John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension
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For nearly a half-century, England's John McLaughlin has nobly served as one of the most exciting and innovative guitarists in the history of jazz. His resume includes such pivotal gigs as his debut stint in UK crooner Georgie Fame's big band, a term in the celebrated Graham Bond Quartet, and key roles in Miles Davis' groundbreaking electric ensemble and drum great Tony Williams' group Lifetime; he's also jammed with everyone from Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones to Carlos Santana and avant-garde piano baroness Carla Bley.
And it was that fluidity by which McLaughlin slipstreamed between AOR and jazz that made him such a power player of the fusion era. As leader of the legendary Mahavishnu Orchestra, the man set fire to his guitar by ripping through post-bop scales with the grace of Django Reinhardt and the fury of Jimmy Page - quite literally, he was the reason why many old school rockers got turned onto jazz in the first place.
It's been quite a while since we've heard McLaughlin tear into his six-string. And for those who've sat out of his whole Indian music period of the last 10 years in hopes he would return to the incendiary sounds of such classic Mahavishnu titles as The Inner Mounting Flame and Birds of Fire, you definitely need to get on the ball and check out To The One, the first proper studio album with his latest band The 4th Dimension. Flanked by venerable British multi-instrumentalist Gary Husband (on keyboards, drums and percussion), drummer Mark Mondesir and Cameroonian bass monster Etienne M'Bappe holding down the bottom end, McLaughlin runs through six original compositions written following a recent spiritual reconnection to John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, the title track of which famously served as a centerpiece to the guitarist's 1973 collaboration with Santana, Love Devotion Surrender. And one can most certainly hear the channeling of Trane's sax through the stringwork of McLaughlin's blistering solos on tracks like "Discovery", "The Fine Line" and "Recovery", a track that also features the kind of dazzling guitar-bass interplay that McLaughlin so indelibly showcased during his short-lived tenure with Jaco Pastorius in the Trio of Doom back in the late ‘70s.
Meanwhile, there are two tracks here, "Lost and Found" and the title cut, which find McLaughlin noodling with his guitar-synthesizer, evoking the kind of classic analog fusion squiggles his old Mahavishnu bandmate Jan Hammer was so famous for coaxing out of his Korg. To The One is definitely McLaughlin's most rocking studio effort since 1978's Electric Guitarist, and a most welcome return to form for this bona fide legend of the axe.
Standout Tracks: "Discovery", "The Fine Line", "Lost and Found", "To The One" RON HART
