JOHN McLAUGHLIN – without doubt the doyen of jazz-rock guitarists, now 73 – is in a deeply philosophical mood. « I don’t have ambitions like I used to when I was a young man, » he reveals. « The older I get the more aware of my mortality I become, especially when you hit the biblical age of seventy. Every day over that is a present, a gift, and every concert that I do might be the last one I ever do. I think I might as well give 100% just in case. Know what I mean? » He follows his rhetorical question with a laugh that suggests that he appreciates the bittersweet ironies in life. It’s the carefree chuckle of a man who is seemingly in the twilight of his career but who seems benignly at peace with himself and his past.