Mahavishnu

I have Inner Mounting Flame, and although the musicianship on it is excellent, I really find very little to be desired in it melodically.

The most tuneful piece on it is probably "A Lotus On Irish Streams(?)", and even that's partially ruined by McLaughlin's noodling away on his guitar. If he'd, you know - played a scale which fit...

I hear Birds of Fire is better, but from my first impression of MO I prefer his work with Shakti. I still listen to it for the sake of appreciating the brilliant musicianship though.

Sasquamo wrote: Certif1ed wrote:    Miles guilty of aimless meandering sometimes Once again, it's evident you're not very familiar with jazz.  You'd probably dislike stuff like Charlie Parker and John Coltrane.  Remember, nobody rates jazz by the compositions.  The individual players are what make the music, not the compositions.  Which is why prog has become boring to me.

Edited by Certif1ed - April 23 2007 at 15:02

Mahavishnu, in my opinion, had the greatest line-up of musicians of any band ever, that aside, they were awesome, but not the greatest thing in the world.  My favorite fusion band, just beating out the much gentler Return to Forever (Chick and Al are gods).

I especially love Billy Cobham's drumming - FOUR STICK technique (dude could do drum rolls with one hand!!!!!!!!!!)

about McLaughlin (one of my favorite guitarists), he and Fripp have the same problem, which isn't really a problem - other than underappreciation.

They both are phenomenal guitarists who have a very untraditional style, utilizing enharmonics and non-western scaling, which isn't a bad thing at all, its just something alien to the majority of listeners.  So its understandable if someone doesn't like them or thinks they are noodling randomly, you just have to know what to listen for.  Both men were heavily influenced by Indian, gamelan, and middle-eastern styles of play, which doesn't necessarily use traditional steps or notes in their music (I believe some of them utilize the coma system).

I probably appreciate them because I grew up listening to Don Ellis, probably the most overlooked jazz innovator of his time.  Ellis was an ethnomusicologist (musicologist who studies the music of a specific ethnic culture) who specialized in Indian/Middle Eastern music and incorporated it into some of the best big-band jazz ever made, utilizing astounding rhythms and, of course, Ellis's virtuoso trumpet playing with his quarter-tone trumpet (capable of playing the step in between enharmonic notes, aka the note between A# and B-flat).  He would often tape his solos during live performances and build another solo on top of it like Fripp does.

Mahavishnu is truly a great band though, phenomenal interplay.


Edited by Atomic_Rooster - April 23 2007 at 17:05

Certif1ed wrote: Vibrationbaby wrote: That Focus clip was part of a studio run through of Eruption. This is the first time I`ve ever heard anyone putting McLaughlin down.. Even Segovia the arch enemy of the electric guitar was impressed with his playing. You guys just read TOO MUCH into this music.   I'm not putting him down, just stating what is self-evident.   I patently do not read too much into music - you just don't read into it as much as I do  (this is not a put-down, by the way, merely a statement of fact).   So what if the Focus clip is studio-based? I could find live clips of Focus, if I had time to waste - the point is to compare the playing on the two pieces and how both relate a jazz style to rock music. Jan's is no more composed than McLaughlin's - it's a fair comparison.   I'm not putting McLaughlin down either - just his playing on "Inner Mounting Flame", which is NOT what it is cracked up to be.   All the documentary evidence points to him being a very fine musian indeed - and on the strength of the compositions, that is demonstrably true.   But on the strength of the playing on IMF, one can't help but wonder.

Have you ever heard Where Fortune Smiles or Extrapolation?  Maybe you should compare his playing on IMF to these recordings especially WFS which was completed only months before the debut of the MO at the Gaslight in NYC. I still don`t understand why you drag a Focus video out of the vaults with Akkerman playing on it and comparing it to McLaughlin.

Well you could tell by my username that I am somewhat of a Mahavishnu fan, but I only have the Birds of Fire album. Its hard to find their albums at stores these days. But Birds of Fire blew me away. Open Country Joy is my favourite song on the album.

Sasquamo wrote: Certif1ed wrote:    Miles guilty of aimless meandering sometimes Once again, it's evident you're not very familiar with jazz.  You'd probably dislike stuff like Charlie Parker and John Coltrane.  Remember, nobody rates jazz by the compositions.  The individual players are what make the music, not the compositions.  Which is why prog has become boring to me.

marktheshark wrote: I've been into fusion since about '73 when a friend of mine lent me his Birds Of Fire album. But I've always kept artists like MO, RTF and WR more or less seperate from prog and more confined to the jazz community. When I had about 500 albums in the 70's, I would keep the prog albums right in with the other rock groups and kept the jazz albums seperate including the fusion ones. Remember, these artists were directly spawned by Miles. However, I've always advocated the inclusion of these artists in the archives. But IMO it's difficult to compare these artists with others like Yes, Genesis or whoever that's prominent in the prog genre. To me, these fusion artists sit a bit further from most of the prog community.

I have the first two MO albums and theres no denying that they were incredably talanted musicians, but as I inherintly look for a blending of compositional and indavidual playing skills I cant help but feel just a little cold when listening to them. Dont get me wrong, I do greatly enjoy listening to them but I find that their songs arent as memorable for me.

Only a few days ago I bought Weather Reports Heavy Weather, my first album from this band, and was instantly impressed with both their compositional and indavidual playing skills and certainly rate this above both MO albums that I have.