John McLaughlin & Jimmy Herring John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension John McLaughlin / Guitars Gary Husband / Keyboards and Drums Etienne M’Bappé / Bass Ranjit Barot / Drums Jimmy Herring and The Invisible Whip Jimmy Herring / Guitars Matt Slocum / Hammond B3 and Clavinet Jason Crosby / Fender Rhodes and Violin Kevin Scott / Bass Jeff Sipe / Drums Wednesday Evening, November 15, 2017 at 7:30 Michigan Theater Ann Arbor 21st Performance of the 139th Annual Season 24th Annual Jazz Series Tonight’s performance is supported by Imagine Fitness & Yoga and by David Sarns and Agnes Moy-Sarns. Funded in part by the JazzNet Endowment Fund. Media partnership provided by Ann Arbor’s 107one, WDET 101.9 FM, WEMU 89.1 FM, and WRCJ 90.9 FM. John McLaughlin and Jimmy Herring appear by arrangement with Abstract Logix Music. In consideration of the artists and the audience, please refrain from the use of electronic devices during the performance. The photography, sound recording, or videotaping of this performance is prohibited. PROGRAM Meeting of the Spirits Jimmy Herring & The Invisible Whip Intermission John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension Finale: Revisiting Mahavishnu This evening’s concert runs approximately three hours in duration including one intermission. 3 MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA by Steve Smith Pressed during a recent interview pyrotechnics, while never foregoing a to recount the stratospheric ascent rock-solid groove. and rapid demise of the original From its start in July of 1971, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the storied band seemed unstoppable. Following powerhouse quintet he had founded a week of rehearsals, the Mahavishnu in 1971 during the nascent days of Orchestra made its debut in a New York jazz-rock fusion, the great British City club. The gig was a success, and guitarist John McLaughlin offered a the band was asked to return the next paradoxical truism: “Failure is easy to week. A few days after that engagement, deal with, but success is difficult.” the quintet made its recording debut, Success came quickly for the first The Inner Mounting Flame, a stunning Mahavishnu lineup: McLaughlin, collection of original McLaughlin violinist Jerry Goodman, keyboardist compositions that sounds fresh, intense, Jan Hammer, bassist Rick Laird, and and otherworldly even now. drummer Billy Cobham. Small wonder: The album vividly illustrated what even in an explosive young scene set the Mahavishnu Orchestra apart that Mr. McLaughlin had helped to from its fusion-era peers. While kick-start with his fiery 1969 debut other bands in the burgeoning scene L P, Extrapolation; as well as his offered mixes of fiery display, virtuoso further work that year in drummer technical ability, funky grooves, Tony Williams’s groundbreaking trio sophisticated jazz harmonies, Lifetime; and, ultimately, alongside and psychedelic-rock power, Mr. the legendary trumpeter Miles McLaughlin and his mates balanced Davis; nothing that came before the power with delicacy and restraint. Mahavishnu Orchestra had hinted at Sophisticated arrangements helped this new band’s singular alchemy. the group live up to the second half of Front and center was Mr. its name, offering textures that truly McLaughlin’s breathtaking technique. reached orchestral heights. In terms of speed, precision, and Mr. McLaughlin also showed an sheer originality, he was virtually appreciation of bucolic, songful without peer. In Jerry Goodman, Mr. British folk music. But what truly McLaughlin had a counterpart who helped to cement the Mahavishnu could match every flurry and spiral, Orchestra’s originality was his while adding classical poise and abiding fascination with the sinuous folksy rusticity. Jan Hammer, beyond melodic lines, complex rhythms, and providing eloquent support, was euphoric flow of Indian classical taking the new Minimoog synthesizer music. An acolyte of the famous guru to new heights of solo display. Rick Sri Chinmoy, who gave the guitarist Laird supplied the earthy tether for the name he bestowed upon his band his bandmates’ flights; Billy Cobham — a compound of “maha” (great) matched them all with explosive and Vishnu, the Hindu deity — Mr. 4 McLaughlin pursued a devotional path. biographer Walter Kolosky for the On stage, his spiritual side came out in 2005 book Power, Passion and ecstatic outpourings of joyful sound, Beauty — The Story of the Legendary abetted and amplified by a powerhouse Mahavishnu Orchestra. “It was like ensemble. (Really, really amplified, having your pants ripped off and according to many accounts.) politely put back on again.” Those disparate elements came The Mahavishnu Orchestra had into still sharper focus and keener become an extraordinary sensation balance on the band’s second album, virtually overnight, any band’s dream Birds of Fire, released in 1973. By — or so it might seem. But for a group that time the Mahavishnu Orchestra of five still-young men, some of whom had left nightclubs behind, playing barely had known each other before instead to arenas packed with rock conjoining their fates, it was too sophisticates. One such listener, the much, too soon. Poor interpersonal insightful music critic Bill Milkowski, communication and divergent described seeing the Mahavishnu lifestyles fed personal tensions; as Orchestra in 1973, opening for Frank importantly, the band simply worked Zappa, in his 1998 book Rockers, itself weary with its whirlwind tour Jazzbos & Visionaries: Interviews with schedule, playing more than 300 30 of Contemporary Music’s Most shows in its first two years. Outstanding and Significant Figures: Like Icarus on melting wings, the plummet followed inevitably. Sessions The leader was dressed in all white and taped in June 1973 for a third studio had a spiritual demeanor about him. album — significantly, the first meant He put his hands together in a praying to include compositions by other band gesture before they lit into their first members — were abandoned. Instead, song and humbly asked for quiet in the Between Nothingness and Eternity, a auditorium. …[W]hen drummer Billy live album taped in New York City’s Cobham, sitting behind an arsenal of Central Park in August and made up drums and roto toms that looked as entirely of material from the scrapped imposing as a battleship, counted off the LP, would serve as the original first tune and the band jumped on it, my Mahavishnu Orchestra’s swan song. hair stood on end. And when McLaughlin (The abandoned tapes, issued in 1999 bore down on his double-neck guitar as The Lost Trident Sessions, attested during one solo, I practically fell to my to both lofty goals and flagging spirits.) knees with my teeth chattering. Daunted yet still devoted, Mr. McLaughlin soldiered on: with a The English guitar legend Jeff bigger, more ornate Mahavishnu Beck described the sensation more lineup featuring the prodigious succinctly. “Watching them was an violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and, for education,” he told Mahavishnu one LP, a full symphony orchestra; 5 with the pioneering acoustic Indian- devotees and newcomers alike. fusion group Shakti; with an intense trio featuring fellow guitarists Paco Steve Smith is director of publications de Lucia and Al Di Meola. A third at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, New Mahavishnu incarnation surfaced York. He was assistant arts editor at in 1984, featuring prominent guitar the Boston Globe, where his beat synthesizer, the flamboyant electric included classical music, pop music, bassist Jonas Hellborg, and, briefly, and the visual arts. He also served as a Cobham back on the drum throne. music editor at Time Out New York and Since the 1990s Mr. McLaughlin has contributed to The New York Times as fronted a string of distinguished a freelance reporter and critic. groups under his own name, the latest of which, the 4th Dimension, puts a fresh, personal spin on the trademark fusion of poise and power that marked the original Mahavishnu Orchestra. That band’s influence has been proclaimed now not only by countless jazz-fusion bands, but also by seemingly unlikely followers: hardcore punk guitarist Greg Ginn of Black Flag, art-rock band the Mars Volta, death- metal group Cynic, and Jimmy Herring, the former Allman Brothers Band guitarist whose teenage discovery of the Mahavishnu Orchestra opened his ears and changed his life. “When you heard Mahavishnu, it was electric and really loud like rock and roll, but my God…the incredible passion and the rhythmic complexities of what was going on and the deep harmony, that’s all part of jazz,” Herring recently told Rolling Stone. “I heard the music, and my reaction was immediate.” How fitting, then, that this particular acolyte should be on hand now to help the master McLaughlin take his final bows before US audiences — and to help fan the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s inner mounting flame once more, for Photo (next spread): John McLaughlin and Jimmy Herring; photographer: Ina McLaughlin. 6 ARTISTS One of fusion’s most virtuosic guitar he led Mahavishnu until 1975. Returning soloists, John McLaughlin placed to spiritual preoccupations on My Goal’s his blazing speed in the service of a Beyond, he then formed Shakti, which searching spiritual passion that has fused acoustic jazz with Indian classical kept his music evolving and open to music over the course of three albums. new influences. Whether shredding In 2008 Mr. McLaughlin issued on electric or simmering quietly on Floating Point, an extension of many of acoustic, Mr. McLaughlin’s intensity and the concepts on Industrial Zen, on the underappreciated versatility have nearly Abstract Logix imprint. The final track always kept his playing vital, and his on that album was entitled “Five Peace best moments — whether as a solo artist Band”; it served as the name for a super or band member — represent some of group assembled by Mr. McLaughlin and fusion’s greatest recordings. Chick Corea for a one-off world tour, Mr. McLaughlin was born January 4, presented by UMS in April 2009. The other 1942, in Yorkshire, England, and began members were saxophonist Kenny Garrett, playing guitar at age 11.