youth, in suit and tie. It’s like he’s advertising himself for wedding gigs and nights playing music at the local. And to make sure you know what he can do, there’s a dazzling variety on the album: the suave lyricism of “New York on My Mind;” a great duet with Santana on “Friendship;” tremendous speed-bop on “Do You Hear the Voices You Left Behind?”; with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, and Jack DeJohnette; the Lifetime reunion on the oblique “Are You the One? Are You the One?”. The whole thing ends with a quiet, luminous solo electric guitar “My Foolish Heart.”

There’s interesting twists and unexpected details, like playing with David Sandborn, Patrice Rushen, and Alphonse Mouzon, and a driving, abrading duet with Billy Cobhamn. It’s pretty tough to make what is essentially a one man compilation work as an album of new material, but McLaughlin’s voice always comes from the same place, it’s always clearly him, and the skill and artistic certainty is about what he has to say.

Electric Dreams is one of the finest jazz and fusion albums there is. That it was only a one-shot seems to say everything about lack of sales, because the One Truth Band he put together for this is a stellar group. A track on Electric Guitarist had keyboard player Stu Goldberg, and he’s central here, with bassist Fernando Saunders and drummer Tony Smith and percussionist Alyrio Lima. L. Shankar adds acoustic and electric violin on a couple tracks, and David Sandborn joins the band for the concluding tune, “The Last Dissident.”

One of my favorite tracks on it is “Miles Davis.” This is McLaughlin returning the honors, of course, but it’s also one of these unfortunately rare cuts that start off with a groove and sustain that and play around with it for a long time, before the theme comes in, which then marks the end. I love music structured like this—another example is “Boogie Woogie Waltz” on Weather Report’s Sweetnighter album. Give me that combination of anticipation and lulling comfort, than bring it all together with what you have to say. It’s like hearing the stars form out gas and dust.

Back to the point of how the music on these two albums is part of the same extended period, though there is only one album from this band, there are a few fantastic live videos available. On these two below, the band doesn’t just play music from Electric Dreams, but material from Electric Guitartist, and even some Mahavishnu Orchestra stuff. There’s something that should not be overlooked here, which is that musicians like this, not just improvisers but ones for whom music is an ongoing accumulation of ideas, playing live is not about delivering this or that album, but playing their music. That’s the One Truth Band—what do they play? They play John McLaughlin.

1. Bitches Brew has the track “John McLaughlin” and Big Fun has “Go Ahead John.“

2. Nicely and logically collected into one CD by the BGO reissue label.