John Mclaughlin Original Album

Two years after they recorded Friday Night in San Francisco, John McLaughlin, Al di Meola and Paco de Lucía reunited for another set of acoustic guitar trios, Passion, Grace and Fire, If this can be considered a guitar "battle" (some of the playing is ferocious and these speed demons do not let up too often), then the result is a three-way tie. This guitar summit lives up to its title.

While it would be utterly foolish to consider a two-disc set by guitarist John McLaughlin as anything other than a sample of the wildly diverse career he's enjoyed since the early '60s, it should be noted and underscored that what Legacy does with this set is to provide a solid look at not only the man's gifts but at the way he's employed them, exploited them, and let them get the best of him for the past 40-plus years.

The beloved, historic & previously unreleased recording by the famous Guitar Trio: Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin & Paco De Lucia – ‘Saturday Night in San Francisco’ will be released on July 1st, 2022.

Loose and spontaneous, this (mainly) live album is a meeting of three of the greatest guitarists in the world for an acoustic summit the likes of which the guitar-playing community rarely sees. Broken up into three duo and two trio performances, Friday Night in San Francisco catches all three players at the peaks of their quite formidable powers.

For more than five decades, John McLaughlin has deployed his peerless guitar technique, compositional gifts, and imagination in service of a deeply personal higher calling, forging a vast legacy unmatched in improvised music. Now as the world reels from the toll of the ongoing viral-induced global lockdown, McLaughlin reflects on both the perils and potential of this challenging moment with 'Liberation Time'.

Essential: a masterpiece of jazz-fusion music.
There might have been a fact that he informed them of the name worldwide as a guitar player in the latter half of the 1960's.

Pianist Bill Evans was one of guitarist John McLaughlin's early heroes so this Evans tribute seemed like a logical idea. Sticking to acoustic guitar, McLaughlin is joined by four other guitarists (along with the acoustic bass guitar of Yann Maresz) to create an unusual instrumentation that often sounds as full as a keyboard. The leader arranged ten of Evans's compositions and his own "Homage" for a largely introverted set of music that has a strong classical feel. McLaughlin lets loose a few times but more mood and tempo variations would have kept this from being such a sleepy and overly respectful session.

The startling thing about My Goal's Beyond is that it points the way toward two directions McLaughlin would take in the future – exploring Indian music and the acoustic guitar – and this while he was in the thick of the burgeoning electronic jazz-rock movement. The first half is a John McLaughlin acoustic guitar tour de force, where he thwacks away with his energetic, single-minded intensity on three jazz standards and five originals (including one genuine self-penned classic, "Follow Your Heart") and adds a few percussion effects via overdubbing.