walking upstream…
John McLaughlin
photo: sven.petersen · public domain ↗John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin is an English guitarist and composer who moved from London's blues and jazz scenes through Miles Davis's electric sessions (In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew) to found the Mahavishnu Orchestra, one of the defining bands of 1970s jazz fusion. In 1975 he co-founded Shakti with L. Shankar and Zakir Hussain to fuse acoustic jazz guitar with Carnatic and Hindustani classical music, a project he revived decades later with Shankar Mahadevan as vocalist, culminating in the Grammy-winning 2023 album This Moment.
the sound in question
1973
Birds of FireJohn McLaughlin
walk the tributaries ↓
Django Reinhardt1930s · Gypsy jazz / Jazz / Swing
McLaughlin has described first hearing Django Reinhardt as an early, defining shock: 'That really twisted me and spun my head around.' The double-tracked acoustic-guitar side of his 1971 solo album My Goal's Beyond, cut with no rhythm section, is a direct descendant of the swinging, virtuosic acoustic guitar language Reinhardt pioneered.
listen: upstream & heresource: All About Jazz — McLaughlin on Django Reinhardt, Miles Davis and John Coltrane as formative shocks ↗
1937
Minor SwingDjango Reinhardt
1971
Song for My MotherJohn McLaughlin
listen forThe fast, cleanly articulated single-note runs and driving right-hand swing feel on McLaughlin's unaccompanied acoustic guitar pieces carry the same virtuosic acoustic vocabulary Reinhardt established in 1930s gypsy jazz, decades before electric fusion existed.
Ravi Shankar1950s–70s · Hindustani classical / Raga / World music
McLaughlin has said 'it's impossible to overestimate the impact Raviji had on all of us, individually and collectively... this man changed the Western world,' crediting Ravi Shankar (alongside tabla player Alla Rakha) with opening the bridge into Indian classical music that led him to study konnakol and, in 1975, to found Shakti.
listen: upstream & heresource: Innerviews — McLaughlin on Ravi Shankar's impact and studying konnakol ↗
1956
Raga JogRavi Shankar
1976
JoyJohn McLaughlin
listen forThe long, patient raga-style unfolding at the start of extended Shakti pieces - modal drones and slowly intensifying improvisation before the full group locks into rhythm - traces directly back to the Hindustani concert form Ravi Shankar brought to Western audiences.
Miles Davis1950s · Jazz / Modal jazz
McLaughlin has said that hearing Miles Davis (alongside John Coltrane) as a young player was it - 'my heart and soul' - and Davis went on to hire him for the electric sessions In a Silent Way (1969) and Bitches Brew (1970), the modal, groove-based jazz-rock hybrid that directly seeded McLaughlin's own Mahavishnu Orchestra. He later paid explicit tribute by recording Davis and Bill Evans's 'Blue in Green' solo on acoustic guitar.
listen: upstream & heresource: All About Jazz — McLaughlin on Django Reinhardt, Miles Davis and John Coltrane as formative shocks ↗
1959
So WhatMiles Davis
1971
Blue in GreenJohn McLaughlin
listen forThe spacious, modal harmony and long, unresolved melodic lines McLaughlin favors even inside high-energy fusion writing - letting a mode breathe rather than resolving quickly through chord changes - carries the modal-jazz language Davis pioneered on Kind of Blue and extended electrically on In a Silent Way.