With guitar icon John McLaughlin's Fall, 2007 North American tour with his new group, The 4th Dimension, a thing of the past, Official Pirate: The Best of the American Tour 2007 gives those lucky enough to catch the tour a chance to revisit and reassess. The digital download-only release also provides an opportunity for those who didn't make it to the shows to hear what they missed. While excerpts from the group's first show in Durham, North Carolina on September 13 were made available on CD-R the next day as Official Bootleg (Abstract Logix, 2007), capturing the energy of a group still discovering itself, Official Pirate provides a more balanced view of the group, culled from board recordings made throughout its seventeen-date tour. Early into the tour, McLaughlin had settled on a consistent set list, with material dating as far back as the gospel-tinged "The Unknown Dissident," from Electric Dreams (Columbia, 1978) and as recent as the more energetic "Senor CS," from Industrial Zen (Verve, 2006). Potent versions are included, along with "Raju" and "5 Peace Band" from the Shakti catalog, both reinvented here with more expansive harmonies that were implied but never fully realized by McLaughlin's East-meets-West explorations. While tunes like the balladic "Nostalgia," the thematically mind-blowing "Hijacked" and the episodic closer, "Mother Tongues" have been performed on other tours with other groups, the intensity and outstanding interplay between McLaughlin, keyboardist/percussionist Gary Husband, bassist Hadrien Feraud and drummer Mark Mondesir make them as good as any already available. "Mother Tongues," a thirteen-minute tour de force for the entire group, may well be the definitive version. McLaughlin and Husband both get individual solos up front that push the limits of virtuosity, but it's when the group heads into a middle section of fiery trade-offs that things really ratchet up. With Husband switching to his quirky jungle kit—highly tuned bass drum, snare and tom, along with two of the clangiest, industrial-sounding cymbals you'll ever hear—the power of two percussionists and the unmistakable fun they had working both off each other and in stunning synchronicity is something that doesn't need to be seen; it's clearly heard. While the playing is largely fierce throughout, the group does know how to pace a set, with "Nostalgia" and the equally lyrical "Maharina"—featuring a particularly lyrical piano solo from Husband—providing brief respites. Still, even on the up-tempo tunes technical fortitude is never a substitute for focus, construction and attention to detail; it's simply a means to a very musical end. There may be plenty of high velocity playing, and at times Husband's synth is clearly more textural than thematic, but this is a group that burns in a way that manages to retain a surprising melodism. Available only through Abstract Logix, the nearly eighty-minute Official Pirate captures some of the finest moments of McLaughlin on his first North American fusion tour in nearly a decade. On the strength of this release, hopefully another ten years won't have to pass before he returns. By & © JOHN KELMAN, Published: January 4, 2008 © 2014 All About Jazz http://www.allaboutjazz.com/official-pirate-the-best-of-the-american-tour-2007-john-mclaughlin-abstract-logix-review-by-john-kelman.php#.U96i__ldXQo
John McLaughlin, who originally rose to fame in the 1970s as a leading member of the jazz fusion band the Mahavishnu Orchestra, has achieved almost mythical status in music history. Jeff Beck of the Yardbirds has considered McLaughlin "the best guitarist alive", due to his unconventional, revolutionary method of playing and the starkly original music he has produced for decades. “Official Pirate” is comprised of board recordings made by the legendary guitarist and his awesome electric fusion band The 4th Dimension throughout their seventeen-date 2007 North American tour. Read
more about John @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McLaughlin_(musician) and listen to Al di Meola, Paco de Lucía, & John McLaughlin’ s superb “Friday Night in San Francisco” album [All tracks @ 320 Kbps: File size = 172 Mb]
TRACKS
1 Raju 10:58
2 Nostalgia 7:21
3 Hijacked 10:01
4 The Unknown Dissident 6:52
5 5 Peace Band 11:11
6 Senor CS 10:00
7 Maharina 6:22
8 Mother Tongues 13:35
All tracks composed by John McLaughlin
MUSICIANS
John McLaughlin - Guitar
Hadrien Feraud - Bass
Gary Husband - Keyboards, Jungle Kit
Mark Mondesir - Drums
BIO
One of fusion's most virtuosic guitar soloists, John McLaughlin placed his blazing speed in the service of a searching spiritual passion that has kept his music evolving and open to new influences. Whether shredding on electric or simmering quietly on acoustic, McLaughlin's intensity and underappreciated versatility have nearly always kept his playing vital, and his best moments -- whether as a solo artist or bandmember -- represent some of fusion's greatest recordings. McLaughlin was born January 4, 1942, in Yorkshire, England, and began playing guitar at age 11. Initially attracted to blues and swing, he worked with British artists like Georgie Fame, Graham Bond, Brian Auger, and Ginger Baker. McLaughlin formed his own band in 1968, and recorded the excellent debut Extrapolation in early 1969. Later that year he moved to New York to join Tony Williams' groundbreaking fusion band Lifetime, and appeared on the classic Emergency! Through Williams, McLaughlin was invited to join Miles Davis' band, and became an important part of fusion landmarks like In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, and A Tribute to Jack Johnson. In 1970, wanting to explore acoustic and Eastern music, McLaughlin recorded the classic My Goal's Beyond; he soon left Davis, and after one further solo album, Devotion, McLaughlin spent some time woodshedding. He re-emerged in 1971 as leader of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, a seminal band that did much to define and popularize early jazz-rock fusion, as evidenced by the albums The Inner Mounting Flame, Birds of Fire, and Visions of the Emerald Beyond. Pausing to record Love Devotion Surrender with Carlos Santana in 1972, McLaughlin led Mahavishnu until 1975. Returning to spiritual preoccupations on My Goal's Beyond, he then formed Shakti, which fused acoustic jazz with Indian music over the course of three albums. McLaughlin returned to his solo career in the late '70s, forming a backing outfit called the One Truth Band, and also recording the guitar trio albums Friday Night in San Francisco and Passion, Grace & Fire with fellow fusion burner Al di Meola and flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia. As the '80s went along, McLaughlin experimented with classical-jazz hybrid composing; there was also a short-lived Mahavishnu reunion in the mid-'80s. In the 1990s McLaughlin continued to record steadily in both electric and acoustic groups. He signed to Verve, where he would remain for 13 years. Some of the more notable albums from that period include the acoustic Time Remembered: John McLaughlin Plays Bill Evans in 1993; After the Rain with Elvin Jones and Joey DeFrancesco in 1995; and 1996's The Promise, which featured the guitarist in a number of settings, including a reunion with his acoustic trio partners di Meola and de Lucia, and a trio with DeFrancesco and drummer Dennis Chambers. The drummer was also a part of McLaughlin's final album of the decade, Heart of Things, a furious bout of electric jazz. The 21st century found McLaughlin in another nostalgic mood, releasing Remember Shakti: The Believer, a live set featuring the guitarist (playing electric guitar) with electric mandolinist U. Shrinivas, kanjira and ghatam player V. Selvaganesh, and legendary tabla player Zakir Hussain. While it wasn't a Shakti album proper, it nonetheless echoed that group's intricate and amazing rhythmic and harmonic breakthroughs. The group toured and released Saturday Night in Bombay a year later. McLaughlin's Euro-classical-leaning Thieves and Poets appeared in 2003. In 2004, WEA in Germany issued the massive 17-CD box set of McLaughlin's Montreux Concerts, which featured performances recorded between 1974 and 1996. Industrial Zen, released in 2006, was a mixed-bag recording where the guitarist's ambitions ran wild. It was his final album for Verve. In 2008 McLaughlin issued Floating Point, an extension of many of the concepts on Industrial Zen, on the Abstract Logix imprint. The final track on that album was entitled "Five Peace Band"; it served as the name for a supergroup assembled by McLaughlin and Chick Corea for a one-off world tour. The other members were saxophonist Kenny Garrett, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, and bassist Christian McBride; an album of the same name was released in 2009 on Concord. To the One, a studio album with his 4th Dimension band, was released on Abstract Logix in the spring of 2010. McLaughlin resurfaced two years later with Now Here This, featuring new 4th Dimension drummer, Ranjit Barot. © Steve Huey © 2014 AllMusic, a division of All Media Network, LLC. | All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-mclaughlin-mn0000223701/biography
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