Biography

John McLaughlin was born on January 4, 1942 in Yorkshire (Great Britain). Although his mother was a violinist, he starts learning piano at the age of 9. Two years later, he changes his mind for guitar that he learns autodidactly.

By the end of the 50's, he performs a while with banjoist, Pete Deuchar and his Professors of Ragtime, then he decides to leave for London where he makes his first professional steps in rock and blues groups.

In the beginning of the 60's, he crosses his path with Georgie Fame and Blue Flames, performs with Alexis Korner, the Graham Band Organization and Trinity, the group of organ player Brian Auger. Then he spends six months in Germany amid the Gunter Hampel band.

In 1968, at the age of 26 he initiates his first personal projects and forms his own group with John Surman, Tony Okley and bassist Brian Odges. The same year stands for the kick-off of his discographical career as a leader with the recording of his first album: "Extrapolation" (1969).

Now on, events are going faster; on Dave Holland's advice, Tony Williams who has just left Miles Davis, appeals to John McLaughlin. With organ player Larry Young, they record "Emergency" (1969). Then will come "Turn it over" (1970). McLaughlin so much enjoyed that group, that he declined to leave it to join Miles Davis; he is besides committed to many ambitions projects, including records and performances.
Later on, when Lifetime breaks up, John McLaughlin contributes to many Davis master pieces including especially several album of reference by the end of the 60's and the beginning of the 70's: "In A Silent Way", "Bitches Brew", "Big Fun" in 1969, then "A tribute to Jack Johnson", "Live Evil" in 1970, and "On The Corner" in 1972.

Meanwhile, John McLaughlin has been recording with Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Miles and Dave Holland: the tapes of this session remain unreleased.

New album, " Floating Point"
2008 - Mediastarz, Monaco

"Industrial Zen"
Read John McLaughlin Plugs back in
Downbeat, february 2008

New times are coming, electric fusion attracts musicians coming out from different horizons. After becoming a disciple of guru Shri Chinmoy Ghose, the guitarist takes the name of Mahavishnu. After a new solo album "My Goals Beyond" (1970), he sets up one of the outstanding groups of these jazz rock years: The Mahavishnu Orchestra. Billy Cobham, Jam Hammer, Jerry Goodman, and bassist Rick Laird feature in the original line up. "The Inner Mounting Flame" (1971) is the beginning of a series of recordings that meet the enthusiasm of an audience delighted by the innovating accents of this music that fits the technological evolutions of the time. The band gives sold out performances for huge crowds.

In spite of the success of the following records, especially "Birds Of Fire" (1972) and "Mahavishnu Orchestra" (1973) (albums which sold by thousands), the adventure of the band comes to an end, but will start episodically again with new musicians: Jean-Luc Ponty et Gayle Moran ("Visions of the Emerald Beyond" in 1974), Bill Evans, Jonas Hellborg, Mitchell Forman, Billy Cobham, Danny Gotlieb, Katia Labèque, Hariprasad Chaurasia and Hussain ("Mahavishnu" 1984, then "Adventure in Radioland" 1986).

After a brief guitarist summit encounter "Love Devotion Surrender" (1972) with Carlos Santana, another disciple of Shri Chinmoy Ghose), John McLaughlin decides to play with Indian musicians: violinist L. Shankar, percussionist Zakir Hussain and Raghavan. Shakti was born in1975, and until 1977, the band is touring the world. This formation celebrates long before the "world music" mode, the properties of a real thorough confrontation such as on "Shakti" (1975), "A Handful of Beauty" (1976), and "Natural Elements" (1976).
Shakti disbanded in 1978, L. Shankar follows John McLaughlin amidst the One truth Band, an electric formation that will live shortly.

The guitarist then asserts his rights: he composes first of all "Electric Guitarist" (1978) which title is explicit. Then after a French period with especially pianist katia Labèque, "Music Spoken Here" in 1980, he has been committed himself to exploding acoustic performances with Al Di Meola and Paco De Lucia. A whole generation of guitarist is conquered the summits of virtuosity reached out by the three musicians, and recorded on the unforgettable "Friday night in San Francisco" (1980) and "Passion Grace and Fire" (1983).

In 1985, John McLaughlin joins Miles Davis again in studio to record "You're Under Arrest". Then he takes part to Bertrand Tavernier's "Round Midnight", before forming in 1988 a guitar-bass-percussion trio based on his complicity with the genius Trilok Gurtu. Throughout four years, the group, in which Jonas Hellborg, Jeff Berlin, Kai Eckhardt and Dominique Di Piazza feature successively on bass, is on tour, records "Live At The Royal Festival Hall" (1990) and "Que Alegria" (1992), and pushes always further the limits of its free figures. "The Mediterranean" concerto for guitar and orchestra is released too in 1990.

In 1993, John McLaughlin turns a new page, and decides to come back to his former passion for trio with an Hammond organ. He appeals to es-funk drummer Dennis Chambers, and a fresh new young talent discovered by Miles Davis, named Joey De Francesco. With concerts all around the world and such an eminent spectaculary formula, The Free Spirits trio is triumphant: Tokyo Live (1994). In the meanwhile, John McLaughlin gives concrete form to a long term and exacting task: a re-writing for guitars of Bill Evans'music amidst the classical quartet Aighetta. "Time Remembered" (1993) pays tribute to the refinement of the composer, and the romanticism of the pianist.
In the course, in 1994, the guitarist revisits John Coltrane 's music with Joey De Francesco on the Hammond organ and, that time, Elvin John on drums: "After The Rain" is a dense and intense album; the fierce drumming of the legendary drummer pushes his partners to inspired chorus blown by the spirit of the great saxophonist.

1996 opens for John McLaughlin on a recapitulative album "The Promise", with a prestigious casting among which Jeff Beck, Michael Brecker, David Sanborn, Sting. That album was recorded as a retrospective look over the guitarist's journey across different times, different encounters: Miles Davis, the organ trio, Indian rhythms, fusion, his fellow partners Al Di Meola and Paco De Lucia. "The promise" showed that he was open to all possibilities, never superficial, summing up the history of a musician out of reach always looking for news paths to be discovered. That very year, he forms again the same guitar trio as 15 years ago with Paco De Lucia and Al Di Meola: the magic is still there.

In 1997 amidst a new group bearing the name of the Heart of Thing, John McLaughlin continues to pursue his quest for excellence. He has been committed to reshaping the musical language into a personal powerful expression of his inner voice.
Among the numerous artists featuring on the album "the Promise", drummer Dennis Chambers and Jim Beard, the wizard of keyboards, have met again within an electric jazz group. They have created together the subtle and dynamic New York fusion style as can be heard on "The Heart Of Thing". On this album Beard and Chambers return to the fray along with percussionist Victor Williams, saxophonist Gary Thomas, and the young Matthew Garrison on electric bass.
On the occasion of their performance at "La Cigale" in november 1998, with Otmaro Ruiz on keyboards, the concert will be recorded live for the second album "The Heart Of Things Live in Paris". John remains the "Young tiger" of modern guitar, keeping sharpening his claws with young musicians, drawing from them the indispensable energy and inspiration to his musical development, trusting them totally in return.
"(…) I welcome a new keyboard player in the group, Otmaro Ruiz. He comes from Venezuela. He is 23 years old and I am 56. So what? Ok I have got much more experience than him, and I am the leader, but on the first minute of music, he will understand that he is among us because I admire him (…)"

In the autumn 1997 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of India's independence, Shakti joins together again, twenty years later under the name of Remember Shakti. John McLaughlin records a new live album, "Remember Shakti" with Zakir Hussain, T.H. Vikku Vinayakram and Hariprasad Chaurasia, fruit of several recitals given in Great-Britain. To many, Shakti remains the golden age of John McLaughlin a founding myth for close encounters of the third kind. In regaining consciousness after a quarter of a century, re-opening the great book of emotion and putting ink to new good sheets of blank paper.

Of the former Shakti only remains Zakir Hussain on tablas. The violon of L. Shankar has been replaced by the mandolin of U. Shrinivas -the man who has imposed mandolin in the karnataka music of South India-. The percussion player has changed too: V. Selvaganesh is no other than T.H. Vinayakram's son. He plays all sorts of percussion, among which ghatam and kanjira, and perpetuates with virtuosity the family tradition. This group, which album "The Believer" (2000) was recorded during the European tour in 1999, is a skilful alchemy mixing jazz and Indian music to produce a rich surprising outcome. "Saturday night in Bombay" (2001) , in Sanskrit "Shakti" literally means "energy" or rather the feminine version of divine energy.

This is probably the best way to end this never-ending century: by reminding us that it was the age of musical adventure.

2003, ”Thieves & Poets” is a command from Jürgen Nimbler and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie to McLaughlin with whom he made an europeen tour. Reorchastrated for symphonic orchestra and played in Paris with Paco de Lucia, this piece has also been used for the Monte-Carlo ballet. As a complement, he reinterprets 4 standards dedicated to 4 different pianists (Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Gonzalo Rubalcaba)

2006, Here McLaughlin has clearly renewed the energy, feistiness and sophisticated form of his best recordings with the Mahavishnu Orchestra — that matrix-orchestra which has never ceased to haunt the British guitarist ever since its inception in 1973, and which periodically resurfaces in his music, regenerating each time both spirit and form. As the splendid, new reincarnation of this invigorating "eternal return", “Industrial Zen” is not only the synthesis and resume of some thirty years' experimentation with fusion (from rock to jazz and Indian music), carrying this syncretic aesthetic to a degree of intensity and formal perfection only rarely attained, but also, and especially, it is an opening onto the future, something that undeniably projects the values of openings, crossbreeds and universal spirituality that are the subsoil of the guitarist's art in the informal magma of new music.

2008, John McLaughlin records the album « Floating Point », with Hadrien Féraud on bass. The album was for the most recorded in India with Indian musicians reffered to by the guitarist as « the Young Lions in India ». He also appears on « Miles from India », celebrating the music of Miles Davis with classical and jazz musicians from India with the addition of musicians who have recorded or performed with Miles Davis. McLaughlin composed and produced the title track for this album.

Leader or co-leader
2008. Floating Point, Mediastarz, Monaco
2006. Industrial Zen, Verve
2003. Thieves & Poets, Verve
2001. Saturday Night in Bombay, Verve
2000. Remember Shakti The Believer, Verve
1999. Remember Shakti, Verve - réf. 3145599452
1997. The Heart Of Things, Verve - réf. 31453915362
1996. The Guitar Trio, Verve
1995. The Promise, Verve - réf. 3145298282
1994. The Free Spirits, Tokyo Live, Verve - réf.3145218702
1994. After The Rain, Verve - réf. 3145274672
1993. Time Remembered, Plays Bill Evans, Verve - réf. 3145198612
1992. Que Alegria, Verve - réf. 8372802
1990. The Mediterranean, Columbia
1989. Live At The Royal Festival Hall, JMT - réf. Verve 8344362
1986. Adventures In Radioland, Verve - réf. 3145193972
1984. Mahavishnu, Warner Bros
1983. Passion Grace And Fire, Philips
1982. Music Spoken Here, Warner Bros
1981. Belo Horizonte, Warner Bros
1980. Friday Night In San Francisco, Philips
1979. Electric Guitarist, Columbia
1978. Electric Dreams, Columbia
1977. Natural Elements, Columbia
1976. A Handful Of Beauty, Columbia
1975. Shakti, Columbia
1974. Visions Of Emerald Beyond, Columbia
1974. Inner Worlds, Columbia
1974. Apocalypse, Columbia
1973. Mahavishnu Orchestra, Oh Boy
1973. Between Nothingness And Eternity, Columbia
1972. Love Devotion Surrender, Columbia
1972. Birds Of Fire, Columbia
1971. The Inner Mounting Flame, Columbia
1970. Where Fortune Smiles, BGO Records
1970. My Goals Beyond, Vogue
1970. Devotion, Douglas
1969. Extrapolation, Polydor - réf. Verve 84115982

Sideman
1986. Zakir Hussain : Making Music, ECM
1985. Miles Davis : You're Under Arrest, Columbia
1985. Bill Evans : The Alternative Man, Blue Note
1980. Stanley Clarke : Fuse One, CTI
1980. Paco de Lucia : Castro Marin, Philips
1980. Miroslav Vitous : First Meeting, ECM
1976. Stanley Clarke : Shool Days, Epic
1975. Stanley Clarke : Journey To Love, Epic
1975. Larry Coryell : Planet End, Vanguard
1974. Carlos Santana : Welcome, Columbia
1972. Tony Williams : Lifetime, Polydor
1972. James Taylor : One Man Dog, Warner Bros
1972. Carla Bley : Escalator Over The Hill, JCOA
1972 Miles Davis : On The Corner, Columbia
1970. Wayne Shorter : Mato Grosso Feio, Blue Note
1970. Tony Williams : Turn It Over, Polydor
1970. Miroslav Vitous : Purple, Epic
1970. Miles Davis : Live-Evil, Columbia
1970. Miles Davis : Get Up With It, Columbia
1970. Miles Davis : A Tribute To Jack Johnson, Columbia
1970. Larry Coryell : Spaces, Vanguard
1970. Joe Farrell Quartet, CTI
1970. Jack Bruce : Things We Like, Polydor
1969. Wayne Shorter : Super Nova, Blue Note
1969. Tony Williams : Emergency !, Polydor
1969. Miles Davis : In A Silent Way, Columbia
1969. Miles Davis : Bitches Brew, Columbia
1969. Miles Davis : Big Fun, Columbia
1968. Kenny Wheeler : Winmill, Tilter, Fontana
1968. Georgie Fame : Third Face Of Fame, Columbia
1967. Gordon Beck : Experiments with Pops, Major Minor
1967. Emcee Five : Bells Lues, Birdland
1966. Twice As Much : Own Up, Immediate

2008. "Meeting of the minds", Mediastarz
2007. "The gateway to rhythm"
2007. "This is the way I do it", Mediastarz
2006. Remember Shakti “The Way of Beauty", Universal Jazz

2006 Improvisations

The entire scores for 5 guitars and bass guitar.
The improvisations of John McLaughlin on the four standards recorded on the CD "Thieves & Poets"