Although McLaughlin’s albums have for some years focused on specific themes – a Bill Evans tribute here, a Spanish-flavoured guitar trio there – his most celebrated ensemble, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, was noted for contriving collisions between disparate styles, often enough within the same piece. In its broad sweep, from the Jeff Beck enhanced r’n’b of Django to the sitar and tabla meditations of The Wish, this record, McLaughlin’s finest in many years, is a reminder of that stylistic promiscuity. It also works as a retrospective on McLaughlin’s career (The Wish evokes Shakti, El Ciego reunites the trio of McLaughlin, Di Meola and de Lucia) and, more importantly, as a confirmation of McLaughlin’s remarkable reinvention of himself in recent years. In Jazz Jungle and Shin Jin Rui the 50-something veteran modernist shows a sure grasp of the polytonal style associated with the John Scofield generation – something which was barely apparent in his showing on Miles Davis’s You’re Under Arrest a decade or so ago.
The Promise is full of delights, from McLaughlin’s superb bebop on Thelonius Melodius (sic) to DeFrancesco’s excellent Miles impersonation on No Return, David Sanborn’s uncharacteristically thick, nasal alto on Shin Jin Rui and the beautiful miniature guitar concerto of Amy And Joseph. However, the centrepiece is Jazz Jungle, a ferocious 15-minute punch-up between McLaughlin and Brecker that perfectly exemplifies the second coming of one of Britain’s greatest jazz exports.
Discography
Django; Thelonius Melodius; Amy And Joseph; No Return; El Ciego; Jazz Jungle; The Wish; English Jam; Tokyo Decadence; Shin Jin Rui; The Peacocks (73.39)
McLaughlin (g, elg, kyb); Jeff Beck (elg); Paco de Lucia, Al Di Meola, Philippe Loli (g); Yan Maresz (bg); Nishat Khan (sitar); David Sanborn (as); Michael Brecker (ts); Tony Hymas, Jim Beard (kyb); Joey DeFrancesco (org, t); Pino Palladino, James Genus, Sting (elb); Mark Mondesir, Dennis Chambers, Vinnie Colaiuta (d); Don Alias, Trilok Gurtu (pc); Zakir Hussain (tabla); various voices. Recorded London, Tokyo, Monaco, Milan, Dallas, Paris, NYC and Wiltshire, about 1995.
(Verve 529 828-2)
