Twittering Machines

John McLaughlin
Extrapolation

Recorded at Advision Studios in London on January 18, 1969, Extrapolation was John McLaughlin’s first release as leader and also features John Surman (baritone and soprano sax), Brian Odges (bass), and Tony Oxley (drums). Sitting among McLaughlin’s fiercely controlled playing on Miles’ In A Silent Way (1969), Bitches Brew (1970) and Tony Williams’ Lifetime Emergency! (1969), Extrapolation lights a fuse with the first note and it doesn’t go out until the very last fades into silence. This is mood music – the entire LP holds my attention and keeps me in the same place throughout, never once breaking the spell.

I read somewhere, a very long time ago, that McLaughlin plays it so ‘straight’, sans effects, on Extrapolation in part to silence his critics who claimed he relied too heavily on effects as affectation. I also know people who don’t care for this record feeling that McLaughlin’s playing is nothing more than a race to fit as many notes into a given moment as possible. To each his or her own but to the latter listener I’d suggest that they are hearing a race because its something they value and this focus has effectively limited their ability to hear between and around the notes. To hear the larger story and fall into its mood.

And even though this isn’t billed as a quartet in name, it is one in spirit and the supporting cast do much more than support. John Surman takes on the roll of McLaughlin’s alter ego weaving intricate patterns in time, Brian Odges double bass adds melodic undercurrents, and Tony Oxley keeps the whole thing cooking. I’ve owned and listened to this record since the late ’70s and I’ve never once tired of the tales it has to tell or the places it places you in.

Zakir Hussain
Making Music

I tend to shy away from overtly beautiful ‘world-fusion’ music.  Maybe it’s too many memories of Oregon-induced stoned cold boredom or Shakti-fied jangly bad green weed tinged repetition. Cough. Silly I know. This ECM release from 1987, however, is pure easy-listening glowing joy. Hariprasad Chaurasia flutes, John McLaughlin acoustic guitar, Jan Garabek tenor and soprano sax join Zakir on tabla, percussion and voice for a masters-of-world-music jam.

Zakir’s percussive speedy slaps and fingered dribbles (dribulets?) match McLaughlin’s Speedy Gonzales fretboard runs perfectly while Chaurasia’s flute gently winds its way in and out. Jan Garabek is a bit more forceful and apart but somehow (it’s actually McLaughlin’s guitar that grounds Garabek to the record’s Indian roots) this all works together to create a soft riveting musical shower. ECMs digital recording adds some snappy focus to the edges but I don’t find it at all offensive in this context.

The Tony Williams Lifetime
Emergency!

Marc Ribot’s ceramic dog’s daddy with more bark and bite. Tony Williams, Larry Young and John McLaughlin recorded over 2 days in 1969. Emergency! was the Lifetime’s debut LP and it’s a scorcher. I’m guessing we’re hearing Tony Williams on some of the spoken word sorta sung tracks but there’s no doubt about who’s stomping what – everybody, all the time. A fusion monster.

’69

One player sitting at the center of fusion’s roots is Larry Young (aka Khalid Yasin (Abdul Aziz)), perhaps the ultimate fusor. Born in Newark in 1940, Young can be seen as the ‘Stones to Jimmy Smith’s Beatles in the universe of Hammond B-3 players. His recording career as a leader started with Prestige in 1960 (at age 19!) with Testifying. He moved to Blue Note in 1964 making his debut there as a leader the same year with Into Somethin! featuring Grant Green, Elvin Jones and Sam Rivers.

Fusion ’69: In 1969 Larry Young was at the center of the desire to fuse – he played on Bitches Brew, jammed with Hendrix (something Miles wanted to do but never did) which was later released on Nine to the Universe, and was part of The Tony Williams Lifetime debut Emergency! which also included John McLaughlin.

Young’s tentacles reach out farther and wider into both sides of the jazz/rock tree having played with Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Booker Ervin, George Benson, Alice Coltrane, Santana, Billy Cobham and Jack Bruce to name a few (Young also played some massively righteous B-3 on McLaughlin’s Devotion). Young attributed his shift away from his early straight-ahead style to Coltrane but I’m going to attribute the initial impulse to fuse to Betty Davis for the role she played in getting Miles into Jimi and the whole funk rock (sex) vibe to begin with.

It’s been suggested that Young’s 1975 funk release Larry Young’s Fuel is a not-so-subtle nod to Ms. Davis with vocalist Laura “Tequila” Logan moanin, squeekin and screatchin ala Betty. Young died in 1978 in New York City. He is probably best known for his 1965 Blue Note release Unity.

John McLaughlin
Devotion

Acid rock at its freaky finest (the cover art nearly says it all minus the acoustic guitar). Recorded in 1970 after the Bitches Brew sessions but before the Mahavishnu influence took over, Devotion pairs John McLaughlin and Larry Young, Billy Rich and Buddy Miles. Some feel this is over produced and distorted pysch-fusion-fuzziness (McLaughlin didn’t like the heavy-handed production) but others claim its a classic moment captured in all its psych-fusion-fuzzy glory. The 5:55 track Siren driven by Young’s B-3 is worth the price of admission alone which is around $8 on eBay.