For a small and allegedly sleepy, backward civilisation, New Zealand’s musical community has great taste. Here are a bunch of Wellington musos who seemingly got together recently to perform a load of Mahavishnu Orchestra covers. Several have just appeared on YouTube. Hurrah!
The players are:
Hannah Fraser
Johnny Lawrence
Daniel Hayles
Tyson Smith
Shaun Anderson
The Mahavishnu Orchestra performed only two concerts in New Zealand (in their Mk2 version, in 1974). It seems their trip was not wasted.
I presume that Mahabishnu cover versions don’t exactly grow on trees. Or do cover bands usually have a tune or two of theirs in their repertoire, just in case?
You’d be surprised Kai. For a band (Mk1) that released only 3 LPs (4 if you count the posthumous ‘The Lost Trident Sessions’, although half its tracks were on the live 3rd LP), there have been an extraordinary number of (a) tribute releases and (b) tribute bands, both mostly from the past 10 or so years.
There are three V/A tribute sets:
Visions of an Inner Mounting Apocalypse
Mahavishnu Redefined (2CD)
Mahavishnu Redefined 2 (2CD)
And single artist tribute/covers sets from an Austrian string quartet, a solo pianist, a German big band, an acoustic guitar quartet, a guitar/violin duo…
Plus individual recorded covers here and there (Jeff Beck has recorded at least two).
Also, there have been three albums from Greg Bendian’s Mahavishnu Project containing wholly MO material, including one (‘Return to the Emerald Beyond’) that is a (fabulous) 2CD live performance of the MO (Mk2) single LP ‘Visions of the Emerald Beyond’. Covers of MO Mk2 material (three original LPs) are far rarer than Mk1.
Added to that are far more Mahavishnu tribute bar bands in the US (mostly) and occasionally elsewhere than you would imagine, with many clips on youtube. Some, like a Maha-covering flamenco band I’ve posted here before, are quality ‘concert acts’ rather than bar bands – even if they only do those events very occasionally.
It is an extraordinarily rich catalogue of work that is proving very adaptable to 21st Century interpretation.
My gob is truly smacked.
A seriously impressive and very varied list of interpreters.
At risk of stealing one of your signature moves, Fatz, here are a variety of sample clips:
I look forward to listening through all of those.
I really like the flamenco one. Such a wonderfully loopy idea but it works. It’s no surprise to me to learn that one of the guitarist, Raul Mannila, is from Finland. It would take a Finn to come up with an idea like that.
Fancy that – I hadn’t checked that info. Of all the various MO ‘tribute acts’ out there who have not, as far as I know, created a recording for commercial purchase, I think the flamenco troupe are at the top of the ‘oh, go on – please!’ pile.
Of course, now you’ll tell me that they do indeed have an album available, which has hitherto escaped my notice…
Not that I know of. But I did find this review by Walter Kolosky of a Mannola album.
http://www.walterkolosky.com/musicreviews/innervisionsofflamenco
Waler seems to be something of Mahavishnu expert. He’s the author of the books Power, Passion and Beauty and Follow Your Heart- John McLaughlin song by song.
Yes, I know, I know!
I was pretty sure you would. He seems to have made them his niche. To put it mildly.
I know the feeling.
(Not hubris, Fatz, but just in case you were unaware: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bathed-Lightning-Mclaughlin-Emerald-Beyond/dp/1908279516)
I was unaware. Wow! It sounds marvellous.
It’s on my Must Read list now.
You have an impressive bibliography there. To put it mildly.
🙂
As it happens, a Mahavishnu cover came up on my random play on Wednesday evening.
Vernon Reid’s Power Trio, live in 1990 playing “The Dance Of Maya”. Very good, if a little wild & wooly in places.
Is that the guy who plays with a very trebley, scratchy sound?
There’s a lot of original NZ jazz as well to go with the MO cover bands.
A good place to start is Rattle Records
http://www.rattlerecords.net/
who release, amongst many others, the excellent pianist Jonathan Crayford