The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    I was listening to this album for the first time in a long time yesterday and was again blown away. It was the first JM record I ever bought, about the same time as Mahavishnu's Birds of Fire, and it holds up extremely well.

    I have read he played a Gibson Byrdland on this one, but it seems like some of the songs have a tremolo--?SG ?LS-345

    Anyway, my favorite JM record with GREAT TONE throughout. I think the songs are some of the best he's every recorded--run the gamut from pure fusion to great duets with Chick Coreo and Jack Bruce. This is fusion before fusion got moldy.

    Any thoughts?

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  3. #2

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    JM is a monster, no doubt about it. I wore out two vinyl copies of The Inner Mounting Flame and have a CD of it near the top of the pile. Great stuff!
    Last edited by citizenk74; 01-01-2018 at 05:26 AM. Reason: tyP0

  4. #3

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    There were some individual songs that made me say "I would do ANYTHING to be able to do that". My Foolish Things, his tribute to Tal, was one of those. After all the notes, that was it. Elegant and essential. Johnny, his music, that album and that track had a lot to do with my learning to play.
    David


  5. #4

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    Each track had a band that should have made at least an album or three!






  6. #5

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    John sure knew his way around tone. I like hearing the interplay with Carlos--McLaughlin seems to work harder for the notes, the sustain falls off and he attacks again...

    He was certainly an idol of mine but almost made me swear off the guitar in the early 80's because of his monstrous proficiency.

    I think this was the epitome of his tone--would probably say the same for Carlos. I like the nylon string stuff he did after this, but the more synth-oriented, processed recordings don't excite me as much.

    Like GB, John should just be given a Gibson archie and a Fender amp and backed by a straightforward band with organ, bass, drums. No synth strings. Just the facts.

  7. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by Endorphins
    Each track had a band that should have made at least an album or three!
    Same thing, later, on "The Promise."

    I've often wondered exactly what JM promised and to whom.
    Last edited by Sam Sherry; 01-02-2018 at 12:44 PM.

  8. #7

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  9. #8

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    Extrapolation is still my favorite album.

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dana
    Extrapolation is still my favorite album.
    I have that on vinyl but haven't listened to it in years. Will have to dust it off and put it on the old Plattenspieler.

    My second favorite JM solo album back in the day was My Goal's Beyond, with the solo acoustic stuff.

    I liked the couple of albums he did with nylon string starting with Belo Horizonte--I saw him about that time on tour, with the lovely Katia Lebeque on keyboards. It was a superlative show as I recall, but I don't remember him playing a lot of Mahavishnu or electric-oriented pieces.

    Re' his albums with Joey DeFrancesco--I have not actually listened to them much--they are more straight-ahead, good tone but not very overdriven. I think he's playing a Gibson archie on those? JMO I like certain tones with certain guitarists, and for me the quintessential JM tone has a lot of overdrive ala Electric Guitarist and the Mahavishnu stuff. DeFrancesco is a monster, though...not too many guitarists could keep up with him for speed and dexterity. And old Elvin...a supergroup for sure.

  11. #10

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    McLaughlin is such an incredible player....and truly seems a good person to match it.

    Personally, I'd love for him to revisit his tone/set up on Miles Jack Johnson....my favorite of his by far. The first minute alone of "Right Off" is the "mojo" tone to me...

    :-)

  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by rfmando
    McLaughlin is such an incredible player....and truly seems a good person to match it.

    Personally, I'd love for him to revisit his tone/set up on Miles Jack Johnson....my favorite of his by far. The first minute alone of "Right Off" is the "mojo" tone to me...

    :-)
    Yeah he seems like a great guy. I am going to listen to Jack Johnson right now. It's one of those records, no matter how many times I listen to it, I enjoy it and get something new out of it.

  13. #12

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    Yes, I'd like JM to use the Jack Johnson tone and re-record After the Rain w/that "TONE" come on! :-)

    Gibson PAF's pushed into a maxed out Twin or 18w EL84 Marshall....fun!

  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dana
    Extrapolation is still my favorite album.
    Yeah, great album, about as good as anything recorded in the sixties. TBO nothing he's done since betters it imo. I like 'My Goals Beyond' too, some great acoustic playing. Another fave is 'Making Music' by Zakir Hussain. I saw the making music tour in the eighties, but with Larry Coryell, most incredible gig I ever saw.

  15. #14

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    I just saw his SF show a few weeks ago. Sat in the second row center. He has always been one of my favorites and I have a great deal of his work including the Jack Johnson and In a Silent Way alternate takes. I first got hooked being very young and seeing a tape of the MO on ABC's Inconcert on a Friday night at 11:30 pm. I like it all, but his farewell tour was not all that representative of his body of work, his differing styles, etc. I can't fault him for that though. It was good show and he seemed to enjoying himself.

  16. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by lammie200
    I just saw his SF show a few weeks ago. Sat in the second row center. He has always been one of my favorites and I have a great deal of his work including the Jack Johnson and In a Silent Way alternate takes. I first got hooked being very young and seeing a tape of the MO on ABC's Inconcert on a Friday night at 11:30 pm. I like it all, but his farewell tour was not all that representative of his body of work, his differing styles, etc. I can't fault him for that though. It was good show and he seemed to enjoying himself.
    "Farewell tour," whaddya mean, "farewell tour"??

  17. #16

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    John is retiring from touring at the end of current tour. He's not coming back to your town.

  18. #17

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    John is the most innovative musician working on the guitar since the electric guitar was invented (even when he's playing acoustic), with the possible exception of one...

    .. from The Guardian's obituary to Allan Holdsworth.

    "The guitarist
    John McLaughlin has wryly admitted he would have been happy to borrow just about anything his fellow Yorkshireman invented, if only he could have figured out how it was done."

    I'm not from Yorkshire by the way.
    Last edited by sunnysideup; 01-04-2018 at 10:39 AM.

  19. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by whiskey02
    John is retiring from touring at the end of current tour. He's not coming back to your town.
    I just read in one of those guitar magazines, I think it was Guitar Player, that he is indeed retiring, due in a great part to arthritis. If anybody wants, I can look up the issue number. I think I purchased it in November last year, and he was on the cover along with another guitarist.
    ----------------------------------------------

    I did a quick online search. Here is the link:

    Guitar Player - November 2017 – Jimmy Herring & John McLaughlin – NewBay Media Online Store

  20. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by AlsoRan
    ... that he is indeed retiring, due in a great part to arthritis...
    At one time during the show he abruptly pulled his left hand away from the neck and shook it while letting out a big "Ahh."

  21. #20

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    I had front row seats for the Jax FL show and it was just great. I did observe moments where it appeared that he wasn't happy with the way his fingers reacted. As the tour was billed as a Meeting of the Spirits tour, I wasn't surpised nor was I disapointed by the emphasis of the MO tunes. I thought his set without the Jimmy Herring band touched on other moments in his career. Having been an inspiration to me since I first heard My Goals Beyond in 1972, I wasn't going to miss what is probably the last chance I will be able to see him in person. With regard to his arthritis below is what he had to say in an interview.

    "God bless mother; I inherited music from her but I also inherited arthritis, so it's creeping up on me," McLaughlin tells Billboard. "I think one of the most catastrophic things that could happen would be to go on tour and have a really bad hair day where I'm not really able to play. That's a nightmare for me. I don't want to get confronted with that situation, so I told the guys in the band, and some months ago, that this is the goodbye tour." The guitar virtuoso adds that it's also appropriate that he take his final touring bows in North America.





    "It's almost full circle in the sense that I arrived at the end of the '60s in New York to play with Tony Williams Lifetime, and I ended up playing with Miles Davis 48 hours after I arrived and continued to play with him until the last concert in Paris in '91. In fact, it was Miles who pushed me to form my own band in October of 1970; He told me straight it's time to form my own band, and that was Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Mahavishnu in America, the way it was embraced, I can't express my feelings about that, so I'm coming to North America because of my affection for America, the American people and public who just took me to heart, took my band to heart and my music. It's the only way I can really say goodbye and thank you."

  22. #21

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    "it seems like some of the songs have a tremolo--?SG ?LS-345"

    Gibson Johnny Smith with a Bigsby vibrato? Rings a bell from a magazine interview years ago.

  23. #22

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    On the subject recording, it was from everything I read a Byrdland with a scalloped fingerboard. The recording with Joey D', etc were with the JS with a bigsby.

  24. #23

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    I've always had something of a filter with McLaughlin in that intellectually, I realize he's a master but emotionally, he never particularly reached me. I really enjoyed this clip, however, of JM with some exceptional young musicians - passing on the torch.

  25. #24
    John had two Byrdands made. One with a Bigsby and one without. He used both on this album.

    The Bigsby one got damaged just before Jeff Beck was supposed to buy it. The other is going up for auction soon at Christie's.