Jazz guitar master John McLaughlin talks to Graham Reid about his globally minded, pioneering career
KEY POINTS:
Even stripped of detail, this year's Grammy nomination for best contemporary jazz album and the decades of critical acclaim, the outline of 67-year old guitarist John McLaughlin's career makes impressive reading.
After establishing himself as a hot teenage guitarist, McLaughlin from Yorkshire turned his ear to jazz, went to New York to join up with drummer Tony Williams' group and within days was playing on the Miles Davis seminal album of '69, In A Silent Way.
He then played on the Davis albums Bitches Brew, On The Corner, Big Fun and A Tribute To Jack Johnson, began his solo career with two albums on a label run by the late Jimi Hendrix's friend and mentor Alan Douglas (the first of which, Devotion in 1970, Douglas considered the first jazz-fusion record), then established the Mahavishnu Orchestra in which he set a brain-finger speed record for guitarists.
In the early 90s Douglas observed: "McLaughlin produced the kind of music that, had he lived, Hendrix might have pursued, a far-reaching spiritual celebration of rock, jazz, blues and Eastern-influenced sounds."
Ever restless, McLaughlin collaborated with Carlos Santana, founded the acoustic Indo-jazz group Shakti in the mid-70s, linked up with Paco de Lucia and Al di Meola for a series of popular flamenco jazz albums, and played with Indian musicians and jazz giants.
He was in the vanguard of using the guitar synthesiser, and is now touring in the 5 Peace Band of pianist Chick Corea, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, bassist Christian McBride and saxophonist Kenny Garrett.
But behind that extraordinary breadth of music is a spiritually curious man who - with Santana - became a disciple of the spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy in 1970. He parted with his master in the late 70s but through his association with Indian musicians has explored a spiritual dimension in his playing.
"When you play you really have to be ready for, and open to, inspiration because that really is the moment of truth," he says. "The instrument has to be a natural extension of you, part of your psycho-physical body, so when inspiration comes there should be total and natural free flow.
"The point is to be ready so that it isn't wasted. Inspiration is very mysterious and we have no control over it, it comes or it doesn't. It is up to it whether it decides to pay a visit. Music is truly the language of the spirit."
What draws McLaughlin from jazz to Indian music (he studied under Ravi Shankar) and back again is the common ground of improvisation in both spheres. The challenge is to be composer and performer in an instant, and he also sees that is a part of daily life.
"When we are spontaneous is when we are most ourselves and the most honest, we are natural and don't have time for artifice to come in the way.
"Every day is new and because I'm a little different from yesterday - which is very small but over six months it can be quite substantial - the work is keeping up with what's going on inside of you. I hear what is going on in my own mind and have to keep up with that."
Not that McLaughlin is an ascetic. The self-confessed Francophile has lived in Monaco for over 20 years and enjoys skiing or popping over the border to Italy. And while placing emphasis on the importance of being in The Moment, he also takes the long view.
"I am an extremely fortunate person, being a musician is a great privilege for a human being. To be involved in such work is very conducive to interior development and it's a wonderful force for peace and love.
"When I arrived in New York it was primarily to play with Tony Williams, but within two days I was in the studio with Miles, and you couldn't get much luckier than that.
"And touring now with Chick is very significant because it was exactly 40 years when we met and played together on In A Silent Way. We were neighbours in the Chelsea area of New York and he is a very special human being and very special musician."
So of John McLaughlin - whose spiritual and musical quest saw him creating fusion before there was the word it, and world music a couple of decades before Womad - is it fair to ask what he has learned in life?
"I've learned that the great supreme and wonderful spirit that holds the Universe in place, and myself, are two aspects of the one thing. A good lesson, the only one we have to figure out."
And after the amps have been turned off and the house lights go out forever? "I think it will be a nice vacation," he laughs. " You don't have to work and you can take it easy for a few thousand years."
LOWDOWN
Who: Jazz guitarist John McLaughlin
Where: At the ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre with the 5 Peace Band.
When: February 22
Trivia: McLaughlin's album Electric Guitarist in 1978, which marked the end of his period with his spiritual master Sri Chinmoy, had a photo of him in school uniform and his teenage business card on the cover. The card read "Johnny McLaughlin, electric guitarist. Railway Cuttings, Sunnyside, Yorkshire".
