Jazz fusion is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and keyboards that were popular in rock and roll started to be used by jazz musicians, particularly those who had grown up listening to rock and roll.
John McLaughlin, also known as Mahavishnu, is an English guitarist, bandleader, and composer. A pioneer of jazz fusion, his music combines elements of jazz with rock, world music, Western classical music, flamenco, and blues. After contributing to several key British groups of the early 1960s, McLaughlin made Extrapolation, his first album as a bandleader, in 1969. He then moved to the U.S., where he played with drummer Tony Williams's group Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his electric jazz fusion albums In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, Live-Evil, and On the Corner. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences.
The Mahavishnu Orchestra was a jazz fusion band formed in New York City in 1971, led by English guitarist John McLaughlin. The group underwent several line-up changes throughout its history across its two periods of activity, from 1971 to 1976 and from 1984 to 1987. With its first line-up consisting of musicians Billy Cobham, Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman, and Rick Laird, the band received its initial acclaim for its complex, intense music consisting of a blend of Indian classical music, jazz, and psychedelic rock as well as its dynamic live performances between 1971 and 1973. Many members of the band have gone on to acclaimed careers of their own in the jazz and jazz fusion genres.
Birds of Fire is the second studio album by jazz fusion band the Mahavishnu Orchestra. It was released in 1973 by Columbia Records and is the last studio album released by the original line-up before it dissolved.
William Emanuel Cobham Jr. is a Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Jerry Goodman is an American violinist known for playing electric violin with The Flock and the jazz fusion ensemble Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Apocalypse is the Mahavishnu Orchestra's fourth album and third studio album, released in 1974.
Love Devotion Surrender is an album released in 1973 by guitarists Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin, with the backing of their respective bands, Santana and The Mahavishnu Orchestra. The album was inspired by the teachings of Sri Chinmoy and intended as a tribute to John Coltrane. It contains two Coltrane compositions, two McLaughlin songs, and a traditional gospel song arranged by Santana and McLaughlin. It was certified Gold in 1973.
Spectrum is the debut solo album by jazz fusion drummer Billy Cobham.
Visions of the Emerald Beyond is the fifth album by the jazz fusion group Mahavishnu Orchestra, and the second released by its second incarnation.
The Lost Trident Sessions is a studio album by jazz fusion group the Mahavishnu Orchestra, released on 21 September 1999 through Sony Music Entertainment. It was originally recorded in June 1973 at Trident Studios but was not released until 26 years later. According to the album's detailed liner notes, in November 1998 Columbia Records producer Bob Belden stumbled upon two quarter-inch tapes in Columbia's Los Angeles vault whilst gathering material for a remastered reissue of the Mahavishnu Orchestra's 1973 album Birds of Fire. The tapes were otherwise unlabelled besides the recording location, but upon further inspection, they were revealed to be the two-track mixes for what would have been the Mahavishnu Orchestra's third studio album at the time.
Between Nothingness & Eternity is the first live album by jazz fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra, released on November 1973 by Columbia Records. According to the Mahavishnu Orchestra Gigs listing by Walter Kolosky, it was recorded live at the Schaefer Music Festival, held in Central Park, New York, on August 17 and 18, 1973, even though available recordings indicate that all of the material from the album was taken from the second night only. Originally, Mahavishnu Orchestra's third album was to be a studio effort, recorded in June 1973 at Trident in London, but was scrapped during the final days of the project; the live album, containing versions of three of the original six tracks, was released instead as the last album during the period of the original line-up of the band. The original studio album was released in 1999 as The Lost Trident Sessions.
Inner Worlds is an album by the Mahavishnu Orchestra. It was the group's sixth album release, as well as their last for nearly ten years.
Devotion is the second album by the English jazz fusion guitarist John McLaughlin, released in 1970. It was recorded while McLaughlin was a member of Tony Williams Lifetime. McLaughlin was joined by his Lifetime bandmate, organist Larry Young, bass guitarist Billy Rich and former Electric Flag and Jimi Hendrix drummer Buddy Miles. McLaughlin was unhappy with the finished album. On his website, he wrote, “In 1969, I signed a contract in America for two records. First is 'Devotion' that is destroyed by producer Alan Douglas who mixes the recording in my absence.”
My Goal's Beyond is the third solo album by guitarist John McLaughlin. The album was originally released in 1971 on Douglas Records in the US. It was later reissued by Douglas/Casablanca (1976), Elektra/Musician (1982), and in 1987 by Rykodisc on CD and LP.
The Complete Columbia Albums Collection is a box set by Mahavishnu Orchestra. It came out in 2011 and it contains remastered versions of all the albums by the first incarnation of the band, including The Lost Trident Sessions, which was to be the band's third studio album, recorded in 1973 but only released in 1999. Additionally, the first album, The Inner Mounting Flame, contains a bonus live track; the live album Between Nothingness & Eternity was remixed and expanded; and the box includes a previously unreleased live CD called Unreleased Tracks from Between Nothingness & Eternity. The box comes with a 16-page booklet with short liner notes by John McLaughlin and Richard Seidel.
The discography of Czech-American musician Jan Hammer consists of 25 albums with Hammer as the lead artist, as well as several singles and a large number of collaborations with jazz and rock musicians, such as John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck, Al Di Meola, Mick Jagger, Carlos Santana, Stanley Clarke, Tommy Bolin, Neal Schon, Steve Lukather, and Elvin Jones among many others. He has composed and produced at least 14 original motion picture soundtracks, the music for 90 episodes of Miami Vice and 20 episodes of the popular British television series Chancer.
The Inner Mounting Flame Tour was the first concert tour by the jazz fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Live in San Francisco is a live album by guitarists John McLaughlin and Jimmy Herring. It was recorded at The Warfield in San Francisco, California, on December 8, 2017, and was released in 2018 by Abstract Logix. The musicians are joined by an ensemble that combines McLaughlin's band the 4th Dimension with Herring's band the Invisible Whip.
