John McLaughlin News

John & the Freedom Band in Nice

John Bouchet — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:31:18 +0000

Hi Friends,
Just a note to go with the photos at the Nice Jazz Festival. You’ll see Chick Corea with the “Freedom Band” which includes luminaries such as Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride and legendary drummer Roy Haynes. Chick invited to go up for the last couple of numbers. Great!!!

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Nice Jazz Festival 2010

John Bouchet — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:47:28 +0000

It is summer on the Cote d’Azur in the South of France and between the festival of Juan-les-Pins and the Nice Festival in Cimiez there is so much wonderful music to be heard and seen.

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John meets Georges Benson at Juan-les-Pins and jams with Dave Sanborn

John Bouchet — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:36:34 +0000

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John McLaughlin & Billy Cobham Montreux 2010

John Bouchet — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:32:34 +0000

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Paco de Lucia in Montreux 2010

John Bouchet — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:24:34 +0000

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I have to say what a pleasure it was to see my friend Paco in Montreux last week playing, as usual, in top form.

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John in Montreux Festival 2010

John Bouchet — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:26:33 +0000

Like almost every year we are spending our summer holidays in Montreux during the time of the Jazz Festival. It is the greatest festival in Europe thanks to the founder Claude Nobs.

On the second day , while we were biking along the lake, I got a phone call from Claude asking if I could be jamming that evening with Billy Cobham, before the concert of Roxy Music. The opening act ‘Melissa auf der Maur’ couldn’t make their flight from Canada, and Claude needed a ‘replacement’. I hadn’t seen Billy for 25 years and immediately liked the idea.

Claude called Billy , who lives in Bern and he also was happy to play. I didn’t have my guitar, and there was no rehearsal, it was a very spontaneous jam and we had lots of fun as you can see on these photos.

Photos by Anton Antonov

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John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension will be touring the US in Nov/Dec 2010

John Bouchet — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:02:34 +0000

DATE	CITY	VENUE	COUNTRY
10 nov. 10	Quebec City	Palais Montcalm	Canada
11 nov. 10	Toronto	Koerner Hall	Canada
12 nov. 10	Philadelphia	Keswick Theatre	US
13 nov. 10	New-York	Town Hall	US
14 nov. 10	Alexandria	Birchmere	US
16 nov. 10	Boston	House of Blues	US
19 nov. 10	Saint-Louis – Mo	Sheldon Arts Foundation	US
20 nov. 10	Atlanta	Rialto Center	US
21 nov. 10	Raleigh	Lincoln Theater	US
23 nov. 10	Austin – Tx	One World Theatre	US
24 nov. 10	Austin – Tx	One World Theatre	US
27 nov. 10	Mexico	Riviera Maya Jazz Festival	Mexico
28 nov. 10	Dallas	Granada Theatre	US
30 nov. 10	Santa Fe	Lensic Theatre	US
1 déc. 10	Los Angeles	UCLA	US
11 déc. 10	Berkeley	Zellerbach Hall	US

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article from JazzTimes

John Bouchet — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 07:28:59 +0000

If you want to read the news just click here.

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‘To the One’ online review in Blurt

John Bouchet — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:21:36 +0000

For nearly a half-century, England’s John McLaughlin has nobly served as one of the most exciting and innovative guitarists in the history of jazz. His resume includes such pivotal gigs as his debut stint in UK crooner Georgie Fame’s big band, a term in the celebrated Graham Bond Quartet, and key roles in Miles Davis’ groundbreaking electric ensemble and drum great Tony Williams’ group Lifetime; he’s also jammed with everyone from Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones to Carlos Santana and avant-garde piano baroness Carla Bley.

“To The One” is reviewed on the BBC website

John Bouchet — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:35:42 +0000

As it says on the sleeve, as opposed to the tin: file under jazz/rock. These words, as well as the crackling electrified sounds that they invariably conjure up, are the devil itself for those who see jazz as a purely acoustic, swing-based art. But even they would have to concede that British guitarist McLaughlin is one musician who has brought grace as well as aggression to the vexed sub-genre.

If one accepts that jazz-rock was Miles Davis’ early 70s bombshell baby then he, along with Joe Zawinul and Herbie Hancock, among others, was an invaluable midwife. Four decades on, McLaughlin is still playing with fire and finesse and his elder statesman status means that he can cherry pick talent when he assembles a band. The four-piece he leads here is notable for the presence of two powerhouse drummers, Mark Mondesir and Gary Husband (the latter also plays keys), though the real jewel of the sidemen is arguably Cameroonian bass guitarist Etienne Mbappé. His bubbling, percussive lines, seamless slides into double time and razor-sharp sub-divisions of the beat bring forth the sophisticated ruckus that is not so much jazz-rock as jazz that rocks.