John McLaughlin: The Montreux Years

This 2-LP vinyl set captures the guitar hero in full flight with an early 80s edition of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, his 90s groups the Heart of Things and the Free Spirits, his current the 4th Dimension Band, and in a dynamic duo setting with the late iconic flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia. The earliest track here was recorded in 1978 with McLaughlin’s One Truth Band featuring original Shakti violinist L. Shankar. Mastered by Tony Cousins at London’s Metropolis Studios and pressed on 180-gram vinyl, The Montreal Years is a sonic marvel and a must for all McLaughlin fans.

McLaughlin cultivated a special friendship over the years with Montreux Jazz Festival founder Claude Nobs, a refined impresario also known for his culinary skills (he trained as a chef) and his convincing blues harp chops (he often sat in with groups at concerts in Casino Montreal). His first appearance at Montreux was with the original Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1971, the year of the infamous fire during Frank Zappa’s set that reduced the Casino to ashes (immortalized in the Deep Purple song “Smoke on the Water”). McLaughlin would return numerous times over the next 40 years, including one impromptu duo jam in 2010 with former Mahavishnu drummer Billy Cobham in which the guitar avatar played on a borrowed Fender Stratocaster. As John recalled to me in an interview: “Every year we are spending our summer holidays in Montreux during the time of the Jazz Festival. On the second day, while we were biking along the lake, I got a phone call from Claude asking if I could be jamming that evening with Billy Cobham, before the concert of Roxy Music. The opening act couldn’t make their flight from Canada and Claude needed a replacement. I hadn’t seen Billy for 25 years and immediately liked the idea. Claude called Billy, who lives in Bern and he also was happy to play. I didn’t have my guitar, and there was no rehearsal. It was a very spontaneous jam and we had lots of fun.” (The audio for the performance is available on YouTube.)

This collection kicks off in blistering fashion with “Radio Activity,” a track from 1984’s Mahavishnu featuring the working band of saxophonist Bill Evans, keyboardist Mitchel Forman, bassist Jonas Hellborg, and drummer Danny Gottlieb. Both this track and the following “Nostalgia” showcase McLaughlin’s use of the Synclavier synth guitar, unnerving to some because it tended to sound more like a Mini-Moog keyboard synth than a guitar, though McLaughlin’s signature scintillating chops are still very much intact here. “Friendship” opens with an extended improvised duet between the guitar avatar and keyboardist Stu Goldberg on Fender Rhodes electric piano before the explosive One Truth Band, powered by the phenomenal drummer Woody “Sonship” Theus, kicks into high gear. 

The intimate duets with de Lucia on “David” and “Florianapolis” involve dazzling exchanges between two exalted six-string masters. The exhilarating 4th Dimension track from 2016, “El Hombre Que Sabià,” is dedicated to de Lucia. A potent organ trio version of Carla Bley’s “Sing Me Softly of the Blues,” fueled by Hammond B-3 monster Joey DeFrancesco, allows McLaughlin to revel in his affinity for deep blues. A superlative compilation.