What first attracted me to jazz was that, unlike in classical music, I was actually able to still see in concert performers who created a musical style or genre. Guys like Mozart, Beethoven or Mahler were long gone, so all I could ever experience was someone else’s interpretation of these masters. In jazz, I was actually able to see Earl Hines, Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie perform swing and bebop in person. In that light, every release by guitarist/composer John McLaughlin is a treat, as it’s a reminder that one of the creators of what we now call “fusion” (or “jazz-rock” in its earlier days) is still out there, performing, and still releasing exciting and fresh material. This latest release his Fourth Dimension of Gary Husband/key-dr, Etienne Mbappe/b and Ranjit Barot/dr is brimming over with essential ingredients of what makes John McLaughlin, well, JOHN MCLAUGHLIN!