John McLaughlin - Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra "The Mediterranean"; Duos for Guitar and Piano

John McLaughlin

Concerto for Guitar & Orchestra "The Mediterranean"*

Duos for Guitar & Piano**

John Mc Laughlin (Guitar)

London Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas*

Katia Labeque (Piano)**

Back in the classical arena, McLaughlin conceived an ambitious guitar concerto, unveiling it with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in November 1985, but waited until 1988 to record it with his old colleagues Michael Tilson Thomas and the London Symphony Orchestra. The big difference between this and the music on Apocalypse is that McLaughlin dispenses with jazz and rock entirely, writing a neo-Romantic classical piece (lushly orchestrated again by Michael Gibbs) quite obviously modeled in style and sentiment after Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez. As such, it isn't nearly as important a statement as the bold pan-stylistic fusions of Apocalypse. But it is a notable personal achievement, for McLaughlin plays beautifully, and aside from a few awkward moments, the music's Spanish-tinged charms, especially in the first movement, grow richer upon further hearings. The rest of the CD is devoted to duos between McLaughlin and classical pianist Katia Labeque that speak volumes about intimacy and also heavy absorption in Keith Jarrett

reviews from Amazon.com

This cd deserved more promotion than it got. The slow second movement of the concerto is absolutely beautiful and evocative - certainly to the level of more famous concertos such as those by Rodrigo. Just the second movement of the concerto is worth the price of the cd. The piano/guitar duets are pretty moving as well. I highly recommend this CD. John Mclaughlin deserves a lot of praise for his compositional skills on this one - as well as his fleet fingered guitar exploits.

Guitarist John McLaughlin performs with full orchestra in this recording of his vibrant, evocative "Mediterranean Concerto." The piece is a stunning collage of moods and colour that defies classification.Is it jazz? Is it classical? It doesn't matter. If you like sun and ocean and wine and garlic, you'll like this music. It's a great way to bring a little Mediterranean light into a drab northern winter. And the CD also includes some pleasant piano-guitar duets. A bargain, for anyone interested in modern music that does more than fill AM airtime.

About JMcL

John McLaughlin (born 4 January 1942, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England), also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer. His music includes many genres of jazz, and rock, which he coupled with an interest in Indian classical music to become one of the pioneering figures in fusion.

In 2010 guitarist Jeff Beck called him "the best guitarist alive". The Indian tabla maestro Zakir Hussain has called him "one of the greatest and one of the important musicians of our times". In 2003 McLaughlin was ranked 49th in Rolling Stone magazine list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

After contributing to several key British groups of the early sixties and making his first solo record Extrapolation (with Tony Oxley and John Surman) he moved to the USA where he played with Tony Williams's group Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his landmark electric jazz-fusion albums In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew, A Tribute to Jack Johnson and On The Corner. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences.