Mahavishnu Orchestra: seminal recordings was: one guitarist one drummer

[Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Stephen Goodman wrote:
"Woof, yes please.  I wore out two lp's of "Inner Mounting Flame" before 
CDs came out. 
Post Fripp's CGT and GC works, a listen to that album also holds lovely 
bits of quiet."


A friend of mine in college (right as I was just becoming intrigued by 
jazz but new nothing about it
except what our father played---Bruebeck, some Miles, Big Band)
recommended that we go early to an Emerson, Lake and Palmer concert at 
Winterland which we had
tickets for because there was this famous British Jazz guitarist,   John 
MCGlafflin (how he pronounced it)
who had played with Miles on "In a Silent Way".

Dutifully I convinced my brother to go early enough to watch this 
opening act, called
The Mahavishnu Orchestra.

They came out and Cobham opened the show with the fastest drum roll I'd 
ever heard in my life
as McLaughlin ripped into Inner Mounting Flame on his double necked 
gibson 6/12 string electric.

One of the most amazing shows of my life and when we ran to the record 
store to buy it the next week
we found out that it had not even been released yet.

We had to wait two weeks and I, too, have worn out two vinyl copies of 
that beautiful  and completely
life changing record for me.

We were jazz fusion fanatics from that point on until the juice ran out 
of the scene and
the whole KOOL jazz thing coopted it all.

Yeah,  great fucking record.

If you are young on this list and haven't heard that record, or it's 
follow up ,  "Birds of Fire"
do yourself a favor and listen to some absolutely blistering and 
passionate music.

It was when fusion was brand new and everyone was taking huge chances.
It has the rawness of punk rock and it's palpable to this day (whereas a 
lot of later fusion
classics have lost a lot of their charm).