(Reprinted from JazzTimes magazine: May 1990)
"The guitar is an incredible instrument," says John McLaughlin. "I fell
hopelessly in love with it at the age of 11, and I've never recovered." McLaughlin
was born in Yorkshire, England, and moved to the United States in 1969, where he joined
the jazz group Lifetime, before starting the brilliant jazz fusion group Mahavishnu
Orchestra, and Shakti, a synthesis of Eastern and Western musical genres. Always seeking
innovation and the joy of musical creation, McLaughlin has teamed up with Indian
percussionist Trilok Gurtu and African-German bass guitarist Kai Eckhardt-Karpeh to form
the John McLaughlin Trio, which has relesed a new album on JMT/Polygram Records, Live At
Royal Festival Hall. The LP is "exciting" to McLaughlin, who points to one of
the tracks as particularly interesting, "On 'Passionate Love' I use a synthesizer
with the guitar. This is a new development. It brings a kind of orchestral element that's
really beautiful," he says. "Orchestral" is an important word in John
McLaughlin's vocabulary. Over the years, he has drifted between jazz and classical forms.
In 1985 his Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra "Mediterranean", commissioned by
the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ernest Fleishman, was first
performed, with McLaughlin as soloist. It was hailed by audiences and critics. A record of
the concerto can now be found on CBS Masterworks with the London Symphony Orchestra. But
it is jazz for which he is best known and most often associated with, and McLaughlin has
appeared with some of America's best known artists, including Miles Davis and Herbie
Hancock. Although he came to the United States to become part of the jazz scene here,
McLaughlin is critical of the way we have treated a national musical treasure. "It
has always been marginal," he says, "You have great painters, great designers,
and great architects. But this is a form of music that was largely born in America, and
it's a shame that it's not better respected." McLaughlin has long been impressed by
the quality and quantity of innovative American artists-people like John Coltrane, Miles
Davis, Cannonball Adderley, and Thelonious Monk, to name just a few. As a European, he
says he has "adored" them since he first heard them. "To me, they were
absolute giants, and they still are. So, nothing too much has changed in America; jazz is
still acknowledged outside of the U.S. as a real art-form more than it is in its own
country," he says. One major reason jazz has not received the widespread approbation
it deserves in America, McLaughlin says, is economics: "From the point-of-view of
budgets, or the subsidies from state and federal governments," he says, "jazz is
the black sheep of the family. For example, classical music could not survive without
subsidies. And of course, rock 'n' roll and pop don't need it because they're a billion
dollar business." Inspite of the paltry support that jazz has received, in general,
over the years in the U.S., John McLaughlin's work has enjoyed substantial popularity. His
trio was to have toured the states, but a terrible accident forced the tour's
postponement. "I smashed the first finger of my left hand," McLaughlin explains.
"It's an open fracture with a broken bone. I can't play until it heals." He
describes the incident as a "stupid accident." He was moving a television set,
and in a moment of carelessness, his finger became jammed between the appliance and a
mounting rail. The doctors have assured him he will play again. "It could have been
much worse; I didn't break the joint-I missed it by an eighth of an inch. It could have
been a catastrophe," he says feeling very lucky that, in a couple of months, he will
be able to play his beloved guitar again.