I really like John McLaughlin, but he’s put out too many albums, so I don’t know where to go next with him.
What I like: Love Devotion Surrender (with Carlos Santana) is a desert-island album for me – Lifetime Top Ten Favorite. I recently got the CD of Electric Guitarist, slightly after that era, which I’d listened the hell out of on vinyl. It holds up well. I also like the “Remember Shakti” stuff from the turn of the century.
The stuff with DiMeola and De Luca – not as much. It’s good, it just never grabbed me.
Mahavishnu – I’ve heard it, of course, but never owned any of it – does it hold up? Is it worth revisiting?
And which stuff from the '80s and '90s is good? (I saw him live sometime in the early '90s and liked the concert, but didn’t buy the current CD at that time – any guesses as to what that might have been? He had maybe a four- or five-piece band.)
“Next issue–some drug-crazed beatnik ‘musician’ is using my name. What should be done with him? Jack Germondo?”
“Draft his hippie butt and send him to the front lines.”
“Eleanor Clift?”
“You really don’t have a clue, do you?”
Happy to help. As a rule, I am not a big Mahavishnu, Return to Forever, Crusaders kinda guy - no particular reason; even though those players are absolute monsters, the music isn’t to my taste. These discs have something that really reaches me.
A bit of a hijack, and not in line with your question, but if you are interested in good jazz guitar in general - there can be TONS of recommendations, but I would start with Joe Pass - Virtuoso #3 (Amazon link). It doesn’t get much better - just Joe by himself, taking the groove to places very few can go…works on a Sunday morning mellow session as well as a deep, hard listen. He is the master.
In some ways, I think the Remember Shakti stuff is even better than the original. There’s a gorgeously packaged box set of all their stuff including a killer DVD.
As for Mahavishnu, I recommend Birds of Fire as their peak, though given that the OP is big on the jam-heavy Santana collaboration, maybe he’d like Between Nothingness and Eternity better–the Orch really stretches out there.
I don’t know the original Shakti material. Of Remember Shakti [for which I’ve got 2 single-CD albums and a double-CD album, making the boxed set, I’m guessing, unnecessary], my favorite song is “Lotus Feet” – which is about a million miles from the screaming, wailing intensity of Love Devotion Surrender.
My taste seems to be the opposite of everyone else’s here. While I don’t hate the “acoustic” John McLaughlin, I prefer the Orchestra. (I’ll admit I may be biased by Mahavishnu Orchestra (opening for Jeff Beck) being the first “rock concert” I ever attended.) My favorites are Apocalypse, Visions of the Emerald Beyond and Devotion (not Orchestra, but with Buddy Miles, Billy Rich and Larry Young).
Anyone interested might want to check out Visions of an Inner Mounting Apocalypse. It’s the music of Mahavishnu Orchestra performed by guitarists Steve Lukather, Steve Morse, Jimmy Herring, Warren Haynes, Mike Stern, Jeff Richman, Frank Gambale, Greg Howe, John Abercrombie and David Fiuczynski. Backing band is Vinnie Colaiuta (drums), Kai Eckhardt (bass) and Mitchell Forman(synths) with Jerry Goodman (violin) on some cuts.
