Location: Cormons / Teatro Comunale di Cormons / Italy
Date: Thursday, 24.10.2019
A live appearance by the legendary guitar wizard John McLaughlin near our western border was something no jazz fusion devotee could afford to miss — opportunities like this don’t come around very often. This time the remarkably sprightly and spiritually-attuned 77-year-old jazz fusion maestro was in the Italian town of Cormons with his backing band The 4th Dimension, a town that boasts the Teatro Comunale, a theatre hall that occasionally hosts live music events.
Not even the spectacular incompetence and sluggishness of the local organizers was enough to throw the jazz fusion fans off their stride — the computer at the ticket desk had crashed, and it took them the better part of half an hour to hand each concertgoer their ticket. We’ve somehow grown used to this kind of hassle from Italian concert organizers, so nobody got too worked up about it — especially when, before we’d even made it into the hall, we could already hear the opening rhythms of the Mahavishnu Orchestra classic “Trilogy”, which is how John and his The 4th Dimension kicked off their set.
It promised to be an evening of top-shelf jazz fusion of the kind only Mr. McLaughlin can conjure up with his ever-eclectic and fiery guitar wizardry. Seeing John in his ‘electric’ guise these days isn’t easy, and the other three virtuosos — English drummer/keyboardist Gary Husband (ex-Level 42), Cameroonian bassist Etienne Mbappe (ex-The Zawinul Syndicate), and Indian drummer/percussionist Ranjit Barot, who has scored music for numerous Indian films — are likewise not the kind of musicians you run into at every jazz festival.
Husband, best known as a superb jazz drummer, handles keyboard duties in The 4th Dimension for the most part, only joining Barot on a second drum kit for one number and during the solo spot. The veteran all-rounder had no luck on this particular evening — as early as the third number, the stand for his ‘prehistoric’ keyboards collapsed, and it took the stage crew quite a while to sort things out properly. John and both members of the rhythm section refused to be rattled and kept improvising and holding the groove until Husband managed to plug back into the composition. The audience breathed a sigh of relief. Husband’s symphonic arrangements are such a crucial part of The 4th Dimension sound that carrying on without them would have been practically impossible.
Next came “Abbaji”, dedicated to the late Indian musician U. Shrinivas, best known for his electric mandolin playing with the international ensemble Shakti, with which Mr. McLaughlin has been inseparably linked for more than four decades. Here Barot — who throughout the whole show made sure there was no shortage of monumental drum solos — delivered spirited vocal improvisations of the kind you’ll also find in certain tracks from the Shakti catalogue. He treated us to more of the same later in the evening, most memorably during the solo spot, when Husband tried to match him on the percussion and the two staged a brief vocal-percussion duel.
John’s The 4th Dimension were at their most convincing when they let loose with their intelligent, variably-spiced instrumental variations, sweeping us into a state of pure ambient trance on more than one occasion. We were particularly blown away by the performance of “Light at the Edge of the World” (the original belongs to Pharoah Sanders), with its fascinating, esoteric keyboard intro. The concert reached its climax with “The Men Who Knew-El Hombre Que Sabia”, from John’s solo album “Black Light” (2015), dedicated to his late comrade, the late Spanish guitar virtuoso Paco De Lucia. Also from that album was “Gaza City”, while “Call And Answer” from “Now Here This” (2012) represented the newer material. The biggest surprise of the evening was an unexpected rendition of the Mahavishnu Orchestra standard “Eternity’s Breath” from “Visions of Emerald Beyond” (1975). Jazz connoisseurs could feast throughout on John’s untameable guitar blend of exceptional technical mastery, refinement, and spontaneity — and for all his years, he has lost none of his astonishing speed on the strings.
John’s concert wouldn’t have been complete without the Mahavishnu Orchestra classic “Miles Beyond” from the cult album “Birds of Fire” (1973), which ranks among the finest chapters in the history of the jazz fusion scene. John and his crew wrapped up their set with the Mahavishnu Orchestra evergreen “You Know You Know”, into which Mr. McLaughlin, to everyone’s amazement, slipped the main riff from Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”. He surprised us even more when he suddenly injected the famous “Smoke On The Water” riff — originally by Deep Purple, of course — into the same classic; for a jazz musician who has kept plenty of rock company over his career, it wasn’t really all that outrageous.
John and his bandmates were rewarded with a thunderous and thoroughly well-deserved round of applause, but the evening’s comedy of errors wasn’t over yet. The concert was part of a local jazz and wine festival, and the organizers thought it would be a nice touch to reward all four musical heavyweights with a glass of white wine after the show. John and crew were happy enough to raise a glass, though the female festival organizer looked visibly put out after the four virtuosos blocked her from joining the communal toast.
All of us who had been waiting a long time — since his show at Kino Šiška nearly five years prior — to see John in electric mode got everything we came for that evening. John is in remarkable shape for a 77-year-old, playing two and a half hours without a break or any apparent difficulty, which is no doubt partly down to his healthy, ascetic lifestyle — one that sets him well apart from most of his musical contemporaries. The setlist struck just the right balance between Mahavishnu classics and newer work, and confirmed once again that John is weighed down neither by musical past nor present. All of which means we’ll be able to watch him on stage for quite a bit longer than some of his unforgettable musical collaborators — Miles Davis chief among them — who have long since left us.
Setlist:
1. Trilogy
2. Abbaji
3. Light of the Edge of the World
4. The Men Who Knew-El Hombre Que Sabia
5. Gaza City
6. Call and Answer
7. Eternity’s Breath
8. Miles Beyond
9. You Know You Know
Lineup:
John McLaughlin – guitar
Gary Husband – drums, keyboards
Etienne M’Bappe – bass guitar
Ranjit Barot – drums, percussion
author: Peter Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
