Mother Tongues

A household name since the early '70s, John McLaughlin was an innovative fusion guitarist when he led the Mahavishnu Orchestra and continued living up to his reputation as a phenomenal and consistently inquisitive player through the years. He started on guitar when he was 11 and was initially inspired by blues and swing players. John McLaughlin worked with David Bowie, Alexis Korner, Graham Bond, Ginger Baker, and others in the 1960s and played free jazz with Gunter Hampel for six months. His first album was a classic (1969's Extrapolation) and was followed by an obscurity for the Dawns label with John Surman, a quintet set with Larry Young (Devotion), and My Goals Beyond in 1970 which was half acoustic solos and half jams involving Indian musicians.

Fusion never really went away, but thanks to the efforts of two of its greatest innovators, it's been making a powerful comeback in recent years. Keyboard legend Chick Corea reunited with guitarist Al Di Meola, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White for a summer 2008 tour of fusion progenitor Return to ForeverReturn to ForeverReturn to Forever
band/orchestra , that became one of the year's biggest successes, documented on the double-CD set Returns (Eagle Records, 2009).