Mahavishnu Orchestra C/D/S/D

yeah, when they were good, they were as good as any prog band going (tho my jazz loving dad hates them for that reason). however, when they weren't good = also the reason I don't listen to that much fusion.

true

MILES BEYOND

I don't think you will ever see a group quite like this one come together again, I was amazed by some really low quality video (though the sound was OK) live clip of Mahavishnu on You Tube a couple of days back. Billy Cobham is a freak of a drummer in a band of freaky good players.

man Visions of the Emerald Beyond is so fucking sweet

You're talking about "Noonward Race", one of the giddiest thrill-rides in recorded history. I just love hearing McLaughlin play those flurries of 16th notes at the end of his solo, only to fuck up and leap headlong back into the song proper before he can do any more damage. That whole track (whole album) owes way more to rock than jazz. (And so what?)
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, August 22, 2005 1:13 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This is a brilliant description of this song. The end of McLaughlin's solo he just abrubtly changes gears into the main riff is one of my favorite musical moments. It sounds like he was greasing his strings beforehand with WD-40.

Great great band.

anybody heard any of Billy Cobham's solo stuff? his drumming on Birds of Fire is fucking insane.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HNHy2x3a8fo/SdvXe-rkvyI/AAAAAAAAACQ/xuNuW4CrpOM/s320/billy.jpg
this one's pretty ok, tho it's not really mahavishnu-ish, as the title implies.

"spectrum" is immortal. haven't heard much besides that, and the stuff i have heard is forgettable. get "spectrum"!

yea spectrum

i found this one on the street. i need to relisten to it, but i remember digging it. the title track is a really long, freaky, avant krauty, synth weirdo track.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41NZES9E3VL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

and you should know this one if you listened to mid 90s hip hop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3E9vx5vVck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg86di2p34c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cda693NGOc

^flying lotus is repping this vibe hard these days

anybody heard any of Billy Cobham's solo stuff? his drumming on Birds of Fire is fucking insane.

― pathos of the unwarranted encore (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, July 15, 2011 2:39 PM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Only Spectrum, Tommy Bolin's finest moment (which is saying a lot). The guy is fucking amazing on that record.

thanks guys grabbing spectrum! that track "heather" that jaxon posted is gorgeous too though so mellow & dialed-back

Wow, George Duke rocking the Minimoog and ARP Odyssey both - I thought those fusion guys generally had loyalty to one or the other

Apparently McLaughlin and Santana reunited at this year's Montreux Jazz Festival. It probably sucked, but I'm gonna see if any bootlegs are floating around.

Whaddya know, here's some footage of them doing "The Creator Has A Master Plan"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=230YzDsAUMs

I just got an incredible-sounding bootleg of a 1973 concert McLaughlin and Santana did together. The band was McLaughlin, Santana, Larry Young on organ, Doug Rauch on bass, Billy Cobham on drums and Armando Peraza on percussion. There are several existing bootlegs of this show - the guys I got mine from took all of 'em and combined the best parts to create a really, really clean-sounding double disc that contains the entire 2 1/2-hour show. Amazing stuff - seven tracks, all but one running between 15 and 30 minutes.

Would love to hear this. There's a great concert on YouTube of the Santa Monica show I believe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgz4ESqjj98

Awesome – thanks, cock. Phil, if you can hear me, I'd love to get my hands on those files if possible.

The band was McLaughlin, Santana, Larry Young on organ, Doug Rauch on bass, Billy Cobham on drums and Armando Peraza on percussion.
The same band as on "Love Devotion Surrender" of course.

I'm sure it's easily locatable online. The CD-R version I have was given the title With Loving Devotion to John Coltrane by the assembler.

I will hunt this down!

Getting into The Lost Trident sessions this morning, which is one I have not heard much. "Sister Andrea" is a really, really good track. The section on that tune when they break it down low you really hear McLaughlin channeling his inner-Miles Davis ala Sketches of Spain. It certainly sounded like a nod to me.

Billy Cobham's drumming is really the glue that holds these records together imo. I find a lot of McLaughlin's post-Mahavishnu output to be sort of, idk, watery?

Seeing McLaughlin play Mahavishnu tunes live last year was incredible. Agree about Cobham; he's amazing.

Who was in his band when you saw him?

I really like McLaughlin's first two acoustic jazz records with My Goals Beyond and the first Shakti album. That Shakti album is really intense. Eventually i would like to run into a LP of the San Francisco acoustic trio records. I had that one on tape as a kid and haven't heard it in years.

Apocalypse is pretty good for a Mahavishnu record after the original band. The 80s band sounds pretty 80s, although the stuff with Jonas Hellborg on Adventures in Radioland is pretty groovy.

Yeah Shakti is pretty good, but I never liked the Friday Night in San Francisco or his other acoustic stuff.

Who was in his band when you saw him?

I don't remember all their names, but I wrote about the show for Stereogum in November.

I like the last track on inner worlds a lot

Cobham is insane. I read a story once that when Cobham was a kid, he and his friends would have competitions to see who could keep a quarter pressed against the wall the longest with a roll.

Agree that he holds that group together, but Narada Michael Walden was a solid replacement. So crazy that he became this slick hitmaker. I saw Aretha Franklin this summer, and Walden was playing drums with her, and I kept thinking, huh, the same dude who did "Freeway of Love" and Whitney's "How Will I Know" was in Mahavishnu Orchestra. Anyway, he was a joy to watch, having so much fun. Here's a bit of him backing her at the show I saw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzPHaRowxu0

So cool to find this, this is a set I saw McLaughlin do in Spain in 1993, with Dennis Chambers and Joey DeFrancesco!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po_toT6n9aE

Who was in his band when you saw him?

4th dimension: ranjit barot, gary husband, etienne mbappé

mbappé was so sick. not only was he an insane bass player but he wore god damned gloves

JUst checking out Where fortune Smiles which is McLaughlin either just before he started mahavishnu or a little after. Alongside John Surman, Dave Holland, Karl Berger nad Stu martin.
JUst seen that Esoteric reissued it recently. Sounds interesting so far.

This is p much the sickest thing ever imo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10a45mgMGcY

What can you say? Wow! I wish more 1970's drummers kept their solos that short n sweet. And of course his technique is absolutely phenomenal. Nice clip.

"Sunflower" by Milt Jackson, w/Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Jay Berliner and Billy Cobham: a fantastic record.

He's pretty good in the core unit band on the CTI Allstars first live lp. Tracks like Red Clay on that are really great.

Agree that he holds that group together, but Narada Michael Walden was a solid replacement. So crazy that he became this slick hitmaker. I saw Aretha Franklin this summer, and Walden was playing drums with her, and I kept thinking, huh, the same dude who did "Freeway of Love" and Whitney's "How Will I Know" was in Mahavishnu Orchestra.

"Agree that he holds that group together, but Narada Michael Walden was a solid replacement. So crazy that he became this slick hitmaker."

i'm still a little flabbergasted whenever i realize that michael tilson thomas was the guy who did the orchestral stuff on "apocalypse" (and it wasn't very good...)

Didn't expect to get into Between Nothingness & Eternity at all but I enjoyed more of it than I thought I would. Cant be bothered with getting into the rest of it right now, so I'm shelving it for now. Didn't think this was so highly thought of.

I thought one of the riffs sounded a hell of a lot like Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water" but I guess people who know better would have made a deal of that if it really did have much resemblance.

I liked Apocalypse. Not the whole way through but the highlights are great. Last track has a kind of "You And I" feeling and the soloing at the big climax is fantastic.

But "Smile Of The Beyond" is just gorgeous. Check out this live version with a far more energetic middle portion and added drum solo with good drumming faces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjM-UQ0zVUU

That was worth waking up to.

dude can shred

hats for sporting the spiritual SG double neck look

That right there is a spiritual custom Ibanez.

aah, I see!

Visions of the Emerald Beyond is really nice

Narada Michael Walden has had a pretty interesting career starting with Mahavishnu with Aretha (Who's Zoomin Who) and Whitney Houston and many others. From the Ashram to Malibu I would suppose.

his drumming on a few songs on Fripp's "Exposure" is ferocious. NYC and Breathless are the two best songs on the album

You follow Billy Cobham, you better be able to deliver it. Those guys are/were so good, they are like superheroes.