John McLaughlin and the Free Sprits -- February 4, 1996, Vogue Theater, Vancouver, B.C. Canada

A little more than a year and half since the last appearance at the DuMaurier Jazz festival in Vancouver, B.C., John McLaughlin appeared with the same band, offering essentially the same material. In the meantime, he has recorded a well received 'After the Rain' hommage to John Coltrane. On this session, the familiar trio setting (guitar, Hammond B3 organ, and drums) was only slightly changed by bringing in Elvin Jones, Coltrane's original drummer. The results were good, if you enjoy somewhat subdue atmosphere.

McLaughlin hit the road in the obvious effort to promote his new CD ('Promise'); unfortunately, things were not organized the way one would expect, and the CD is scheduled to appear in stores sometime this spring. Too bad, because now we cannot make a valid comparison (I wasn't lucky to get the preview copy of the 'Promise').

Nobody could expect much of a new material from this concert; still, the Free Sprits band didn't have much trouble filling the Vogue Theater to the last seat. McLaughlin is one of the rear musicians who has been a constant for the past 25 years, and has therefore built a solid base of unfaltering followers.

The concert started with John's composition 'Encuentros' (Meetings), which is a pretty demanding piece of music. McLaughlin has the tendency to elaborate on the compositions he has written earlier -- this is one of such examples. The piece can be traced back to 1975 Mahavishnu Orchestra album 'Inner Worlds', where guitar synthesizer has been deployed for a simple, lovable solo guitar song entitled 'Morning Calls'. This joyful melody has undergone slight metamorphosis on the Shakti's album 'Natural Elements' (1978), to reappear in the form of a beautiful 'The Daffodil and the Eagle' (if you pay closer attention, you can hear the 3/4 rhythm and the marginally modified melody of the 'Morning Calls').

'Encuentros' is, in passing, my favorite number on the 'After the Rain' CD; it is passionate, with five star solos for both John and Joey DeFrancesco. The live version, as performed that night, left some things to be desired. It was surprisingly rigid, and the beautiful melody didn't flow as it does on the CD. Ah well, I can only attribute this to a warming up process (it was rather chilly in the theater).

Following that cold start, things started to happen at an accelerated pace. The music slowed down only twice: first time during the rendition of 'Round Midnight', and second time during John's introspective solo, reminiscent of the guitar work on 'Reincarnation' (from the 'Que Alegria' CD, recorded 1991). Everything else was a 'white heat' ecstasy that was at times extremely difficult to follow.

Despite certain opaqueness of their musical ideas, the experience of listening patiently and going through the motions with the band was very rewarding. Essentially, what John and his band mates are doing, is toying with musical clichés. Adding to the complexity of figuring out what is going on, is the fact that they are not particularly picky about the clichés they are indulging in. They are willing, at a moments notice, to engage in any blatant jazz or pop pattern, just to see where will that take them. Quite often, you could see them throwing the cliché away as soon as they touch it, sometimes in utter disgust. This struggle, this trial-and-error process, was an ongoing, brutally honest attempt at creating music, coming up with something new. And, to everyone's astonishment, they do succeed in elevating us to the unsuspected heights of musical enjoyment.

If I compare this concert to the previous one (June 1994), the major difference is in the fact that Joey DeFrancesco was more restrained this time, and that Dennis Chambers made some major breakthroughs in his playing. Dennis actually stole the show this time. The clarity of his playing is simply beyond anything I have ever heard. To my ears, he was almost unbearably powerful.

It is hard to note any evolutionary changes in John's playing, given the fact that he is always, always out on the limb, taking chances, experimenting. He has a reputation of never being caught in action with a lame improvisational line -- everything that he plays absolutely holds water. Interestingly, on couple of occasions I could see an expression of frustration on his face, while he was soloing. Obviously, things didn't turn out the way he would have approved, but to me, everything sounded right on the money. I was straining my ears to hear -- where is the flaw? All the lines he was playing were non-trivial, complex, and yet surprisingly melodic and gracious. I guess it is beyond us mortals to really grasp all the nuances of that highly experimental and creative process.

My only objection to the latest projects in John's career is that, in my opinion, he is not writing enough new compositions. He only wrote a handful of compositions in the nineties, which, when compared to his phenomenal output in the seventies and in the eighties, leaves me dissatisfied.

In summary, this concert was worth seeing, even for very superficial consumers. If nothing else, the sizzle of Dennis Chambers' drumming is a major attraction. The subtleties of the trio's ongoing interaction may not be everyone's idea of having fun, but for most of McLaughlin's aficionados, it was an amazing display.