VISIONS OF THE EMERALD BEYOND

After they recorded three intense albums during 1971-1973, the personnel of Mahavishnu Orchestra changed completely for the second version of the group. A reformation of the group in 1974 brought Jean-Luc PONTY on board to play violin, along with a host of new supporting musicians. Gayle Moran, whom I knew the first time with Return To Forever is taking keyboard and vocal jobs. Rick Laird whom previously played bass is now replaced by Ralphe Armstrong while Billy Cobham is replaced by Michael Walden.

The band still maintains its music approach and style with previous album. Through this album the band brings in a bit of blues style into its songwriting approach. The opening tracks "Eternity's Breath Part 1" (3:10) and "Eternity's Breath Part 2" (4:48) sound like one track with blues based rhythm section, inventive violin solos and excellent vocal ine by Gayle Moran. The exploration of guitar and violin result into balanced harmony. John McLaughlin sometimes injects his guitar solos in some transitions as well as in the body of the song. "Lila's Dance" (5:34) continues the music stream of previous tracks with more bluesy touch but with longer guitar solo by John McLaughlin.

As the title imply "Can't Stand Your Funk" (2:09) gives funky soul to the album through a combination of bass guitar, guitar rhythm and brass section. This can be paradoxical with the fact that it actually rejects funk but the music was composed with funk groove. The next track "Pastoral" (3:41) is more on exploration of violin solo with acoustic guitar. The music offers great combination of brass section and guitar / violin solos with some vocal line. This is one of excellent jazz rock fusion album. This can be observed obviously at "Faith" (2:00) - "Cosmic Strut" (3:28) - "If I Could See" (1:18) - "Be Happy" (3:31) where John gives his stunning guitar solos and fills all way through from start to finish. Jean-Luc Ponty injects his dazzling violin work in some segments. He sometimes provides long solo augmented with upbeat music. I truly believe that after his involvement with Mahavishnu Orchestra, his virtuosity was widely recognized by many people, even though he already started his career since 1964 with more jazz music. Jean-Luc Ponty's solo albums like "Cosmic Messenger", "Imaginary Voyage", "Enigmatic Ocean" and "Mystical Adventures" are excellent addition to any prog music collection.

"Earth Ship" (3:42) provides musical break with a mellow music, violin, guitar and vocal line. The album concludes excellently with "On The Way Home To Earth" (4:34) which contains distorted sounds of guitar combined wonderfully with dynamic drum solo through the passages of the song. It's initially like a jamming among musicians but in the later part there is guitar solo which gives melody line of the song.

Overall, this is a highly recommended album especially for those who like jazz-rock fusion with many improvisations of guitar and violin. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW