New vids up from the Greatest Band that Ever Was

[stubhead]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPzkozIG4t4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N75tA4iWQXk&feature=related

This is absolute Holy Grail territory, no one even knew if it still existed. Jan Hammer the keyboardist has been a real dick about holding up releases of anything... suffice it to say, the Mahavishnuheads my be outnumbered by the Deadheads, but we're far more dangerous....

 

[Tempest]

I don't get it, I like the drumming...but the rest is  :icon_scratch: ...confusing?

 

[llmtelecaster]

Is that Billy Cobham on drums?

 

[Graffiti62]

The only think I ever knew about Mahavishnu was that Aerosmith opened up for them when they were on their way up--Brad Whitford and Joe Perry used to sit on the side and marvel at John McLaughlin's virtuosity. To me, this reminds me of a fusion jazz band that soaked up a lot of Hawkwind, and maybe a splash of the Dead. There's a lot of talent there, its just not my thing.

 

[JimBeed]

New vids up from the Greatest Band that Ever Was
AH GOD OPINIONS!!!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!
Just messing   :laughing7:
Ill post my actual post when i get working speakers, they died earlier  :-\

 

[Graffiti62]

:icon_tongue:

New vids up from the Greatest Band that Ever Was
AH GOD OPINIONS!!!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!
Just messing   :laughing7:
Ill post my actual post when i get working speakers, they died earlier  :-\

Sound driver messed up on your computer, or did you do something worth bragging about to get the speakers to not work?

 

[JimBeed]

They were old and im skint, nothing special  :laughing7:

 

[stubhead]

this reminds me of a fusion jazz band that soaked up a lot of Hawkwind, and maybe a splash of the Dead.

First things first, there was no "fusion jazz" until these guys invented it, as a tangent to Miles's "Bitches Brew" and "In a Silent Way." McLaughlin then went on to invent "world music" with Zakir Hussain and L. Shankar. He also recorded some wildly virtuoso-istic flamenco albums with Al DiMeola and Paco De Lucia (if you don't think it was flamenco, look up Paco's comments). He's also written and performed a few classical concertos, recorded with his old buds Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, for a while he was running a school for bassists it would seem....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMprmGsGQyk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AzovMu-2LY

A more recent tangent:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FID9lAuOxEg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixtZdbTXlL0&feature=related

It takes at least a few year's work to even know what you're listening to... I remember being amazed at just how QUICKLY the so-called "fusion" genre was overrun, constricted and de-balled by the Corporate Masters. The big labels were just getting their feet wet on "fusak", immediately thereafter they gutted rock music - Led Zeppelin turned into Foreigner/Journey?Oreo Speedcookie/Styx/Starshite/Bachman-Turner Overweight and the Allman Brothers turned into Wet Willie and Black Oak Arkansas. And the mold was cast for the "classic rock" radio format, and they're still playing the same goddam 300 songs. Eeek.

 

[Tempest]

Is that Billy Cobham on drums?

Yeah, Cobham is so great

 

[dNA]

It takes at least a few year's work to even know what you're listening to... I remember being amazed at just how QUICKLY the so-called "fusion" genre was overrun, constricted and de-balled by the Corporate Masters. The big labels were just getting their feet wet on "fusak", immediately thereafter they gutted rock music - Led Zeppelin turned into Foreigner/Journey?Oreo Speedcookie/Styx/Starshitee/Bachman-Turner Overweight and the Allman Brothers turned into Wet Willie and Black Oak Arkansas. And the mold was cast for the "classic rock" radio format, and they're still playing the same goddam 300 songs. Eeek.

what the heck are you going on about?

 

[mayfly]

And here I thought this was going to be a thread about "Complete"

 

[OzziePete]

I have tried to put in a reply to this so many times it has made my head hurt. Almost as much as trying to establish the sense of a pizzicato electric violin 'question and answer' response segment with a  keyboard, right in the middle of a 12 bar blues run.

I grew up around this music, I tried to understand the qualities of it but could only ever equate it to someone trying to sound superior and smug to those who later dared try to play it.  I was chastised by fellow school music class mates in the 1970s for not being able to play half as good as them in all the mind blowing classically or jazz influenced scales they wanted everyone to try. Through their insistence, our school music classes often descended into arguments over 16ths to the bar and obscure counter rhythms. Sorry, my heart wasn't into that music. My lack of confidence with my own music stems from being told it was too simple, not as classy as 'this', by said classmates.

Don't get me wrong, I really do respect John McLaughlin for his talent and his own personal belief in what he does in music. But through this music, he also created a class of musical snob, that to this day, rankles me no end.  Pass me the bucket.

 

[dNA]

I have tried to put in a reply to this so many times it has made my head hurt. Almost as much as trying to establish the sense of a pizzicato electric violin 'question and answer' response segment with a  keyboard, right in the middle of a 12 bar blues run.

I grew up around this music, I tried to understand the qualities of it but could only ever equate it to someone trying to sound superior and smug to those who later dared try to play it.  I was chastised by fellow school music class mates in the 1970s for not being able to play half as good as them in all the mind blowing classically or jazz influenced scales they wanted everyone to try. Through their insistence, our school music classes often descended into arguments over 16ths to the bar and obscure counter rhythms. Sorry, my heart wasn't into that music. My lack of confidence with my own music stems from being told it was too simple, not as classy as 'this', by said classmates.

Don't get me wrong, I really do respect John McLaughlin for his talent and his own personal belief in what he does in music. But through this music, he also created a class of musical snob, that to this day, rankles me no end.  Pass me the bucket.

while i totally totally feel you on most of these points, the one thing I cannot condone is your attributing this kind of attitude among musicians to John McLaughlin. The same thing has been going on in different styles and worlds of music since long before Mahavishnu Orchestra. It was at the very least going on in jazz at least 30 or 40 years before McLaughlin was anybody, and it will continue forever as long as music is still something that belongs to people who are free to have their opinions. John McLaughlin was a pioneer and innovator in his time, but let's not give him that much credit.

 

[OzziePete]

I have tried to put in a reply to this so many times it has made my head hurt. Almost as much as trying to establish the sense of a pizzicato electric violin 'question and answer' response segment with a  keyboard, right in the middle of a 12 bar blues run.

I grew up around this music, I tried to understand the qualities of it but could only ever equate it to someone trying to sound superior and smug to those who later dared try to play it.  I was chastised by fellow school music class mates in the 1970s for not being able to play half as good as them in all the mind blowing classically or jazz influenced scales they wanted everyone to try. Through their insistence, our school music classes often descended into arguments over 16ths to the bar and obscure counter rhythms. Sorry, my heart wasn't into that music. My lack of confidence with my own music stems from being told it was too simple, not as classy as 'this', by said classmates.

Don't get me wrong, I really do respect John McLaughlin for his talent and his own personal belief in what he does in music. But through this music, he also created a class of musical snob, that to this day, rankles me no end.  Pass me the bucket.

while i totally totally feel you on most of these points, the one thing I cannot condone is your attributing this kind of attitude among musicians to John McLaughlin. The same thing has been going on in different styles and worlds of music since long before Mahavishnu Orchestra. It was at the very least going on in jazz at least 30 or 40 years before McLaughlin was anybody, and it will continue forever as long as music is still something that belongs to people who are free to have their opinions.

"Cannot condone"? !!
You don't really want me to reply to that, do you?

 

[dNA]

"Cannot condone"? !!
You don't really want me to reply to that, do you?

:icon_scratch: err... yeah?

 

[Velcro]

I have tried to put in a reply to this so many times it has made my head hurt. Almost as much as trying to establish the sense of a pizzicato electric violin 'question and answer' response segment with a  keyboard, right in the middle of a 12 bar blues run.

I grew up around this music, I tried to understand the qualities of it but could only ever equate it to someone trying to sound superior and smug to those who later dared try to play it.  I was chastised by fellow school music class mates in the 1970s for not being able to play half as good as them in all the mind blowing classically or jazz influenced scales they wanted everyone to try. Through their insistence, our school music classes often descended into arguments over 16ths to the bar and obscure counter rhythms. Sorry, my heart wasn't into that music. My lack of confidence with my own music stems from being told it was too simple, not as classy as 'this', by said classmates.

Don't get me wrong, I really do respect John McLaughlin for his talent and his own personal belief in what he does in music. But through this music, he also created a class of musical snob, that to this day, rankles me no end.  Pass me the bucket.

It's ok, I forgive you. 

 

[taez555]

I really need to check more of their stuff out.  I'm a huge Zappa fan, not to mention all the other 70's jazz fusion guys, Return to Forever, Miles Davis, etc... 

Any key albums to start with?

 

[m4rk0]

and I really expected this to be about Death from 1977...

 

[Cagey]

I remember being amazed at just how QUICKLY the so-called "fusion" genre was overrun, constricted and de-balled by the Corporate Masters. The big labels were just getting their feet wet on "fusak", immediately thereafter they gutted rock music - Led Zeppelin turned into Foreigner/Journey?Oreo Speedcookie/Styx/Starshitee/Bachman-Turner Overweight and the Allman Brothers turned into Wet Willie and Black Oak Arkansas. And the mold was cast for the "classic rock" radio format, and they're still playing the same goddam 300 songs. Eeek.

Get angry much? <grin>

You're right, though.

 

[dNA]

I really need to check more of their stuff out.  I'm a huge Zappa fan, not to mention all the other 70's jazz fusion guys, Return to Forever, Miles Davis, etc... 

Any key albums to start with?

well you should know, if you didn't, that John McLaughlin was basically a nobody until Miles Davis picked him up for some of his fusion work. I don't recall if it was Bitches Brew that first featured him or another album, but that's pretty much where he got his start as far as I remember.

As for key albums, it seems like The Inner Mounting Flame and Birds of Fire are generally the most highly regarded and influential. Don't quote me on that though, since i'm not a big fan and i haven't listened to them in ages.