John Mclaughlin Biography

John McLaughlin was born on 4th January 1942,he is also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer. John’s music includes many genres of jazz which he coupled with elements of rock, Indian classical music, Western classical music, flamenco and blues to become one of the pioneering figures in fusion.

After he contributed to several key British groups of the early 1960s McLaughlin made Extrapolation, his first album as a bandleader, in 1969. John then moved to the U.S., where he played with Tony Williams’s group Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his electric jazz-fusion albums In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, and On the Corner.

Mclaughlin’s 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences.

McLaughlin has been recognized as an influence by a number of prominent musicians. John is a Grammy Award winner and has been awarded multiple “Guitarist of the Year” and “Best Jazz Guitarist” awards from magazines such as Down Beat and Guitar Player based on reader polls. He was ranked 49th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”in 2003. In 2009, Down Beat Magazine also included McLaughlin in its unranked list of “75 Great Guitarists”, in the “Modern Jazz Maestros” category. In 2012, Guitar World magazine ranked John #63 on its top 100 list. In 2010, he was called “the best guitarist alive” by guitarist Jeff Beck called him. Pat Metheny also referred him as the best guitarist alive by Pat Metheny.

His solo on the cut “Miles Beyond” from his album Live at Ronnie Scott’s won the 2018 Grammy Award for the Best Improvised Jazz Solo.

John Mclaughlin Age

John Mclaughlin was born in January 4, 1942 in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. He is 76 years old as of year 2018.

John Mclaughlin Family

John McLaughlin was born to a family of musicians his mother being a concert violinist in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. He studied violin and piano as a child and took up the guitar at the age of 11, exploring styles from flamenco to the jazz of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli.

John Mclaughlin Wife

He is currently living with his fourth wife Ina Behrend. The couple had a son in 1998. From the late 1980s, he has lived in Monaco. John formerly lived with the French pianist Katia Labèque, who was also a member of his band in the early 1980s. Before he started living with Katia Labeque he was married to Eve Kolosky when he was a disciple of Sri Chinmoy. Sue was his frist wife and with whom he had a son Julian in 1966.

John Mclaughlin Guitar

Mclaughlin started playing guiter when he was 11, he was exploring styles from Flamenco to the Jazz of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. He moved from Yorkshire to London in the early 1960s, playing wit Alexis Korner and the Marzipan Twisters before moving to Georgia Fame and the Blue Flames, the Graham Bound Organisation in 1963 and Brian Auger. In 1960s John had to support himself with session work which he often found unsatisfying but that enhanced his playing and sight-reading. He even gave guitar lessons to Jimmy Page. Jack Bruce formed the Graham Bond Quartet with Bond, Ginger Baker and John Mclaughlin in 1963.

John Mclaughlin Tour

upcoming tours

John Mclaughlin Artist

John Mclaughlin is a musician while there is another person who has his name but he is an artist John Dwyer Mclaughlin who is an American abstract painter he is also considered as one of the most significant Californian postwar artists.

John Mclaughlin Musician

McLaughlin recorded his debut album Extrapolation in London in January 1969, he has also played on Miles Davis’ albums In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew which has a track named after him, Live-Evil, On the Corner, Big Fun where he is featured soloist on “Go Ahead John” and A Tribute to Jack Johnson. In the liner notes to Jack Johnson, Davis called McLaughlin’s playing “far in”. He returned to the Davis band for one night of a week-long club date, recorded and released as part of the album Live-Evil and of the Cellar Door boxed set. Mclaughlin reputation as a “first-call” session player grew, resulting in recordings as a sideman with Miroslav Vitous, Larry Coryell, Joe Farrell, Wayne Shorter, Carla Bley, the Rolling Stones, and others.

John recorded Devotion in early 1970 on Douglas Records (run by Alan Douglas), a high-energy, psychedelic fusion album that featured Larry Young on organ (who had been part of Lifetime), Billy Rich on bass and the R&B drummer Buddy Miles. Devotion was the first of two albums Mclaughlin released on Douglas. He released My Goal’s Beyond in the US, a collection of unamplified acoustic works in 1971. Side A (“Peace One” and “Peace Two”) offers a fusion blend of jazz and Indian classical forms, while side B features melodic acoustic playing McLaughlin on such standards as “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”, by Charles Mingus whom McLaughlin considered an important influence. His Goal’s Beyond was inspired by McLaughlin’s decision to follow the Indian spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy, to whom he had been introduced in 1970 by Larry Coryell’s manager. This album was dedicated to Chinmoy, with one of the Guru’s poems printed on the liner notes. It was on this album that McLaughlin took the name “Mahavishnu”.

McLaughlin collaborated with Carlos Santana in 1973, also a disciple of Sri Chinmoy, on an album of devotional songs, Love Devotion Surrender, which featured recordings of Coltrane compositions including a movement of A Love Supreme. He has also worked with the jazz composers Carla Bley and Gil Evans.

John Mclaughlin Albums

1. live in San Francisco – 2018
2. Live @RonnieScotts – 2017
3. Blacklight – 2015
4. The Boston Record – 2014
5. Nowhere this – 2012
6. To The One – 2010
7. Love@Belgrade- 2009
8. Five Peace Band – 2009
9. Meeting of the Minds – 2008
10. The Way of Beauty – 2008
11. Floating Point – 2008
12. Five Peace Band – 2009
13. Meeting of the minds – 2008
14. The Way Of Beauty – 2008
15. Floating Point – 2008
16. The Gateway to Rhythm
17. Industrial Zen – 2006
18. This is The Way I Do It – 2004
19. Thieves and Poets – 2003
20. Collection – 2002
21. Saturday Night IN Bombay – 2001
22. The Heart of Thing LIve in Paris – 2000
23. The Believer – 2000
24. Remember Sharkti – 1999
25. The Heart Of Things – 1997
26. The Guitar Trio – 1996
27. The Promise – 1996
28. After The Rain – 1995
29. Tokyo live – 1094
30. Time Remembered – 1993
31. Que Alegria – 1992
32. LIve At The Royal Festival Hall – 1990
33. The Mediterranean – 1990
34. Adventures IN RadioLand – 1986
35. Mahavishnu – 1984
36. Passion, Grace $ Fire 1983
37. Music Spoken Here – 1982
38. Friday Night in San Francisco – 1981
39. Belo Hozizonte – 1981
40. Electric Dreams – 1979
41. Electric Guitarist – 1978
42. Natural Elements – 1977
43. A Handful of Beauty – 1977
44. Inner Worlds – 1976
45. Shakti – 1976
46. Visions of The Emerald Beyond – 1975
47. Apoclypse – 1974
48. Birds of Fire – 1973
49. The Lost Trident Sessions – 1973
50. Between Nothingness $ Eternity – 1973
51. Love Devotion Surrender – 1973
52. The Inner Mounting Flame – 1971
53. My Goals Beyond – 1971
54. Devotion – 1970
55. Extrapolation – 1969

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