..:: audio-music dot info ::..


Main Page      The Desert Island      Copyright Notice
 Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz


The Mahavishnu Project: Return to the Emerald Beyond

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Cuneiform Records
Released: 2007.01.16
Time:
 58:45 / 59:55
Category: Jazz Fusion
Producer(s): Gregg Bendian
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.mahavishnuproject.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


Disc 1

[1] Eternity's Breath (John McLaughlin) - 14:33
[2] Lila's Dance (John McLaughlin) - 9:22
[3] Can't Stand Your Funk (John McLaughlin) - 6:58
[4] Pastoral (John McLaughlin) - 11:03
[5] Faith (John McLaughlin) - 2:54
[6] Cosmic Strut (Narada Michael Walden) - 5:41
[7] If I Could See (John McLaughlin) - 1:37
[8] Be Happy (John McLaughlin) - 7:30


Disc 2

[1] Earth Ship (John McLaughlin) - 12:03
[2] Pegasus (John McLaughlin) - 3:41
[3] Opus 1 (John McLaughlin) - 2:09
[4] On the Way Home to Earth (John McLaughlin) - 9:05
[5] Smile of the Beyond (John McLaughlin) - 5:38
[6] Vital Transformation (John McLaughlin) - 10:49
[7] Sister Andrea (Jan Hammer) - 11:11

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


THE MAHAVISHNU PROJECT:
Gregg Bendian - Drums & Dumbeq, Arrangemenets, Producer
Glenn Alexander - Electric & Acoustic Guitars
Rob Thomas - Electric & Baritone Violins
Adam Holzman - Keyboards
David Johnsen - Bass
Premik Russell Tubbs - Saxophones & Flute
Katherine Fong - 1st Violin
Zach Brock - 2nd Violin
Nicole Federici - Viola
Leigh Stuart - Cello
Maria Neckham - Voice
 
Randy Taber - Engineer, Mixing, Mastering
Bill Ellsworth - Cover Art, Design
Alan Nahigian - Photography

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2007 2CDs Cuneiform Records RUNE 242/243



THE MAHAVISHNU PROJECT'S third release features an amazing journey back to the Mahavishnu album most requested by the fans of this very special music, 1975's classic "Visions of the Emerald Beyond".

With "Return To The Emerald Beyond" The Mahavishnu Project go all-out and in-depth, jamming extensively on each track as they explore and expand on the songs that the original Mahavishnu rarely, if ever, played live.

Package includes an opulent eight-page booklet full of color photos and an essay by Gregg Bendian.

"Return To The Emerald Beyond" was recorded live in concert and contains nearly two hours of music, including three bonus tracks!

www.mahavishnuproject.com



Gregg Bendian isn’t known for shying away from challenges. In creating the Mahavishnu Project seven years ago, the drummer had to re-enact the complex, militaristic, warp-speed style of Billy Cobham with the original Mahavishnu Orchestra 1971-1974 lineup. Cobham and founding guitarist John McLaughlin were the catalysts for a group that was at once beautifully melodic, profoundly harmonic and furiously rhythmic (akin to playing Cream LPs at 45 rpm). Currently working on a duo CD with another manic guitarist, Richard Leo Johnson, Bendian’s latest Mahavishnu Project release boldly goes where no band has gone before.

On the live, two-disc Return to the Emerald Beyond, Bendian expands his quintet lineup to 11 pieces to match the unmined gem of McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu catalog. Visions of the Emerald Beyond, released in 1975, featured violinist Jean-Luc Ponty in for Jerry Goodman, bassist Ralphe Armstrong for Rick Laird, keyboardist-vocalist Gayle Moran for Jan Hammer, and drummer Narada Michael Walden for Cobham. String and horn sections filled out McLaughlin’s vision, which never saw the stage, since the guitarist disbanded Mahavishnu soon thereafter.

Nearly every song on the sequential double-CD runs at least twice as long as the original. “Eternity’s Breath” clocks in at nearly 15 minutes, and features Bendian’s thunderous drumming, a shimmering four-piece string section and standout soloing by violinist Rob Thomas. Former Miles Davis keyboardist Adam Holzman introduces “Lila’s Dance” and consistently injects the influence of Hammer into Moran’s simpler lines. Bassist David Johnsen takes an extended solo in “Can’t Stand Your Funk,” which is highlighted by saxophonist Premik Russell Tubbs, also featured on McLaughlin’s original 1975 recording.

Guitarist Glenn Alexander and vocalist Maria Neckam update McLaughlin and Moran capably, but without the signature guitar fire on “Be Happy” or the vocal range on “If I Could See.” Bendian turned toward rotating personnel in recent years after losing his original and best lineup, and the occasional result is the sound of a well-rehearsed co-op lacking the original project’s cohesion. This cast also has the disadvantage of going up against arguably the best Mahavishnu Orchestra lineup ever. The session-seasoned Ponty eclipsed Goodman 30 years ago (a trend since reversed); Armstrong played with more personality than Laird, Moran allowed McLaughlin the use of space, and Walden had Cobham’s thunder with more musicality.

Disc two opens by pointing out the occasional long-windedness of the double-disc with the meandering, 12-minute “Earth Ship.” The ensemble rights itself with the original album’s muscular closer, “On the Way Home to Earth,” plus bonus encores including Hammer’s “Sister Andrea.” The live Return to the Emerald Beyond is an enviable achievement, but more importantly, it will encourage listeners to explore the disc that spawned it.

Bill Meredith, May 2007
© 1999–2014 JazzTimes



Even though it is not as consistently convincing as Mahavishnu's first two albums, this fifth, 1975 outing nonetheless provides plenty of the same listening rewards--urgent, inexorably forceful jazz-rock fusion with an intense interactivity among the players. Jean-Luc Ponty provides the fresh interest. Always most convincing when employed, rather than in charge, here he revels in the open spaces and blissed prompting that McLaughlin's celestial-run formula provides. The album was one of a few later Mahavishnu recordings that announced that the revolutionary band's mission was near completion, and perhaps already played out. McLaughlin's playing soars at some points, but it was time for him to leave the capsule, and settle into a new phase: his extraordinary Shakti collaborations.

Peter Monaghan - Amazon.com



"What is primary to me is that they are all great musicians. Everyone has to be a good improviser. It's not enough to transcribe the tunes themselves. You have to be able to take them to another place... These guys can get there." - Jan Hammer
 
"...they grab the bar the original Mahavishnu set during its 1971-'74 peak and raise it a notch. There's a truly amazing level of musicianship at play here, balancing focus, intensity and freedom..." - The Boston Phoenix

"...an exciting document of inspiration and exploration..." - Rolling Stone




Drummer Gregg Bendian's Mahavishnu Project is at it again: taking a complete recorded work by John McLaughlin's second (expanded) version of the original band, and playing it live. Visions of the Emerald Beyond is unusual as a Mahavishnu Orchestra title in that very little of it was performed live, and was never entertained as a live date, according to Bendian in his liner notes. You'd never know it. With Bendian, guitarist Glenn Alexander, bassist David Johnson, and keyboard whiz Adam Holzman, the rest of the players, including a string section, Premik Russell Tubbs plays both saxophones and flutes. Minimal vocal chores are accomplished beautifully and naturally by Mariah Neckham.

If anyone can help us hear the original album in a new light in Return to the Emerald Beyond, it's Bendian. Having performed the first version of every title the original Mahavishnu Orchestra released, the Project had a duty in their collective mind to move on past the confines of the early band just as McLaughlin did, realizing his dream of a "full" orchestra on Visions of the Emerald Beyond with an expanded string section. This 11-piece does just that on Return to the Emerald Beyond. As is their wont, they performed the album live for an entire summer and took the best versions of the individual tracks to compile the CD. Sonically, it's warm, immediate and full. Musically, it's revelatory. Revisiting an album that early Mahavishnu fans had trouble with, proves the longevity and enduring contribution of the music, but more importantly, in the process, that this was music that can be, and perhaps should be, performed live. The guitar work of Alexander is full of emotion and power, but also restraint as he moves through the knotty changes in McLaughlin's compositions. Rob Thomas' solo violin work meets the challenge of Jean-Luc Ponty's original parts with an edginess and mutability that is rather astonishing. Bendian is no mere timekeeper; he's music director, leading and guiding the changes and improvisations in these pieces (check out the opener "Eternity's Breath" and "Can't Stand Your Funk" on disc one, as well as "Earth Ship" and "Vital Transformation" on disc two). The ensemble playing is tight but also very flexible, creating space inside some of these tunes that is not there on the studio recording but is necessary in live performance. In sum then, the Mahavishnu Project has accomplished not only their goal, but has also revealed how necessary and filled with innovation Visions of the Emerald Beyond is; placing the jazz-rock of the '70s firmly in the continuum of the music's tradition, and offering a place for those compelled to both listen to and play it as a way inside the complexity of the music and its emotion.

Thom Jurek - All Music Guide
 

 L y r i c s


Currently no Lyrics available!

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


Currently no Samples available!