John McLaughlin

A virtuoso British guitarist, John McLaughlin is the architect of the fusion of jazz and rock, first with Miles Davis and then through a career of multiple collaborations and musical horizons, including Indian music with Mahavishnu Orchestra and Shakti, and flamenco with Paco de Lucia and Al di Meola. Born in Doncaster, Yorkshire, on January 4, 1942, he taught himself to play the guitar at the age of eleven, after trying his hand at the violin and piano, and studying the technique of virtuosos. He then moved to London, where, in the early 1960s, he took part in the burgeoning blues and rock scene. Accompanying Alexis Korner, Georgie Fame, Graham Bond and Brian Auger, he gave lessons to Jimmy Page and met Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker in the Graham Bond Quartet, before recording his first solo album Extrapolation (1969) with John Surman and Tony Oxley. After moving to the United States to play in the Tony Williams Lifetime and with Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis spotted him and included him in the jazz fusion band on the albums In a Silent Way (1969) and Bitches Brew (1970), in which the trumpeter dedicated the title "John McLaughlin" to him . After three more albums with Miles Davis and two under his own name, the electric Devotion (1970) and the acoustic My Goal's Beyond (1971), McLaughlin formed the Mahavishnu Orchestra, which continued his jazz-rock aesthetic on five albums until 1976. Inspired by Indian spirituality and music, the guitarist who renamed himself "Mahavishnu" recorded the album Love Devotion Surrender (1973) with Carlos Santana and formed Shakti with Zakir Hussain (tablas) and L. Shankar (violin), for three albums linking jazz with traditional Carnatic and classical Hindustani styles. McLaughlin then turned to flamenco with fellow guitarists Paco de Lucia and Al di Meola on the successful live album Friday Night in San Francisco (1981), followed by Passion, Grace & Fire (1983). Alternating between acoustic and electric recordings, he met and experimented with Bill Evans, Elvin Jones, Joey DeFrancesco, Chick Corea, Gary Husband and A.R. Rahman. He recorded The Mediterranean Concerto (1986) with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, recreated the Mahavishnu Orchestra (1984-1999) and created Remember Shakti (2000-2013). Subsequent albums bear witness to his eclecticism: Industrial Zen (2006) and Floating Point (2008) as a solo artist; six albums of jazz fusion with The 4th Dimension; Is That So? (2020) with Shankar Mahadevan and Zakir Hussain, then Liberation Time (2021), with a renewed band. In 2025, Live at Montreux Jazz Festival 2022, a recording of his last appearance at the Montreux Festival three years earlier, is released.