THE ESSENTIAL JOHN MCLAUGHLIN

Unlike the recent Clapton release 'The Complete Eric Clapton', this particular McLaughlin compilation has clearly had some thought and effort put into the tracks selected. These have been taken from recordings from McLaughlin's long career whilst being sampled from a broad variety of recording labels. So the music is from the times John McLAughlin was part of the Graham Bond's Organisation through Lifetime, Miles, Mahavishnu to McLaughlin's latest album, 'Industrial Zen'. There are a very large number of musicians to be heard playing with McLaughlin: indeed a veritable who's who of the modern jazz scene. The liner notes are excellent by (Jaco Pastorius's biographer) Bill Milkowski, along with some pretty thorough details of the tracks used. What supports the feeling that effort has been putting into the compilation selection, is the apologies given for not being able to access certain tracks (because record labels didn't want to collaborate - shame on them, e.g. Extrapolation), whilst alternative versions have been found (a relatively unknown version of 'Arjen's Bag' when McLaughlin was part of a Joe Farrel Group). You move from McLaughlin the bebop player of the early 60's, to the innovative jazz rock fusionist of the 70's, to the Indo- jazz rock, flamenco/Latin jazz fusion and through to the modern day, and via the digression in to modern serious music. Perhaps though more tracks representing his output from the 90's might have been included. However, as a starter for a music fan who come this music for the first time and wants to hear why John McLaughlin is seen and heard as one of the best guitarists in world, this double CD is an excellent place to start.

To extrapolate the career of one of the greatest living musicians in 2½ hours is pretty much futile. Given all the inconsistencies, broad scope and brilliance of guitar wizard John McLaughlin, ommissions, misconceptions and ambiguities are bound to occur. Perhaps a more fitting title for this project would have been Discover John McLaughlin.

As an overall listen it has absolutely no flow even though it does follow McLaughlin`s recorded career chronologically starting off with a gem from his early days with the Graham Bond Organisation and ending off with a cut from his most recent studio endeavour " Industrial Zen ". Many afficiados will also notice watered down versions as well as glaring ommissions while new listeners will at times forget that they`re listening to the same guitarist from track to track which is a testimony in itself to Mclaughlin`s versitality. However, expertly written commentary included in the liner notes come to the rescue and explain and justify ommissions and fill in some blanks so anyone from another planet listening to this assemblage for the first will definitely walk away with some kind of impression. Including recordings of McLaughlin as a side man was a good move here as well which reveals another dimension of his genius and more of this would have been welcomed in lieu of a couple of longer tracks which are included here in addition to some more live performances.

I guess my worst complaint about this noble attempt at the impossible is the cheap art direction. Maybe artwork could have been specially commissioned at least for the cover. An overview of the life work of an artist of McLaughlin`s magnitude surely deserves something better than a black and white photo from his Mahavishnu Orchestra period which has been published many times. Nonetheless, by a long shot the most comprehensive anthology that we`re likely to see any time soon of John McLaughlin recordings which could have easily taken up 4 discs ( why do lesser artists always have huge box sets?).