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John McLaughlin & the 4th Dimension

by 26 Comments

Venue:

Astor Theatre, Perth, Western Australia

Date: 06/10/2015

Let me put my cards on the table. If I had to rush into a burning building to rescue some treasured possessions, the first thing I’d grab would be those early Mahavishnu Orchestra LPs. Well, after the Beatles and Zappa records, of course. And one of the twins, obviously. That’s how much John McLaughlin means to me.

The last time I saw McLaughlin live was in 1975 at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the second incarnation of Mahavishnu featuring Jean Luc Ponty on violin. That was 40 years ago but the maestro has lost nothing in the interim.

With time signatures so complex they might as well have been hieroglyphics transcribed from the wall of a pyramid and guitar solos so intricate they would have left Yngwie Malmsteen scratching his head in disbelief, this was definitely music for grown-ups.

Looking for all the world like George Martin’s slightly younger brother, the silver haired McLaughlin produced unbelievable sounds from his Paul Reed Smith guitar. With the incredible Étienne M’Bappé on bass (playing in gloves!), Gary Husband doubling on keyboards and drums and Ranjit Barot on drums, the band was almost telepathically in sync. Most of the material was from McLaughlin’s recent albums, but to everyone’s delight the encore was a sublime version of “You Know You Know” from the first Mahavishnu album.

Tonight was the first date of a short Australian tour which moves onto S.E.Asia in a week or two. Catch it if you can.

The audience:

Oldies, mostly. This first Australian date was downsized from the original venue and even then it was only two thirds full. A thousand people in the audience, tops

It made me think..

This is a man who played and recorded with Miles Davis and who made some of the most important jazz fusion records ever. I’m lucky to be here tonight

2

Comments

  1. I wish I could get excited about his music subsequent to the 70s but it just isn’t the same. He’s a different artist.

    I mildly enjoy some things he’s released since then – the Festival Hall live album in the late 80s, the organ trio in the mid 90s, bits of ‘The Promise’ – and the recent 4th Dimension ‘Boston Record’ live album was the closest thing to a JMcL release I’ve enjoyed in the last 20 years or so.

    But I keep listening to Mahavishnu records and bootleg recordings and they are the stuff of genius. It was exciting to obtain recently the US radio promo singles – mono and exclusive edits – of both ‘Open Country Joy’ and ‘Sister Andrea’ (neither on CD as yet). I’ve also given in and ordered the recent ‘hybrid SACD’ of Birds Of Fire. I have a friend with a surround sound facility. I’ll be paying him a visit…

    Here’s JM rehearsing in Perth two days back:

    • I wasn’t expecting much to be honest Colin, but it far exceeded those modest expectations. There was genius at work last night.

      And there was even a touch of humour. JM is from Doncaster, as you know and he lapsed into a Yorkshire accent while introducing Leeds-born Gary Husband.

  2. Fucking hell he looks like Baron Harkonen in that picture.
    I agree with you Colin those early Mahavishnu albums haven.t been topped. The Promise is the closest he came but would still go to see him if he toured here.

  4. I’m ashamed to say I had to Google Husband when he first teamed up with McLaughlin and did balk at the Level 42 connection. But he’s a great player on both keyboards and drums. Am I missing something else?

    • He’s an okay drummer. Just okay. Ish. But keyboards? McLaughlin should be playing with “a” Herbie Hancock, “a” Chick Corea, “a” Jan Hammer. Husband is not in that league. He’s John’s mate, which is nice. But if you listen to his solo albums (and I have) you can hear the lack of inspiration. McLaughlin needs someone to provoke him, not “pretty standard jazz fusion fare” which sums up Husband nicely. But I believe every word of your review, of course – I wasn’t there and wish I had been.

      (This replies to Junior, below, too.)

  5. Hmmm, he’s in Sydney tomorrow night while I’m here, tempted to double up with the Melbourne show but we’ll see.

    What’s the Gary Husband Whipping Boy thing HP.? You said similar when panning JMac’s latest album. Supertalented multi instrumentalist – pretty standard jazz fusion fare I’d have thought

  9. Bass player from Cameroon. Worked there once and,when their TV programme went on the blink, instead of a potters wheel, they showed this brilliant band extemporising in the middle of nowhere. Thin, wild mercury music indeed. The lead guitar sound was wonderful.

  11. Well after the @johnny-concheroo and @h-p-saucecraft face -off it was with some anticipation that I attended the final J Mc show in Australia. There was a second show but it was on first- you get me ?

    I liked the laid back and personal way he introduced each member of the band at the start of the show- you’d feel good and want to play well after being praised like that.

    Having 2 whopping kits on stage I was expecting a battery of sound but the Indian drummer was less about pyrotechnics than the kit implied. The second kit as JC noted was for Gary Husband, HPs lovechild, who would dart across from keyboards mid song for a passage and then back to the keys. His playing was more thump, thump than business of the other bloke (name supplied above) …don’t you love my command of the musical lexicon.We discussed this at the show. It must take some doing to be playing keyboards and then be playing some pretty complex rhythms on drums then back to keys. We too thought it would have been great if the 2 drummers had played together for longer. Imagine them driving that groove from Tribute to Jack Johnson into the ground….I too would have been moist(running gag : refer thread re my spare ticket).

    Gotta say I’m a bit with HP – Husband’s keyboards didn’t do much for me and I hated the sound of that Nord thingy.

    As JC said bass player reminded me of a spider running up and down that geetar.

    A much less fiery show than when he was here with Chick Corea and the others in the super group and no sax. Far softer in every way though his playing was quite gritty ( another technical term) at times.

    I really liked the quiet pieces-a Pharoah Sanders ,a new one I think called new blues, THe creator has a master plan and the encore Love and Understanding from Electric Dreams. All four of them added vocals on the last 2 which was a surprise and the drummer took lead vocals- great voice too.

    No second encore. He may not be ,but he certainly comes across as a gentle humble bloke this guitar god.

    It was a very satisfying show. He followed me round the easy coast being in Sydney and also Brisbane when I was there -wish I’d seen them all.

  12. JC -here is a review of the first Melbourne show. It was a tthe Forum a rock venue where they put seats dowen the front for this gig.

    http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/melbourne-festival-review-john-mclaughlin-and-the-4th-dimensions-speed-volume-and-electricity-leaves-virtuoso-breathless-20151013-gk7r3i.html

    The Melb Recital Hall doesn’t handle loud very well- perhaps they worked that out and toned it down accordingly.

    Interestingly the bass player had an amp behind him but not McLaughlin.

  14. Here’s one for @colin-h

    While rummaging through my old concert tickets for the Zappa thread I came across one for theOneTruth Band playing in Melbourne Palais Theatre July 1979.

    Such are the wonders of cannabis that I have no recollection of that show whatsoever but presumbly it did happen and presumably I was there.

    So I looked for the tour and went to this seemingly comprehensive list and there aint nuthin for Oz listed regarding this tour.

    http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/Dave/mclaughlin/tours/zmahgig.txt

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