By: Joe Lang
John McLaughlin - Photo by Ilya Ratner
“John McLaughlin has cast a wide and far reaching shadow of influence on musicians and non-musicians alike. He has changed the course of guitar playing; creating new standards of command, technique, and innovation to the instrument. By example, he demonstrates the character and dedication needed to attain our goals in life as well as in music. He has shown us the power of music and the power within us.”
So, thanks to a sponsorship from Target, I was able to sit transfixed by two sets of the master at work with his newest and hardest rocking band in years, The 4th Dimension. What happened as the band took the stage during those two sets I would have a hard time describing. As anyone even casually aware of McLaughlin’s music and playing knows, you get a lot of notes for your money. If the shows were a movie, they’d have to be The Fast and the Furious—and while I’ve never seen the movie, I would imagine the McLaughlin sets were much much better. Notes bled together at breakneck paces, time signatures that I didn’t know existed rolled off the drum kits, and the audience was confronted with an aural assault of startling execution and accuracy in what can only be described as (to quote the premier McLaughlin scholar, Walter Kolosky) “Power, Passion and Beauty.”
Featuring session masters Mark Mondesir on drums, Gary Husband on Roland keyboards and “the rising star of the bass guitar” Hadrien Feraud, the 4th dimension is the leanest and meanest fusion group McLaughlin has put together since the ‘70s. The group had such a unique voice; it was extremely difficult to piece together their arrangements of older, though well-known McLaughlin standards.
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Hadrien Feraud - Photo by Ilya Ratner
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The new and unreleased “Raju” featured McLaughlin’s heavier distorted tones with sparkling chord fragments as Mondesir steamed on behind with unrelenting wash rhythms. The tune signals a more accessible return to the Mahavishnu sound that I can only hope we hear more of in the future.
Hearing the group take on new and fresh interpretations of tunes like, “Mother Tongues,” Miles Davis’ “Jean Pierre,” and going back as far as “The Unknown Dissident,” from Electric Dreams was a thrill for fans familiar with McLaughlin’s catalogue. During each song, every member of the 4th Dimension shined, from Mondesir’s rhythmic subdivisions, to Husband’s hands moving all over the keys, to Feraud matching the unrelenting speed and clarity of McLaughlin’s leads.
The highlights of the night, however, came when only a couple players were sparring on the bandstand. Husband, who is not only a masterful piano player, but an amazing drummer as well, stepped from the piano bench several times and began going at it with Mondesir on his little “jungle kit,” comprised of a bass, two clangy cymbals, a tom and a snare. McLaughlin’s most reckless and ferocious playing came when Feraud and Husband dropped out, leaving Mondesir and McLaughlin to put the pedal to the metal in duels that brought to mind Cobham and McLaughlin’s, “Phenomenon: Compulsion” from 1979’s Electric Guitarist. And just when you thought the madness was about to explode, McLaughlin would make a subtle nod and the entire band would jump right in on the one and pull off a line so fast it threatened to rip a hole in space-time.
But blasphemous as it may be to say it, it was Hadrien Feraud who stole the show for me. The speed, articulation, accuracy and tone of the 23-year-old Frenchman was unlike anything I’ve ever heard from an electric bass player. His technical mastery is assured; it’ll be interesting to see his compositional contributions in the years to come, but at his age, there is no question that he’s going to be one of the greats.
In case you missed the group’s appearance at the Dakota, Abstractlogix.com (McLaughlin’s label and the greatest progressive music site on the web) has already put the tour’s opening night up for sale, and plans to make other shows available in the future. For those in attendance at the sold-out shows, we were privy to see some of the greatest talent in the world; giants that changed the course of music in the 20th century, and some that I predict to do so in the century to come.
Location Info:
Dakota Jazz Club
Artist Info: John McLaughlin
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