Tag: Mahavishnu Orchestra

We are taking a different path with this band today. It’s not the music I usually post, but I never post something I don’t like. I had the flu this week, and I listened to this band with headphones while recovering. This band really moved me in a lot of ways. It’s totally different for me, maybe you will be impressed like I was. Just pure music, and it takes you down a long, winding river. 

I tried picking out a song from this album and tried a few other songs from different albums, but it didn’t work. To write up this band, you have to listen to the complete album. First of all, I’m out of my pay grade here. When I first listened to these guys, I was overwhelmed. I guess you could call this progressive, but I don’t buy that with this band. That is too easy a tag. After I listened to this album, I went through a couple more, and it affected me quite a bit. 

You don’t listen to Mahavishnu Orchestra, you pretty much surrender to it. The first time you hear songs like Meeting of the Spirits (from their debut album) or Birds of Fire, it doesn’t matter if you’re coming from artists like Zeppelin, Rush, Miles Davis, or Ravi Shankar. What hits you is the raw voltage of their music. This is fusion played with the intensity of a rock band, but the complexity of a classical symphony. I think that sums it up. I compare it to being led into many different hallways in a huge mansion and visiting a new room at every turn. 

I’ve been telling other people about them. I’m not sure I can put this in words, but listening through headphones feels like I’m seeing the music. It’s like I’m seeing molecules for the first time, making up the whole. Listening to them, I hear things and figure out things I have never done with music before. Why does a beat fit here but not there? They have some of the most perfectly constructed music I’ve heard. I normally like music raw and imperfect, but I do make an exception with this band. The reason is that they keep an edge, and it doesn’t get boring.

Another thing I like about the songs is that they keep them the right length, and you don’t have any 30-minute songs. You can tell each song was part of something bigger. Each song is like another brick in this structure

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a clip of John McLaughlin live at a Jeff Beck Tribute. His playing was beyond great. I started to look at some of the bands he has been a part of. In the past few weeks, I’ve brushed up on my bass playing by dragging a bass out while listening to rockabilly. The Mahavishnu Orchestra is way above my level but yet I’ve picked up a few things. 

After playing with Miles Davis on fusion albums like Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way, John McLaughlin formed the Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1971. The name “Mahavishnu” was given to McLaughlin by his spiritual guru, Sri Chinmoy, reflecting the band’s philosophical, spiritual, and musical ambitions. Their albums were always evolving; they never just stayed put. 

This album seeped into the mainstream. It peaked at #5 in Canada, #15 on the Billboard Album Charts, and #20 in the UK in 1973. Their membership was fluid through the years. They were together from 1971 – 1976 and from 1984-1987. John McLaughlin was the one constant member. On this album, it was McLaughlin on guitar, Rick Laird on bass, Billy Cobham on drums, Jan Hammer on keyboards, and Jerry Goodman on violin. 

In closing, yeah, this is different from what I usually post and what you listen to and read about here. Some unknown critic at the time described this album as …Miles Davis jamming with Led Zeppelin on a Himalayan cliffside. So put that way…it fits. 

If you want the complete album on YouTube. 

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