Artist: Mahavishnu Orchestra
Genre(s):
Jazz: Fusion
Instrumental
Jazz
Discography:
Between Nothingness and Eternity
Year: 1998
Tracks: 3
Visions Of The Emerald Beyond
Year: 1975
Tracks: 13
Inner Worlds
Year: 1975
Tracks: 10
Vision Of The Emerald Beyond
Year: 1974
Tracks: 13
Apocalypse
Year: 1974
Tracks: 5
The Lost Trident Sessions
Year: 1973
Tracks: 6
Birds Of Fire
Year: 1972
Tracks: 10
The Inner Mounting Flame
Year: 1971
Tracks: 8
One of the premier spinal fusion groups, the Mahavishnu Orchestra was considered by to the highest degree observers during its premier to be a rock lot, but its sophisticated improvisations actually set its high-energy music 'tween rock-and-roll and jazz. Founder and leader John McLaughlin had late played with Miles Davis and Tony Williams' Lifetime. The original lineup of the group was McLaughlin on electric guitar, violinist Jerry Goodman, keyboardist Jan Hammer, electric bassist Rick Laird, and drummer Billy Cobham. They recorded three intense albums for Columbia during 1971-1973 and then the personnel office changed completely for the instant version of the group. In 1974, the band consisted of fiddler Jean-Luc Ponty, Gayle Moran on keyboards and vocals, electric bassist Ralphe Armstrong, and drummer Michael Warden; by 1975 Stu Goldberg had replaced Moran and Ponty had left. John McLaughlin's dual interests in Eastern faith and playing acoustic guitar resulted in the lot break up in 1975. Surprisingly, an effort to revive the Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1984 (exploitation Cobham, saxophonist Bill Evans, keyboardist Mitchell Forman, electric bassist Jonas Hellborg, and percussionist Danny Gottlieb) was unsuccessful; one Warner Bros. album resulted. However, when one thinks of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, it is of the original lineup, which was very influential throughout the seventies.
