The Frankfurt Music Prize was founded in 1980 and has been awarded annually by the Frankfurt Music Prize Foundation on the occasion of the international Musikmesse in Frankfurt since 1982.
It is awarded to musicians, composers, teachers and personalities from the world of music for special achievements in the fields of interpretation, composition, musicology or teaching.
Dear Friends,
I’d like to inform you that after several years of pursuing the opportunity of playing in Palestine, we finally have arrived at a real possibility of achieving this dream in February next year. There is a very important association in Palestine called Al Mada. Their work is healing traumatized kids and people using several means, but primarily art and music. Thanks to the determination of the great people in Ramallah, and with the help of UNRWA the group Shakti will play a free concert of ‘solidarity’ for the wonderful work they are doing in helping victims of conflict.
Have a wonderful holiday season
John
The most complete package to date of Mahavishnu Orchestraís Columbia albums.
For the first time the complete recordings of the original Mahavishnu Orchestra all in one package!
Each individual album is packaged in a replica mini-LP sleeve reproducing that albumís original cover art.
Includes a bonus disc with 65 minutes of previously unreleased music from the Between Nothingness And Eternity 1973 live shows in New Yorkís Central Park. Staggering extended versions of ìThe Dance Of Mayaî, ìAwakeningî, and ìOne Wordî, plus ìHopeî, ìYou Know, You Knowî, ìStepping Tonesî and ìVital Transformationî.
Original Price: $59.98 USD
The Mahavishnu Orchestra, in its original incarnation, lasted just four years, but in that brief time, the pioneering quintet set both the template and the high-water mark for fusion music. No band ever rocked as hard in a jazzy place as guitarist John McLaughlinís charging ensemble.
McLaughlin had already built a firm reputation in his native England as a keen improviser with blues and rock leanings when he was invited by drummer Tony Williams in early 1969 to join him in New York. Almost immediately, McLaughlin was swept up into the very epicenter of the burgeoning fusion movement, appearing on ñ in 1969 alone ñ three of the genreís most significant recordings: Emergency! (by the newly-formed Tony Williams Lifetime) and In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, the epochal Miles Davis albums that kick started fusion.
When it was time for McLaughlin — who, in his initial New York stay, had quickly developed from a gifted player to a brilliant one — to form his own band, he brought together musicians who could apply full-force rock energy to improvisatory jazz skill. Keyboardist Jan Hammer, violinist Jerry Goodman, and drummer Billy Cobham were each extravagant virtuosos eager to match McLaughlin at his own game; bassist Rick Laird contained the passion with his steady bass lines. Dubbed the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the new band released its debut recording, The Inner Mounting Flame in August of 1971: fusion as we know it was now fully born.
Younger listeners raised on rock responded to the band’s vitality and extraordinary musicianship; before long The Mahavishnu Orchestra was appearing with the likes of The Byrds and Aerosmith. Subsequent hit albums built on The Inner Mounting Flameís innovations; Hammer added synthesizers to his arsenal, developing a keyboard style nearly as influential as that of McLaughlinís frenetic guitar work and Cobhamís rumbling percussive attack. But it was nearly inevitable that the life span of such a dynamic ensemble would be brief. The Mahavishnu Orchestra threw down the gauntlet; fusioneers who followed have been trying to catch up ever since.
2011 marks the 40th Anniversary of the founding of the band and its signing to Columbia Records.
Features the original classic line-up of the band led by John McLaughlin — and including Billy Cobham, Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman and Rick Laird.
Smash hit albums The Inner Mounting Flame and Birds Of Fire are here, along with the bandís only live album Between Nothingness And Eternity, plus the rare The Lost Trident Sessions.
Also contains the very rare bonus track, a 15 minute live version of ìNoonward Raceî from the Mar Y Sol Festival in 1972 in Puerto Rico.
Albums included:
It’s always instructive to attend opening and closing nights of an extended engagement. Often, a given band will hit its stride on the bandstand over the course of the week and be flying by the final night. Sometimes the opposite happens. The excitement of opening night and thrill of the first-time hit can result in sheer sparks on the bandstand that only become more muted and predictable with repetition.
John McLaughlin and Chick Corea
Then again, there are bands that don’t hold to a prescribed set list, where each night is entirely its own unique entity. These bands not only don’t play the same thing twice, they don’t even play the same thing once. Such was the case with the Five Peace Band, which occupied the stage for the first weekend of Chick Corea’s month-long 70th birthday celebration at the Blue Note. In its initial phase, this fusion supergroup composed of Corea on keyboards, John McLaughlin on guitar, Kenny Garrett on alto sax, Christian McBride on bass and either Vinnie Colaiuta or Brian Blade on drums played large concert halls on tour in 2008 and 2009. To fit these cavernous venues and play to the back row, they necessarily affected a rock-band aesthetic. This scenario invariably led to the kind of bombastic chops-grandstanding that defeats nuanced interplay. But on Nov. 4, the opening night of their three-night engagement in the intimate Greenwich Village nightclub, these seasoned virtuosos were cooking on a low flame and conversing in subtle ways that would never read in the big concert halls.