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Product Description
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Reissued with sparkling audio and exclusive photographs, this first, 1971, Mahavishnu album certainly vies for the title of the greatest of all jazz-rock recordings. Through spiritually questing flights of intense fury and exquisite quiet, it never loses its sense of inexorable force. Jan Hammer (keyboards), Jerry Goodman (violin), and bassist Rick Laird are completely sympathetic with guitarist John McLaughlin's vision as the music abandons the standard jazz format of successive solos in favor of rapid, heightening, braided, interactive contributions--a structure much drawn from Indian classical music. Astoundingly, the music retains discipline. For that, thank Billy Cobham: Through all the expressive, irregular meters, he remains a steady, resolved engine of percussion, vastly resourceful but ultimately reserved. McLaughlin's alchemy distills many worlds of music -the jazz-guitar masters, flamenco, blues, Indian forms, and his experience in the innovations of the seminal jazz-rock outfits of Miles Davis and Tony Williams. Of course, distortion, feedback, and arena-rock amplification were crucial, as was the influence of Sri Chinmoy, McLaughlin's spiritual guide. "The Noonward Race," "Vital Transformation," and "The Dance of Maya" are music for the ages. -- Peter Monaghan
Product Description
1971 debut - an absolute Jazz/Rock fusion classic w/John McLaughlin, violinist Jerry Goodman & keyboardist Jan Hammer
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is guitarist John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra's debut recording, and although there are some rough edges to a few of the pieces, this is a quality album of early '70s jazz-rock fusion (with the emphasis more on rock than jazz). The line-up of the band is impressive, with McLaughlin on guitars, Jerry Goodman on violin, Billy Cobham on drums, Rick Laird on bass and Jan Hammer on keyboards. The addition of Goodman gives the band a very different (and much copied) texture, and his solos are highly impressive. McLaughlin is in-your-face as usual, and this follows directly on from his work with Miles Davis.
The first track (Meeting of the Spirits) is probably the best track on the album (though maybe You Know, You Know pushes it very close indeed), with it's quick-fire guitar and violin lines, and the virtuosic drumming of Cobham, who is excellent all through the performance. The piece is in three, and that's what really gives it a very different feel to most of the rock that you hear (the repetetive riff is very catchy). You Know, You Know contains another repetetive figure, but this time the atmosphere is far more relaxed, and the long silences at the beginning are inspired. Jan Hammer brings a more avante-garde spirit to the band with some very individual and quirky solos (he really likes using that pitch bender). The only thing that doesn't work is A Lotus on Irish Streams. McLaughlin's twanging on acoustic guitar and the meandering tune just don't fit with the spirit of the album.
This is the definitive recording of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and well worth getting hold of , if you're a Hendrix fan or keen on the rockier side of fusion.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Meeting of the Spirits and You Know You Know are magical and the only track that drags is 'Lotus' which is incongruous to the whole. The drumming is breathtaking with changes in time signatures which seem impossible. The guitar, violin and electric piano complement each other perfectly. I saw the band when they played at the Crystal Palace Bowl in London circa 1971 and it changed my life. Fusion has a reputation for being pompous and pretentious but this record is neither - just a group of virtuoso musicians making a great sound and creating a mystical atmosphere - even for an agnostic!
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Over thirty years ago I gave someone Home's The Alchemist (Whose What?) in exchange for this album. It was the best trade I ever did. A long time later I discovered In a Silent Way, Miles Davis's seminal fusion album featuring John McLaughlin on guitar, but for a long time, The Mahavishnu Orchestra was fusion.
The opening track, Meeting of the Spirits, sets a breakneck pace. It's like an updated Ride of the Valkyries, same loping 3/4 time signature, at the beginning. It then lays back a little, and then gets right back into it. Billy Cobham's drums drive the pace, and McLaughlin and violinist Jerry Goodman fire out musical bullets. Should anyone ever remake Apocalypse Now, Colonel Kilgore's Air Cav could easily (albeit anachronistically) ride into action to the sounds of Mahavishnu in place of Wagner.
Alternatively, you could do a pretty martial waltz to it!
A couple more perfect fusion storms are followed by the pastoral calm of A Lotus on Irish Streams, in which Jan Hammer's fluttering piano complements perfectly the gentle violin and acoustic guitar. Hammer would later go on to add the theme tune icing to the Miami Vice style cake.
On vinyl that was the closing track of side one.
Side two heralded more stormy weather and some weird fusion time signatures begin, making the rhythm more edgy - and more challenging if all you came to do was dance. This was made at a time when King Crimson's Bob Fripp was boasting of his use of 12/13 time or some such, and McLaughlin joined in the party. But don't ask me what the time signature is. I can't count that fast.
Again Cobham drives the pace, with crackling drum and sizzling hi hat, but the power of Rick Laird's bass underpins the enterprise when the drums fly off the edge of the disc, as they often do. There are some staggering changes in pace. The band is a fine-tuned, fuel-injected motor and the slightest touch on the gas pedal sends it careening down the road. One second you're laying back, taking in the vibe, the next you've turned a corner and in the fast lane experiencing a nose-bleed inducing g-force.
Dance of Maya at one point falls into a syncopated blues figure, catapults into a driving guitar-led melee, then just as easily falls into a 3/4 phase interrupted every few bars by a slow roll on drums.
The final track, Awakening, is like the rousing of a tiger, and it's mad! Before it's done it's growled, screamed and roared, and totally eviscerated the alarm clock.
Awakening? If this stuff doesn't do to it to you, you're long dead.
The opening track, Meeting of the Spirits, sets a breakneck pace. It's like an updated Ride of the Valkyries, same loping 3/4 time signature, at the beginning. It then lays back a little, and then gets right back into it. Billy Cobham's drums drive the pace, and McLaughlin and violinist Jerry Goodman fire out musical bullets. Should anyone ever remake Apocalypse Now, Colonel Kilgore's Air Cav could easily (albeit anachronistically) ride into action to the sounds of Mahavishnu in place of Wagner.
Alternatively, you could do a pretty martial waltz to it!
A couple more perfect fusion storms are followed by the pastoral calm of A Lotus on Irish Streams, in which Jan Hammer's fluttering piano complements perfectly the gentle violin and acoustic guitar. Hammer would later go on to add the theme tune icing to the Miami Vice style cake.
On vinyl that was the closing track of side one.
Side two heralded more stormy weather and some weird fusion time signatures begin, making the rhythm more edgy - and more challenging if all you came to do was dance. This was made at a time when King Crimson's Bob Fripp was boasting of his use of 12/13 time or some such, and McLaughlin joined in the party. But don't ask me what the time signature is. I can't count that fast.
Again Cobham drives the pace, with crackling drum and sizzling hi hat, but the power of Rick Laird's bass underpins the enterprise when the drums fly off the edge of the disc, as they often do. There are some staggering changes in pace. The band is a fine-tuned, fuel-injected motor and the slightest touch on the gas pedal sends it careening down the road. One second you're laying back, taking in the vibe, the next you've turned a corner and in the fast lane experiencing a nose-bleed inducing g-force.
Dance of Maya at one point falls into a syncopated blues figure, catapults into a driving guitar-led melee, then just as easily falls into a 3/4 phase interrupted every few bars by a slow roll on drums.
The final track, Awakening, is like the rousing of a tiger, and it's mad! Before it's done it's growled, screamed and roared, and totally eviscerated the alarm clock.
Awakening? If this stuff doesn't do to it to you, you're long dead.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Mindboggling playing
For me this is one of the great records, regardless of genre. John Mclaughlin impressed Miles Davis and demonstrated his prowess on Bitches Brew and never looked back. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mike Davey
Inner mounting musical virtuosity from the best of the best at the top...
This epic and groundbreaking 1971 debut album from The Mahavishnu Orchestra is certainly not for those whose musical tastes extend no further than 4/4-time sing-along melodies or... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Dr. Trang
simply the best....ever
on the list of things to listen to before you die, put this at the top.
it is years on simply the most extrordinary thing on cd ever. Read more
it is years on simply the most extrordinary thing on cd ever. Read more
Published on 19 Aug 2009 by Malcolm Boyd
Music, the like of which you'll have never heard before
I'm in my mid-50s now, yet this album is still the most extraordinary piece of music I have ever heard. Read more
Published on 27 May 2009 by Richard House
Influential Classic
I recently purchased this CD and it sounds just as groundbreaking now as it must have done in 1972. I much prefer this album to Birds of Fire even though there are no synthesisers... Read more
Published on 6 April 2008 by John F
Not quite five
I never heard this on vinyl, but when I replaced my "Birds of Fire" album through Amazon, they recommended this and I thought, why not? I'm very glad I treated myself. Read more
Published on 4 Oct 2007 by DB
Incredible
I've always enjoyed listening to Jazz, and probably became interested in John McLaughlin through Miles Davis' work. Read more
Published on 22 Sep 2007 by M. Jones
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