Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A visionary artist going for the stars once again, 4 May 2008
Well into his 60s the illustrious John Mclaughlin is as creative as ever. Having made music history with Miles Davis, Lifetime, Mahavishnu, Shakti he never rests on his laurels but continue to explore and expand his musical universe.
And in many ways is this new release a mixture of everything from his past yet given a new twist. Sounding most of all like the criminally underrated 80s version of Mahavishnu Orchestra, not least thanks to John's widespread use of the guitarsynth.
The album is recorded in India with a host of talented (mostly young) Indian musicians - some of which, like John himself, also participates on the highly interesting "Miles From India" tribute-album. The core on all tracks consiting of the excellent and rather Trilok Gurtu like drummer Ranjit Barat, percussionist Sivamani, the rather discreet Louiz Banks on keyborards and the stunning young French bassvirtuoso Hadrien Feraud. While McLaughlin's claim that he is the 'new Pastorius' might be slightly exaggerated, Feraud is none the less a formidable force on the low end.
On each track except "Maharina" these are supplemented by a host of guest soloists, all young Indian supertalents except for the fine, lyrical sopranosax of George Brooks. All of them showing the stunning ability of Indian musicians to combine the virtuosic with the profound and the spiritual. The fluteplaying of Shasanti on "Off The One" and Naveen Kumar on "1 4 U" simply breathtaking.
It's not Indian music like (Remember)Shakti, but jazz-world-fusion, or rather uniquely McLaughlin music. Not just great and inspired improvisations and solos, but also complex, moving and well-crafted compositions. And all of it infused with a tangible feeling of plain Joy. Endning on a very high note with a beautiful exchange between Niladri Kumar on electric sitar, sounding so much like McLaughlin in his younger days and the maestro himself.
As every McLaughlin-release in recent years, this is quite simply an important musical event.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
McLaughlin's best for quite some time, 28 May 2008
I've have been a keen fan of Indo jazz fusion after hearing, perhaps the first recording in the genre, Joe Harriott/John Mayer's Double Quintet's "Indo-Jazz Fusion", in 1966 or `67*. Compare the music and ideas on that with those found on "Floating Point", and you should get a clear idea how the music has progressed and evolved in the intervening 40 years. Where once you had the exotic sound of a sitar or tabla, playing a westerner's idea of raga to punctuate 60's modern jazz, you now have musicians from both western jazz and Indian traditional musics, coming together in more senses than one. A coming together with each having loved and absorbed both cultures' music, and now playing out a seamless hybrid of the two. For the most part you really don't need to ask the question: 'am I hearing jazz or raga?', since there is little to provide any clear demarcation - personally, this is how I want it nowadays. Instead let the best fusion for quite some time, take you for 60 minutes plus ride into real grooving and novel pleasure.
I very much agree with what the previous reviewer has written. McLaughlin is the master Indo-jazz fusionist, and with him are two Indian musicians on keyboards and drumkit who love jazz, creating music without borders. The young French bass guitarist, Hadrien Feraud and a Indian percussionist, complete the list of five who are the common denominators through the whole album. The challenge is to guest musicians (one western saxophonist, the others playing instruments associated with India, percussion, flutes, slide guitar and electric(!) zitar (their spelling)), not to lose this relatively subtle balance when making their individual virtuoso contributions, or otherwise tip the fusion into straight Indian or straight jazz playing. They succeed and at the same time produce a music which is exciting and in no small way new to most listeners. One example, the tune 'The Voice' in 8 or 9 minutes, swoops free and easy across the east/west boundary without emphasising one over the other. I've read comments made that Indan musician playing the slide guitar (btw, the DVD reveals this to be an ornated decorated, multi-stringed instrument played on the musician's lap), could readily show the talented Derek Trucks a thing or two.
One minor moan is John McLaughlin's use of guitar synthesiser on a couple of the opening tracks. To my ears whether Mac or Holdsworth or Metheny play the guitar synthesiser, the result sounding like a poor man's keyboards, or trumpet or whatever, leaves me wishing the guitarist would play those bars and make them sound like a guitar. However, on the second hearing of "Floating Point" I stopped hearing the synth as something awkward to my ears, but rather integral to the whole.
McLaughlin is on record saying this the best recording he's made. I'm not sure whether I would got that far straightaway, but it has grabbed me like no other McLaughlin recording for over a decade, in way that the much praised "Industrial Zen" didn't. Equally I found the recently released "Miles From India" album, seemingly content to stick with a 70's concept of Indo jazz fusion playing (notably with the exception of McLaughlin's contribution there) - and to my ears sound old fashioned. "Floating Point" in comparison is cutting edge.
I also recommend the accompanying DVD John McLaughlin's "Meeting of the Minds" (the making of "Floating Point"), which gives plenty of insights into McLaughlin style of arrangement, production and cooperation with fellow musicians, building ideas to the point that a tune is ready to be recorded.
Finally, praise must go to the specialist record label, Abstract Logix for releasing yet another excellent jazz fusion album with "Floating Point" - every one of their small catalogue of albums is worth sampling.
*The latest edition of Jazzwise magazine, June 2008, includes an 6 page review of Indo-jazz fusion, predating the start of the genre by a few years. A discography will point you towards other Indo-jazz fusion, many of which I have discovered are available through Amazon.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Consistently stimulating, 2 Jun 2008
I bought this at John McLaughlin's show in London on Saturday, on the penultimate European date of his tour with his new 4th Dimension band. The overwhelming impact of that concert was extraordinary: the interplay between the musicians (including JM's erstwhile colleague Dominique di Piazza standing in on bass for an injured Hadrien Feraud), the sheer power of the playing (culminating in McLaughlin's furious solo over a drum duet from Mark Mondesir and Gary Husband) and the feeling of being in the presence of one of the world's master musicians who has consistently sought to reinvent and redirect himself as he strives to - as he's said in a recent interview - use music to build a bridge between the inner and outer world.
This record (his fortieth, according to some reckoning) represents yet another manifestation of his technical inventiveness and inspiration. Following on from 2006's "Industrial Zen", it seems to have much in common with that set (even the sleeves have similar colours, to take the most superfical viewpoint), which was a return to jazz fusion following the Euro-classical "Thieves And Poets" and the extended period of work with his Indian band, Remember Shakti. The early stages of that group overlapped with his previous fusion project with Heart Of Things, whose recordings provide another point of reference for this set.
But, as is often the case in his lengthy career, there's an unusual twist: this record was made with Indian musicians (and one or two from the West, including Feraud) in India, but they're playing fusion. The result is a consistently stimulating mixture of Western backbeats and complicated Eastern polyrhythms, over which McLaughlin unreels his characteristic sinuous lead lines. Sometimes he's using a clean, bright guitar tone, while at others he's playing the guitar synthesizer, imitating the sound of keyboards or trumpet.
Most of these tracks feature him duetting with guest musicians, including George Brooks on sax, Debashish Bhattacharya on Hindustani slide guitar, U. Ragesh (brother of Remember Shakti's U. Srinivas) on electric mandolin and Naveen Kumar on bansuri flute. Remember Shakti's vocalist, Shankar Mahadevan, is highlighted on The Voice, a track which recycles the riff from Mother Nature, his showcase on Industrial Zen. And the set's closer, Five Peace Band (a track which was also in Remember Shakti's repertoire) incorporates a blistering duet with Niladri Kumar on electic sitar. Each of these guests bring a subtle variation to the music, highlighting the extraordinary talent of the leader and the sheer exuberance of this date as exciting musical connections are made across genres, continents and ages.
McLaughlin has said this might be the best record he's ever made; while this might be a touch of marketing hype (and it's certainly too early to do more than a cursory comparison with his wide-ranging back catalogue), I think that it's a brilliantly stimulating, interesting, entertaining disc which can be recommended unreservedly.
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