At age 68, John McLaughlin, one of the most influential guitarists of the last 40 years, doesn't seem to be slowing down.
He's released four albums in the last five years, keeping a pace he set when he arrived in the U.S. in 1969.
Three weeks off the boat from his native England, he was recording albums with jazz legend Miles Davis that would be chosen best of the century.
In 1971 he created the Mahavishnu Orchestra, setting the bar high for jazz-rock virtuosity. Later in the 1970s he joined forces with a group of Indian musicians to create the Indo-Jazz fusion group Shakti.
Saturday he comes to the Rialto in downtown Atlanta with the quartet The 4th Dimension, including Gary Husband on keyboards and drums, Mark Mondesir on drums and Hadrien Feraud on bass. During a tour stop in California, he spoke by e-mail about his new album, "To The One," and about his career.
Q: You've talked about adding a Mahavishnu tune to The 4th Dimension set list. Which of those notoriously difficult tunes would scare you the most right now?
A: Actually I'd be more scared to play some of the tunes I used to play with Shakti in the 1970s. That said, ‘Celestial Terrestrial Commuters' [which is played presto in a bizarre 19/8 time signature] would give me problems.
Q: There's a story about your lyrical playing on [1969's] "In a Silent Way" that implies you were baffled as to what Miles Davis wanted on the recording. Can you describe the session?
A: Since Miles had invited me to the session only the previous evening [Feb. 17, 1969], I was very nervous. It was the last thing I'd expected on arrival in New York [he'd left England earlier that month]. 'In a Silent Way' was Joe Zawinul's tune, and he'd made an arrangement that Miles didn't like too much after we'd run it down a couple of times. Miles asked me to play it solo, and Joe had given me a copy of the piano score since he'd no time to write a guitar part. So I said to Miles that I needed a minute to read the piano score since he wanted both chords and melody at the same time. Miles didn't like that and said I should play it "like I don't know how to play guitar" (verbatim). This is the equivalent of a Zen master giving one of his students a Koan, and an instant resolution of it! After a few seconds I threw caution to the winds, and literally threw all the chords out, and the rhythm also. Even if you don't know how to play guitar, most everybody knows the E chord. I played that one chord and played the melody around it. Miles had already got the red light on, and at the end he really liked what happened. In fact he liked it so much, he put it as the first and last track on side one!
Q: Miles was famously terse and thought John Coltrane's solos were too wordy. Is that something you and Coltrane have in common?
A: He may have thought Coltrane's solos too wordy, but he loved Coltrane. I know he cared for me too because he was the one person who helped me survive my first year in the USA. He'd stuff money in my pocket to make sure I'd pay my rent and be able to eat. That's really special. About ‘wordiness', you're probably right but it depends on the instrument and the character of the player. Miles was a beautiful distillation of economy in his solos, and Coltrane and I are without doubt much more ‘garrulous'. Thing is, you have to go with your nature.
Q: Can you speak a bit about Coltrane's impact on your music and on this new album?
A: Coltrane's real impact began after ‘A Love Supreme’ was released. I'd just begun addressing the great questions of life and death, of existence, God, etc., etc. The poem on the back of the LP was like a breath of inspiration to me. The music was way over my head, but I knew the music was speaking about the same thing. After about a year I finally was able to hear and comprehend the music. In a way, my new recording is an unconscious and unintentional delayed reaction to this pivotal event in my life.
Q: Shakti was practically half percussionists. When [keyboardist] Gary Husband doubles on drums, The 4th Dimension also becomes half percussionists. Do you secretly want to be part of a drum choir?
A: Not really. I'm one of those musicians who just loves drums and rhythm. Not only that but I've had the opportunity to play with some of the greatest in world. From the East and the West. Rhythm is such a beautiful and mysterious thing.
Q: You've played with some great Georgia guitarists, including Steve Morse (of the Dixie Dregs) and Jimmy Herring (of Widespread Panic). Is there any chance of seeing you and Jimmy in a duo or trio setting?
A: I'm a fan of both of these guitarists. Steve and I go back many years, and I only met Jimmy last year, but what a fine guitar player! We'll be in North Carolina together, so maybe it'll happen.
Concert preview
John McLaughlin and The 4th Dimension, 8 p.m., Saturday. $42-$68. Rialto Center for the Arts, 80 Forsyth St. N.W., Atlanta. Tickets available at the Rialto box office. 404-413-9849; www.rialtocenter.org/
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