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John McLaughlin: Black Light

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Abstract Logix
Released: 2015.09.10
Time:
 46:57
Category: Jass Fusion
Producer(s): John McLaughlin
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.johnmclaughlin.com
Appears with: Mahavishnu Orchestra, Al Di Meola, Paco de Lucia, Jan Garbarek
Purchase date: 2015
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Here Come The Jiis (John McLaughlin) - 6:28
[2] Clap Your Hand (John McLaughlin) - 5:59
[3] Being You Being Me (John McLaughlin) - 5:42
[4] Panditji (John McLaughlin) - 6:14
[5] 360 Flip (John McLaughlin) - 6:32
[6] El Hombre Que Sabia (John McLaughlin) - 5:38
[7] Gaza City (John McLaughlin) - 4:15
[8] Kiki (John McLaughlin) - 5:54

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


John McLaughlin - Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Programming
Etienne Mbappe - Bass
Gary Husband - Drums, Percussion, Piano, Synthesizer
Ranjit Barot - Drums, Vocals

George Murphy - Engineer
Marcus Wippersberg - Mixing, Mastereing
Beat Pfändler - Cover Design, Logo

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2015 CD Abstract Logix ABLX 050



Ah, the fusion of jazz and rock—no matter how “old” the genre becomes with each passing year, it still manages to sound so very new. This isn’t to suggest that Weather Report, Return to Forever, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra didn’t have dated elements in their sound, but to suggest that the very nature of this jazz subgenre still sounds forward-thinking even decades after the fact. Mahavishnu mastermind John McLaughlin is one of the many musicians we have to thank for keeping fusion so volatile after all these years. When I heard The Boston Record, his 2014 live album with the 4th Dimension, I could scarcely believe that the guy was in his early 70s. And after all that McLaughlin has accomplished in his lifetime, he really doesn’t need to keep going. What’s left to prove? Well, judging by the sudden appearance of Black Light just one year after The Boston Record, he’s probably out to prove that he can still hold a band together. After being active in the music business for over 50 years, John McLaughlin refers to 4th Dimension members Gary Husband, Etienne Mbappé and Ranjit Barot as “my three favorite musicians”. That’s certainly worth something.

Black Light doesn’t rock as hard as The Boston Record. It’s a studio album so it’s bound to be a tamer animal. But McLaughlin can still let his fingers fly with remarkable dexterity while hanging onto a melody. The 4th Dimension remain as professional and precise as ever, particularly drummer Ranjit Barot who debatably has the most precarious and thereby the most important job of the band by keeping all the elements tied together. When McLaughlin and keyboardist Husband are firing on all cylinders on “Panditji” because Barot and bassist Mbappé‘s brick-solid foundation enables them to do so, it certainly could pass for a adrenaline-fueled live performance.

On the flipside, Black Light captures John McLaughlin in a sad moment due to the recent passing of his friend and colleague Paco de Lucía. Despite their differences in backgrounds, McLaughlin playing for Miles Davis while de Lucía kept the flamenco guitar flame burning, the two shared the stage many times over the years and his sudden death of a heart attack at age 66 prompted McLaughlin to compose “El Hombre Que Sabia” in his memory. The song is a paradox. On the one hand, it’s written on the heels of a friend’s passing. On the other hand, it isn’t a somber or mournful tune. The beginning passage is a little on the quiet side yet strikingly percussive, likely coming from a digital effect used by Husband. McLaughlin plays the acoustic on this track and his passages can’t qualify as joyous nor sorrowful. The rhythm section is active without being full-on energetic. Usually when music is composed in dedication to a fallen individual, there are clear lines drawn and unmistakable emotions at play. “El Hombre Que Sabia” keeps us guessing.

The remainder of Black Light is played on electric guitar. And if you enjoyed any of the 4th Dimension’s prior studio albums like To the One or Now Here This, then you will cherish this one. There are just a few contemporary elements you need to look out for if such things make you uneasy. First, there are brief but still frequent moments of scat singing that will burst from nowhere. Fear not, these vocalizations are in time with the music and more complimentary than distracting. The other surprise to note is the beginning of “360 Flip” where Husband gets the song started with a motif that has more in common with trip-hop, synth-pop, or electronica than fusion. The song returns to this element a few more times over the course of six-plus minutes, but it does not dwell on it. Aside from those few moments, it’s solid mid-tempo jazz-rock fusion.

Black Light, on a grand scale, is also solid. I realize that this is not the most flattering adjective to use when describing music. However, John McLaughlin’s name is already listed on dozens of jazz masterpieces. He and the 4th Dimension are not out to reinvent the wheel, but to make it spin even faster. That is, after all, how you go places.

Rating 7 out of 10

John Garratt - 8 October 2015
© 1999-2015 Popmatters.com



“Playing and working with the same musicians in a band is a living process which unfolds as time goes by,” reflects guitarist, composer, and bandleader John McLaughlin when considering the release of his latest album, Black Light – the third studio album to feature his band, the 4th Dimension. Available via Abstract Logix on September 18, 2015, Black Light finds the relentlessly inquisitive, exploratory McLaughlin continuing to uncover new melodic and rhythmic pathways with the same fearless zeal that has made him one of modern music’s most admired and influential figures. And, in the 4th Dimension – drummer/vocalist Ranjit Barot, keyboardist/drummer Gary Husband, and bassist Étienne M’Bappé – McLaughlin has gathered a trio of fellow travelers with the collective discipline, technical ability, musicianship, and imagination to support, enhance, and enrich McLaughlin’s challengingly expansive new material and methods.

“I am always excited to play with these musicians,” McLaughlin says enthusiastically – no small compliment given he has performed alongside an array of revolutionary talents in his lifetime. “Not only are they marvelous players, but they are great human beings, and as such we have developed, over the years, a deep complicity that comes through in the music.”

Alternately thrilling and heart-rending, the performances and compositions captured on Black Light represent a daring cross-section of McLaughlin’s remarkable career. Throughout, elements of different traditions and styles McLaughlin has been inspired by (and, in some cases, helped to create) are juxtaposed and interwoven into startling new designs – in a most tasteful, musical fashion. “If you simply impose musical elements of a different culture arbitrarily, the result will not be emotionally authentic,” he explains. “The integration of the various talents of the musicians arrives in a way that I can only call organic.”

Helping to cohere the sonic landscape of Black Light is the artful use of electronic elements – both in terms of programmed rhythm tracks, guitar synthesis, and Husband’s uniquely human touch on synthesizers. “The original concept of this recording relates to an album I made some years ago called Industrial Zen,” McLaughlin continues, “in which I worked a long time with what is called ‘sound designs,’ which are either soundscapes or rhythmic elements that have the capacity to evoke feelings and visions in my imagination that would not come otherwise. I became involved in synthesis as far back as 1975, and I’m still attracted to the possibilities of expression. It actually is a fascinating world, but can be quite easily abused in an artistic sense. To me, this is the seductive side of sound design.”

The results achieved by integration of the band’s powerful yet nuanced performances with textured electronic backdrops both haunting and urgent is startling. Witness Barot going head-to-head with a propulsive, roiling synthetic rhythm track on “Kiki,” or how the band weaves in and out of “360 Flip”’s stark, unpredictable electro-underpinnings. “360 Flip” is also one of several Black Light tracks to feature Barot’s mastery of konokol – an Indian tradition of vocalized percussion.

Copyright © 2002-2015 AbstractLogix



When surveying the field of groundbreaking British guitarists who first made their mark in the 1960s and are still with us today — Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page — the one who didn’t play in the Yardbirds may have had the most widely ranging career and arguably, one that’s just as consequential. At seventy-three years old, John McLaughlin doesn’t seem to be anywhere near coasting and his latest band the 4th Dimension is his current means of staying on the edgy side of fusion jazz.

Black Light (September 25, 2015, Abstract Logix) is the 4th Dimension’s third outing and viewed in the context of McLaughlin’s 45 year discography can be seen as a look back and also a look ahead. It combines the highly combustible electric fusion of McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra band, while also incorporating the spiritual Eastern flavorings of My Goals Beyond and his late 70’s Shakti phase. McLaughlin also briefly revisits the flamenco he did to much acclaim with fellow guitar icons Paco de Lucia and Al Di Meola. At the same time, McLaughlin picks off ideas from his headfirst dive into the sleek, 21st century sonic countenance of Industrial Zen.

The four piece band has experienced some flux aside from keyboardist/drummer Gary Husband, but drummer Ranjit Barot and the bassist from Cameroon Étienne M’Bappé continue from 2012’s Now Here This , and the stability has given its leader one of his imaginative ensembles since the first incarnation of Mahavishnu.

Songs with staggeringly craggy themes sometimes done in unison with Husband power songs like the first one (“The Jiis”) and the last one (“Kiki”) and several spots in-between, a signature of Mahavishnu’s most imposing performances. They’re turbo charged by the presence of two drummers, and JM seems inspired to take his blizzard of notes to the next level from that (he’s lost none of his fastball, and isn’t shy about letting you know that).

“Clap Your Hand” is built on a shuffle groove but it’s a most raucous shuffle groove thanks to the open competitive between Husband (on drums) and Barot, and Husband also leaves a big impression with his organ solo. Barot engages in a lot of konnakol, a vocal percussion technique originating in the Carnatic music of South India. Starting with “Clap,” he’s heard applying it in a very aggressive manner, syncing with his rapid-fire percussion.

As with all of McLaughlin’s better fusion outings, McLaughlin is mindful to take his foot off the gas before the sheer display of technical prowess overwhelms the listener. “Being You Being Me,” downshifts into a pretty, soulful piece that retains some of the fire. “Gaza City” goes even further into the soft areas of McLaughlin, with tender, ethereal synth washes and guitar synth lead paced by a slightly militaristic snare drum. The band dabbles into electronica on “360 Flip” but ultimately, it’s handmade music; a vintage Moog solo and McLaughlin’s blues-based licks are sure signs that what’s worked in the past won’t ever be completely disposed of.

This is McLaughlin’s first record since his old friend and colleague de Lucia had died last year and he wasn’t going to pass on an opportunity to pay tribute in song. He plays acoustic guitar for “El Hombre Que Sabia,” but it isn’t all acoustic as he combines with Husband’s single-note synth for the unison lines. However, he wrote an unmistakable flamenco melody for it and trades some tasty fours with Husband on piano.

So Black Light isn’t the groundbreaking juggernaut of, say, Birds of Fire, but it shows John McLaughlin with the help of his spirited band the 4th Dimension is incrementally pushing his craft forward and not stagnate. The fusion guitarist who has inspired generations of other accomplished fusion musicians and composers is still holding class.

S. Victor Aaron - October 11, 2015
Copyright © 2015 Something Else!



Musician, composer and bandleader John McLaughlin will release a new album, Black Light, this fall.

The album features eight original McLaughlin compositions, including a heartfelt homage to his departed colleague, collaborator and friend, Paco De Lucia. McLaughlin had intended to compose an album’s worth of new material with the guitarist just before De Lucia’s untimely passing on February 25, 2014.
 
The De Lucia tribute is titled “El Hombre Que Sabia” and features McLaughlin on acoustic guitar. The title means “The Man Who Knew,“ and you can hear McLaughlin playing a portion of it in the video below.

Aside from that track, Black Light features electric instrumentation. For the album, McLaughlin is backed by the 4th Dimension: multi-instrumentalist Gary Husband (keyboards and drums), Etienne Mbappe (bass) and Ranjit Barot (drums). McLaughlin calls them “my three favorite musicians.”

Following the international release of Black Light, McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension will set out on a world tour, continuing to explore and elaborate upon the album’s genre-defying material.  

www.guitarplayer.com
 

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