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John McLaughlin: To the One

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Abstract Logix Records
Released: 2010.04.20
Time:
 40:01
Category: Jazz Rock
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: 2012
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Discovery (J.McLaughlin) - 6:19
[2] Special Beings (J.McLaughlin) - 8:38
[3] The Fine Line (J.McLaughlin) - 7:43
[4] Lost and Found (J.McLaughlin) - 4:26
[5] Recovery (J.McLaughlin) - 6:21
[6] To the One (J.McLaughlin) - 6:34

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


John Mclaughlin - Guitar, Producer
Gary Husband - Drums, Keyboards, Percussion
Etienne M'Bappé - Bass
Mark Mondesir - Drums, Percussion

Marcus Wippersberg - Engineer, Mixing
Beat Pfaendler - Cover Design, Cover Photo

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded and Mixed at Solid Sound Studio, Nice and Mediastarz, Monaco on Nov.-Dec. 2009



With his new album To The One (Abstract Logix/Mediastarz), iconic guitarist and composer and 2010 Grammy Winner John McLaughlin looks backwards and forwards simultaneously. The six original songs are hauntingly evocative - with roiling rhythmic swells, modal expanses, and telepathic group interaction echoing the profound influence of John Cotrane's 1965 spiritual jazz masterpiece A Love Supreme.

Mostly written in July and August of 2009, the music composing To The One was set down in the studio in November and December, with very few overdubs, by McLaughlin's current performing outfit, the Fourth Dimension: Gary Husband (keyboards, drums), Etienne M'Bappe (electric bass), and Mark Mondesir (drums). Compositional devices clearly inspired by Coltrane are fused with elements of McLaughlin's own multi-faceted approach, all delivered with a group empathy and shared vision that harkens back to Coltrane's fearless mid-'60s quartet of Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Jimmy Garrison. The effect of Jones' kaleidoscopic approach to rhythm and drumming is especially felt, brilliantly recast and explored via McLaughlin's gift for complex metrical structures.

McLaughlin's restless, enquiring spirit is captured with disarming immediacy on To The One, vividly enhanced by both the skill and soulfulness of the Fourth Dimension. From the surging opener "Discovery" to the gently propulsive title track which closes the compact, forty-minute program, McLaughlin's own playing is at its very peak: emotional and probing, exploding into flourishes of rapid-fire sixteenth notes one moment, candid and unguardedly vulnerable the next. No slavish imitation or sentimental tribute, To The One is a fiery yet open-hearted work, taking on the artistic and spiritual challenges first offered by Coltrane's jazz masterpiece while making extensive use of the pioneering musical and technical vocabulary that McLaughlin has honed since the beginning of his storied career.

Abstract Logix Records



McLaughlin is still playing with fire and finesse several decades into his career.

As it says on the sleeve, as opposed to the tin: file under jazz/rock. These words, as well as the crackling electrified sounds that they invariably conjure up, are the devil itself for those who see jazz as a purely acoustic, swing-based art. But even they would have to concede that British guitarist McLaughlin is one musician who has brought grace as well as aggression to the vexed sub-genre.

If one accepts that jazz-rock was Miles Davis’ early 70s bombshell baby then he, along with Joe Zawinul and Herbie Hancock, among others, was an invaluable midwife. Four decades on, McLaughlin is still playing with fire and finesse and his elder statesman status means that he can cherry pick talent when he assembles a band. The four-piece he leads here is notable for the presence of two powerhouse drummers, Mark Mondesir and Gary Husband (the latter also plays keys), though the real jewel of the sidemen is arguably Cameroonian bass guitarist Etienne Mbappé. His bubbling, percussive lines, seamless slides into double time and razor-sharp sub-divisions of the beat bring forth the sophisticated ruckus that is not so much jazz-rock as jazz that rocks.

McLaughlin is highly effective when playing unison lines with Mbappé, no more so than the spiralling bebop-like melody of Recovery, which is squeezed into a few action-packed bars. These tactics are smartly deployed, but as flawless as the technique is on this set, what is missing is the one thing that has elevated McLaughlin above many of his peers – his lyricism or, as Zawinul’s co-conspirator Wayne Shorter would put it, “the need to tell a story”. Some of the arrangements are also a touch on the rigid side, with one too many songs breaking up their pulse just as a groove starts to cook.

On the plus side, the Pat Metheny-ish title-track uses a guitar-synthesiser deftly against Husband’s intricate comping, but it’s still hard to shake the feeling that this is a group that might have a great record in it rather than a group that will make a great record simply because it’s a great group.

Kevin Le Gendre, 2010
BBC Review



In the liner notes for To the One, guitarist John McLaughlin writes a brief essay about the profound inspiration John Coltrane's A Love Supreme had on him musically and spiritually. In the Mahavishnu Orchestra, that debt was obvious; on Love Devotion Surrender, with Carlos Santana, the pair covered its title theme. McLaughlin even paid direct homage to the saxophonist on 1995’s After the Rain, which featured not only Coltrane’s material, but drummer Elvin Jones as well. With his group the 4th Dimension -- Gary Husband on keyboards and occasional drums; Mark Mondesir on drums; and Cameroonian bassist Etienne M'Bappé --McLaughlin explores an electric jazz that is deeply and directly indebted to Coltrane’s modal music and lyric interplay, and also to the emotional and spiritual aspects of the saxophonist’s expressions. On set opener “Discovery,” carefully chosen keyboard modes drive McLaughlin’s attack around a melodic statement without actually succumbing to a specifically agreed-upon theme. Likewise Husband’s piano solo, which uses the middle and high registers, and offers arpeggios and ostinatos around his own articulation of the modes, playing right into them the way McCoy Tyner would. Guitar and keyboards go head to head later in the track to breathtaking result. “Special Beings,” by contrast is a lithe, shimmering, melodic ballad that actually swings. The bass playing by M'Bappé, while understated, here creates a sense of motion underscored by the double-timed light touch of Mondesir. “Recovery” employs Husband on drums and keyboards with Mondesir on additional percussion. This is a triple-timed workout for the band with inspiring bass work by M’Bappe. McLaughlin’s guitar work moves from taut, speedy, knotty fusion to emotional soloing. The band engages in rhythmic counterpoint, scalar interplay, and funky asides while remaining poignantly focused on “singing” together, rather than just expertly riffing around one another. The set contains some moody ballad work as well, in “Lost and Found" and the closing title track where McLaughlin uses his guitar synth, but the playing is soulful and communicative, not just cosmic and atmospheric. To the One is an inspired milestone for McLaughlin and a fine recorded introduction to one of the more exciting electric jazz groups in the 4th Dimension.

Thom Jurek - All Music Guide



This McLaughlin quartet is due for three May dates in the UK, and the repertoire here emerged from what the guitarist is describing as an imaginative renaissance for him in 2009. Doubters might initially hear on this set much the same mix of cascading runs, percussion pyrotechnics and grandiloquent climaxes as has usually featured in McLaughlin's fusion work - but there's more to it here, in both the playing and the composing. His powerfully supportive Anglo-French partners (Gary Husband on keys, Etienne M'Bappe on bass, Mark Mondesir on drums) have undoubtedly helped, and this tight 40-minute document hums with a collaborative energy. After the initial fusion blaster, Discovery, Husband elegantly shadows McLaughlin's phrasing and delivers a delicious piano solo on the waltzing Special Beings. The Fine Line's lyrical melody has an easygoing airiness that is rare for McLaughlin, and the time-stretching Lost and Found operates over a hypnotic, slow beat from Mondesir. Occasionally a guitar-synth reflects a Joe Zawinul sound, and a Mahavishnu Orchestra riff briefly recalls McLaughlin's illustrious early-fusion past on the title track.

John Fordham - 23 April 2010
© 2015 Guardian News and Media



With his new album To The One, iconic guitarist, composer and 2010 Grammy Winner John McLaughlin looks backwards and forwards simultaneously. The six original songs are hauntingly evocative - with roiling rhythmic swells, modal expanses, and telepathic group interaction echoing the profound influence of John Coltrane's 1965 spiritual jazz masterpiece A Love Supreme. The music of To The One was set down in the studio with very few overdubs, by McLaughlin's current performing outfit, the Fourth Dimension: Gary Husband (keyboards, drums), Etienne M'Bappe (electric bass), and Mark Mondesir (drums). Compositional devices clearly inspired by Coltrane are fused with elements of McLaughlin's own multifaceted approach, all delivered with a group empathy and shared vision that harkens back to Coltrane's fearless mid-'60s quartet of Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Jimmy Garrison. The effect of Jones' kaleidoscopic approach to rhythm and drumming is especially felt, brilliantly recast and explored via McLaughlin's gift for complex metrical structures.

Amazon.com



After two studio albums that fell into the category of special projects—the large-casted but surprisingly cohesive Industrial Zen (Verve, 2005) and synth-laden Floating Point (Abstract Logix, 2008), where the iconic guitarist flipped his past concerns of playing eastern music with a western sensibility by recruiting a largely Indian group to play some very western fusion—John McLaughlin finally rights a wrong with To The One. The Miles Davis alum and Mahavishnu Orchestra founder has been touring with an exciting group, The 4th Dimension, since 2007 (covered in AAJ's exclusive and in-depth, seven-part On the Road series), and while Official Pirate: The Best of the North American Tour 2007 was released by Abstract Logix the same year—and was a fine document of a successful tour—it found the group largely reworking older McLaughlin material, albeit in new and inspired fashion.

It's time for McLaughlin and The 4th Dimension to dig its collective teeth into some new material, and with To The One the guitarist takes a lifetime's spiritual search shared with and inspired by another icon, saxophonist John Coltrane, as inspiration for a set of six compositions more reverential in spirit than in letter. The ever-lithe, ever-visceral McLaughlin has always been capable of creating the guitar equivalent of Coltrane's "sheets of sound," and while there's no shortage of high octane playing here—truly McLaughlin's most exhilarating work and group since his Heart of Things band in the late 1990s—a lyricism that's always been inherent, but has been creeping in more prominently in recent years, is now more prevalent than ever.

Much of the music is, as might be expected, modal-based (though not without allegiance to changes). If keyboardist/occasional drummer Gary Husband was channeling Joe Zawinul on The 4th Dimension's 2007 North American tour, here he's definitely paying his respects to Coltrane's pianist, McCoy Tyner, albeit unequivocally subsumed within a voice that's been unfolding its distinctive personality over the past decade. On the fierce opener, "Discovery," Husband delivers a fiery piano solo, later engaging in some spirited interaction with McLaughlin during a final salvo from the guitarist, supported only by Mark Mondesir's powerful drums and Husband's clangy jungle kit.

McLaughlin has paid tribute to Coltrane before, on After the Rain (Verve, 1995), but that album's homage was more direct, with a repertoire culled largely from the Coltrane songbook—even recruiting ex-Coltrane drummer Elvin Jones. To the One's references are more individual, and consequently more passionate. This may be music with fusion energy, but "Special Beings" proves that The 4th Dimension can also swing with conviction. The group's 2007 bassist, French phenom Hadrien Feraud, is gone from the group, replaced by Cameroonian bassist Etienne M'Bappé—a more mature player who can pump 'em out fast and furious when required, but is equally possessed of a more relaxed sense of time when the music demands it. On the equally swinging "The Fine Line," he locks, tongue-and-groove, with Mondesir, the rhythm team slowly turning up the heat as the tune progresses from Husband's ambling electric piano solo to McLaughlin's overdriven feature, leading to a round-robin series of trade-offs between the guitarist and keyboardist.

John McLaughlinM'Bappé's fretless work drives the funkily balladic "Lost and Found," one of two tracks where McLaughlin switches to guitar synthesizer; but Husband's fourths-driven chords provide the link to Coltrane. The closing title track again features McLaughlin's gentle synth, but on a track that not only simmers with hidden energy, but also possesses an arpeggio-driven middle section that, for Mahavishnu fans, references "Lila's Dance" from Visions of the Emerald Beyond (Columbia, 1975). What's perhaps most surprising about "To The One" is that, with Husband playing both drums and keys (Mondesir sits this one out), its multi-tracked creation does nothing to dilute the spontaneity of everyone's playing.

But it's To The One's penultimate track, "Recovery," that's demonstrative of The 4th Dimension at its best. Husband pulls double duty again, with Mondesir contributing some additional percussion. But the polyrhythmic potency and sheer energy that Husband demonstrates behind the kit—and which lit a serious fire beneath another guitar great, Allan Holdsworth, at a 2009 performance in Gatineau, Canada—fuels an impressive solo from M'Bappé that sets the bar for some exhilarating push and pull between Husband's synth and McLaughlin's gritty guitar. Truly, McLaughlin has rarely sounded better, and the same can be said for Husband, whose stamp is all over this record.

The same can be said for the entire group. Time builds chemistry, and the group's longevity—at this point in 2010, McLaughlin's longest-standing group in recent history—has meant that the energy and excitement of getting to know one another (so definitive of its 2007 tour), has been replaced by a far deeper empathy. To The One is, quite simply, McLaughlin's best album in well over a decade, and if the energy of The 4th Dimension's playing here is mirrored and expanded in its pending North American tour in the fall, fans are going to be in for one serious treat.

John Kelman - April 13, 2010
© 2014 All About Jazz



To the One is an album released by British jazz guitarist John McLaughlin. It is his first album with his band, the 4th Dimension. The album was released in 2010 on Abstract Logix Records and was produced by McLaughlin. It reached number 27 on the Billboard Jazz Albums Chart and was nominated for the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.

To the One was inspired by the 1965 John Coltrane album A Love Supreme. The liner notes were written by McLaughlin and detail how he was influenced by A Love Supreme both musically and spiritually.

The music came to McLaughlin over a five-week period in the summer of 2009. McLaughlin previously honoured the memory of Coltrane on his 1973 collaboration with Carlos Santana, Love Devotion Surrender.

The album was nominated for the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album but lost to the Stanley Clarke album The Stanley Clarke Band. The other nominees were Never Can Say Goodbye by Joey DeFrancesco, Now Is the Time by Jeff Lorber, and Backatown by Trombone Shorty.

McLaughlin has been playing with this group of musicians live since 2007 but this is their first release of new material. In addition to his keyboard playing throughout the album, Gary Husband also plays drums on two tracks, "Recovery" and "To the One". He also has a piano solo on the track "Special Beings". Bassist Etienne Mbappé, who was born Cameroon and raised in Paris, replaced original 4th Dimension Bassist Hadrien Feraud when he broke his hand in 2009, has a solo on the track "Discovery". Mark Mondesir plays drums on every track except "Recovery" and "To the One". Bandleader and composer, John McLaughlin, of course, provides all of the guitar work and even plays a guitar synth on "Lost and Found" and "To the One".

Mike Greenblatt called To the One "very heady, complicated, meandering, spiritual, bass-centric yet trebly and deeply satisfying" in The Aquarian Weekly. Thom Jurek of Allmusic called the album an "inspired milestone for McLaughlin and a fine recorded introduction to one of the more exciting electric jazz groups in the 4th Dimension". Stuart Nicholson of Jazzwise referred to the album as "an odyssey through McLaughlin's spiritual awakening and the meaning it has had in his music". John Fordham of The Guardian wrote that the album is a "tight 40-minute document [that] hums with a collaborative energy".

John Bungey of The Times was more mixed in his review writing "a strong group performance but a few more memorable themes amid the bustle might have added to the spiritual uplift". Randy Ray wrote on Jambands.com that McLaughlin "finds a way to pull his listeners under the surface, and into that fourth dimensional point of view".

John Kelman in All About Jazz wrote that there is "no shortage of high octane playing here" and that it is "McLaughlin's most exhilarating work and group since his Heart of Things band in the late 1990s" and closed by saying that the album is "quite simply, McLaughlin's best album in well over a decade". Ian Patterson in All About Jazz wrote that "Simply listening to his improvisations throughout the six originals leaves no doubt that he is in inspired creative form." Robert Bush, also in All About Jazz, called To the One the "most consistently engaging disc in years" and that "McLaughlin's chops have never been better".

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