1. Meeting Of The Spirits (6:52)
2. Dawn (5:10)
3. Noonward Race (6:28)
4. A Lotus On Irish Streams (5:39)
5. Vital Transformation (6:16)
6. The Dance Of Maya (7:17)
7. You Know, You Know (5:07)
8. Awakening (3:32)
The Inner Mounting Flame – 1971
This album changed my life. After mowing a neighbors lawn and making $5 I got on my bike and rode down to my favorite record shop. While looking through the bins I noticed the album cover, I thought the flame was way cool, so I bought it and brought home. I soon as I dropped the needle down and heard the first chord, . . I was scared and intrigued at the same time, I thought, OMG what is this music. Well as they say, « The rest is history ». I’ve been a fan ever since.
It was 1971 and I was a freshman music major heavily influenced by Wes, Johnny S and Jim Hall. Several friends and I drove to Columbia MO to see this new band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra playing at the University. Inner Mounting Flame just came out that day and we picked up a copy at the local record store before heading to the concert. Needless to say the intensity, creativeness, and musicality of this ensemble left us in awe. On our drive back home it must have been at least 30 minutes before anyone could utter a comment. It was THAT GOOD. I’ve been an avid follower of John and his music ever since. Congratulations John on your illustrious and long standing career of music excellence. Keep it coming!!
I will never forget the first time I heard the opening track on « Inner Mounting Flame ». As a kid who grew up playing violin and getting to know the qualities of classical music, became obsessed by progressive rock as a teenager but somehow found rock music not enough challenging for my taste. Then I heard John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and I was thrilled! Powerful, fast, poetic, intelligent, symphonic music that still lives and gives me goosebumbs when I hear it. This first album was also an outstanding recording technically, and it’s a shame it hasn’t been released on SACD in 24 bit and HD resolution!
The man » guitar gods » look up to! Listen here and you will never wonder why.
I saw the originel Mahavishnu O. at the University Of RI in 1971. I had never had a musical awakening like this before. I was introduced to time other than 3/4 or 4/4. John’s guitar went places I never imagined…the technique…the compositions…the interplay…..this was the greatest influence in my musical domain.
Music, the like of which you’ll have never heard before…
I’m in my late-50s now, yet this album is still the most extraordinary piece of music I’ve ever heard. It also changed my life when I first heard it – under the bed covers listening to John Peel on my pocket trannie in 1973; and I remember how enthused Peelie was with the album (before it became hip to loath jazz fusion). I’d never ever heard music like it before, and I haven’t since, either. Take ‘Lotus on Irish Streams’, for example: John McLaughlin’s, Jerry Goodman’s and Jan Hammer’s playing on this dream-of-a-track is quite breathtaking, and for me their soaring spiritual synergy sums up what the original Orchestra was all about. As the book on the Orchestra says, this truly was ‘the greatest band that ever was’. If you’re wondering what all the fuss is about via-a-vis John’s legendary Mahavishnu. Orchestra, this album has to be the definitive place to start.
A game Changer for me. I can not remember when first released in UK but I remember John Peel playing « Meetings of the Spirit » perhaps the same night as Richard House, (but I thought it was earlier than 1973). I could not believe what I was hearing until I heard it the following night I think played on BBC by Annie Nightingale. I went and bought it, but the album was in advance of me. But as you did in those days, especially if buying an album was a big investment, I stuck with it. And one by one I began to like some of the tracks. The moment of revelation was seeing the band live at the Crystal Palace Show a couple of weeks later. I was gobsmacked and never the same again! Now an all time favourite of which I can sing all the parts, even the drums!
Yes, thanks Nick – you’re right about the date – I meant a Peel Show in 1972. But it’s wonderful to share this experience. All I remember is that when I heard Mahavishnu for the first time on Peel (maybe it was ‘Meeting of the Spirits’), it just blew me away like nothing before or since ever has – and this music changed me for ever. I think there are countless thousands across the globe who had a similar experience – some kind of morphic resonance, perhaps. I had the undiluted pleasure of meeting John personally a few weeks back, in Edinburgh. He spared me 20 minutes after playing an amazing 2-hour set with the Fourth Dimension. What a wonderful human being.
31 March 2020 – nearly 50 years after it appeared, IMF was the number 1 selling Jazz Fusion album on Amazon. What more could anyone say. Eternal gratitude for this peerless Mu
sic of the Gods.