Michael
I remember mention of this when it was being recorded, probably on Instagram. But I didn't follow up with its release until now, and boy am I blown away. I'd expected an all 4th Dimension recording, but what an inspired choice to do multiple band configurations. Loving the variety at my first listen!!
Favorite track: Liberation Time.
PAUL AUKSZTULEWICZ
The first track is magnificent, John. I hear all of your colors, from previous musical endeavors, painted throughout. I’m really looking forward to the next, and the next…
dddogg32
Like John said in this beautifully written piece about the new record, and I’m paraphrasing, “music simply has saved my life.“ Music has saved my life many times over, whether I’m playing music, or I am a listener. I’ve been fortunate to have spent half a century in the music business. Mahavishnu, the great creator that is John McLaughlin speaks to my musical mind, body and spirit like no other. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and soul for your years of selfless service to us a
Includes unlimited streaming of Liberation Time
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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Purchasable with gift card
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A very limited Collectors Edition will be specially curated with a vinyl along with a CD, free digital download, T-shirt along with 12” x 12” screen print by Marq Spusta, in a signed and numbered edition of 500 on metallic paper.
Includes unlimited streaming of Liberation Time
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 15 days
Purchasable with gift card
$59.99USDor more
Streaming + Download
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
$12.99USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
John McLaughlin: Liberation Time (CD) regular
Includes unlimited streaming of Liberation Time
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Spanning innumerable ensembles, hundreds of compositions, and thousands of performances, John McLaughlin’s wide-ranging musical journey is guided by an unflagging quest for transcendence -- a tireless grasp for spiritual ecstasy that renders traditional, earthly boundaries irrelevant. For more than five decades, McLaughlin has deployed his peerless guitar technique, compositional gifts, and imagination in service of a deeply personal higher calling, forging a vast legacy unmatched in improvised music.
Thankfully, his journey is nowhere near complete -- especially now when we need him most.
As the world reels from the social, emotional, and spiritual toll of the ongoing viral-induced global lockdown, McLaughlin reflects on both the perils and potential of this challenging moment with Liberation Time -- his newest album, available July 16th on Abstract Logix/Mediastarz. In the fall of 2020, as the reality of pandemic limitations set in, McLaughlin commenced work on Liberation Time as a “direct response” (his words) to the mandated restrictions imposed by the spread of Covid-19. Characterized by both joy and reflection, Liberation Time finds McLaughlin harnessing his frustrations and redirecting that energy. “The result,” he explains in a candid liner note, “was an explosion of music in my mind.”
Unusual for McLaughlin’s recent projects, Liberation Time is not the work of one fixed ensemble. With physical proximity no longer a prerequisite, McLaughlin drew upon decades of experience as a bandleader to select musicians best suited to each composition. “That is a choice that can only be made correctly if you know how the musicians play,” he explains. “Not just how well they play technically, but how they play intuitively. Only then can you make the right decisions.”
Creating compelling, dynamic performances from contributors isolated around the globe required McLaughlin to draw from his years of experience as a producer, recording artist, and bandleader to set up parameters that would spark inspiration. “I have a certain experience playing drums, piano, and bass,” he says, “so it’s not difficult for me to create a session that not only gives the structure melodically, rhythmically and harmonically -- along with the atmosphere of the piece. I set this up and send it to the musicians, giving very broad outlines of the piece, and ask them to be themselves in their improvisations and in the way they accompany the themes. Several pieces came back to me transformed, and I would then re-record my part in response.”
“As the Spirit Sings” introduces the album by contrasting churning rhythmic tension (stoked by drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and bassist Sam Burgess) with McLaughlin’s soaring guitar figures -- all underpinned by Gary Husband’s subtle, expansive piano. While each musician recorded his part in their respective locales, the responsiveness of the performers is undimmed by distance.
Knotty post-bop figures form the basis of “Right Here, Right Now, Right On,” one of the most jazz-inflected performances McLaughlin has laid down in some time, featuring Nicolas Viccaro (drums), Jerome Regard (bass), Julian Siegel (tenor saxophone), and Oz Ezzeldin (piano). While his muse has led him down many stylistic avenues over the course of his career, McLaughlin is quick to cite his roots in jazz as a foundational element of his approach to this day. “We are all jazz musicians,” he says of himself and his cohorts on Liberation Time, “and there is much love between jazz musicians. All the musicians I invited to perform with me know that there will not only be collective playing, but they will have the possibility to express their individuality spontaneously. This is the great characteristic of jazz.”
When speaking of camaraderie, it is impossible to ignore the profound brotherhood that exists between the members of 4th Dimension -- McLaughlin’s current ensemble, which includes Husband along with Etienne Mbappe (bass) and Ranjit Barot (drums). They are featured on the soul “Lockdown Blues,” a playful refraction examination of blues tropes first released last summer to benefit the Jazz Foundation of America.
While much of Liberation Blues revels in the sort of spontaneous interplay that has been denied by Covid restrictions, some of the album’s most touching moments feature McLaughlin alone at the piano -- an instrument he has not recorded on since his 1973 collaboration with Carlos Santana, Love Devotion Surrender. Although brief, McLaughlin’s two piano features, “Mila Repa” and “Shade of Blue,” are by no means incomplete. “In my mind, the two pieces I play the piano on are like two short musical poems,” he says. “I’m very fond of the Haiku form of poetry -- which is ‘distilled’ poetry -- and this is how I see these two pieces. There are few notes and much space, as in the kind of poetry I enjoy. I include them to bring a particular feeling into the listener’s mind.”
With vaccination campaigns now in full effect and a more promising tomorrow coming into view, Liberation Time’s title track can be felt as visceral anticipation -- a rousing glimpse into an unbound future rich with possibilities. With Sam Burgess’s bass holding the center, the cut culminates in a thrilling conversation between McLaughlin and longtime bandmate Gary Husband, who is heard on both piano and drums. Eventually bass and piano drop out, unleashing a riveting guitar/drum dialogue made even more astonishing by the fact that neither of the performers were able to make eye contact with one another.
Liberation Time is a product of its times, and yet it looks both forwards and backwards -- at once drawing upon memories of better days gone and yet reaching for a new dawn. If the rhythmic innovations and intricacies of such past McLaughlin projects as Mahavishnu Orchestra and Shakti have demonstrated anything, it is that John McLaughlin seems time itself as pliable and open to interpretation. And if time is no barrier to his creative impulses, why should distance be? Looking back at the transcontinental sessions that resulted in Liberation Time, McLaughlin concludes, “The wonderful thing about music is that you put the headphones on, and you are all in the same room.”
credits
released July 1, 2021
John McLaughlin Guitar / Guitar synth / Piano
Roger Rossignol Piano
Ranjit Barot Drums / Konokol
Jean Michel. ‘Kiki’ Aublette Drums / Bass
Vinnie Colaiuta Drums
Nicolas Viccaro Drums
Julian Siegel Tenor Sax
Etienne MBappe Bass
Gary Husband Drums / Piano
Sam Burgess Bass
Jerome Regard Bass
Oz Ezzeldin Piano
supported by 100 fans who also own “Liberation Time”
I've seen both these musical shamans over the years and think Herring and. McLaughin are the perfect matchup! High octane musicianship! Hoping they will eventually tour again!
drobknee
supported by 67 fans who also own “Liberation Time”
This is an amazing recording both musically and technically capturing some amazing musicians playing together to leave us something of wonder daveappleton
