John McLaughlin and Jimmy Herring - Meeting of the Spirits

[Ed S]

John McLaughlin kicked off his farewell tour of North America (we'll see) last night at the University at Buffalo Center for the Arts.  I took my son Edward - who is the third Ed Swinnich currently inhabiting the planet -who also is a grad school student in engineering at UB - to the show for his 23rd birthday.  The show was billed as Jimmy Herring and John McLaughlin - A Meeting of the Spirits.  I had never seen McLaughlin live - and did not want to miss the opportunity.  Along the way I  discovered he was 75 years old.  Holy crap - I had no idea!

Herring opened the night and played a nice set of fusion.  His band had a drummer, bass, keys/violin, B3, and Jimmy.  Nice set, not inspiring., but very enjoyable nonetheless as the musicianship was clearly evident.   The only song I recognized was "The Brothers in A-Minor".  I'm a big fan of Herring's work with Widespread Panic.  This set was nowhere close to that zone.

After a very short break, John McLaughlin appeared with his 4th Dimension Quartet.  I had not really followed McLaughlin closely after the Mahavishnu Orchestra days, but there were a number of songs I knew and some great moments musically, regardless.  The guy was on fire.  The band was really excellent.

If the night ended at that point, I would have been happy to have seen both of the guitarists, but the show would certainly not have ranked among the most memorable I'd ever seen.  BUT - that's when the whole night  did become one of the most memorable concerts I have ever seen.

After a super short break of like 3 minutes - McLaughlin's quartet was joined by Herring's entire band for an extended set of Mahavishnu Orchestra material.  I've heard the albums on vinyl and CD and enjoyed them.  Back in the day, I was a big fusion fan ( still am) - and Mahavishnu were among my favorites - though slightly behind RTF and Weather Report.  I had never heard the Mahavishnu Orchestra live and while this was not the "official orchestra" live - I do not give a shit.  This was among the most powerful musical performances I have ever witnessed.  All I can say is holy shit - I am so glad I got to hear this music live.  On several points throughout the performance - I actually had goosebumps. The power and feel was overwhelming.  McLaughlin was a maniac on the guitar and Herring went into full-on Widespread Panic mode on the extended pieces.  The violin player was phenomenal.  The dual guitar plus violin lines were flawless   Dual drummers gave the whole proceedings a really nice groove feeling. Two bass players added a dimension on that level that I had not experienced prior.  Exchanges between the keyboard guy from McLaughlin's band and the B3 player fro Herring's were excellent and interesting. Just hearing the B3 in the mix was really cool from an overall color perspective.  The whole ensemble just created such texture and feel that it was truly awesome/overwhelming. 

I'm not big on song titles - but they opened the Mahavishnu portion of the night with Meeting of the Spirits followed by Miles Beyond. Along they way they did some stuff from Visions of the Emerald Beyond - those vocal numbers that open the album - which were superb, btw and a tune call Earth Ship.  They did Birds of Fire and some additional stuff that sounded like it was from Inner Mounting Flame but I'm not sure.  I recognized the melodies but I'm no expert the the album content.

In the end - the show started at 7:30.  Herring played about 40 minutes followed with like a five minute bread followed by JM and the 4th Dimension Band for about the same.  After that it was 2 hours of awesomeness.  Show ended around 11:15

 

Special moment.  So glad I decided to go.

[Dmitry]

Ed, so many thanks for the concert review! I’ve got my ticket for this Sunday’s concert here in lil Rhody, had it for weeks now. Show is sold out. Reading you makes me very excited!!! This is billed as McLaughlin’s farewell tour.

I’m not familiar with the other guy. What do you recommend to get myself warmed up to his music?

[BFrank]

Great review - thanks!

I'm seeing them here in SF in December. 

[Ed S]

15 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Ed, so many thanks for the concert review! I’ve got my ticket for this Sunday’s concert here in lil Rhody, had it for weeks now. Show is sold out. Reading you makes me very excited!!! This is billed as McLaughlin’s farewell tour.

I’m not familiar with the other guy. What do you recommend to get myself warmed up to his music?

I'm only familiar with his work with Widespread Panic - which I love. There are tons of videos on YouTube.  I'd go there first.  There are also quite a few Jimmy Herring videos in various contexts.

[HutchFan]

2 hours ago, Ed Swinnich said:

I'm only familiar with his work with Widespread Panic - which I love. There are tons of videos on YouTube.  I'd go there first.  There are also quite a few Jimmy Herring videos in various contexts.

 

Some more recommended Jimmy Herring:

Back in the day, this band used to come through Athens regularly. (This album was made in the Georgia Theater in Athens.)  I probably saw Colonel Bruce & the ARU perform twenty times or more -- including their most recent reunion show at the Georgia Theater in Athens, which happened few years ago.  They were a fantastic band -- and Herring was an integral part of it.  

R.I.P. Bruce Hampton. 

 

By the way, THANK YOU for the wonderful concert review, Ed.  Now I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing Herring & McLaughlin in Atlanta later this month!  

Edited November 3, 2017 by HutchFan

[Justin V]

18 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Ed, so many thanks for the concert review! I’ve got my ticket for this Sunday’s concert here in lil Rhody, had it for weeks now. Show is sold out. Reading you makes me very excited!!! This is billed as McLaughlin’s farewell tour.

I’m not familiar with the other guy. What do you recommend to get myself warmed up to his music?

I recommend Herring's Lifeboat, which has Greg Osby on many of the tracks.

[skeith]

Ed

 

sounds like a great experience.  

 

I would love to see the concert in NYC tonight...just found out about it today.....and if anyone has any spare tickets????

[Ed S]

Thanks for the recommendations regarding Herring.  I'll have to check them out.

I once saw Col Bruce Hampton and the ARU at the Montreal Jazz Festival back in the nineties.  I enjoyed them but never checked them out further.  I'll give them a listen for sure.  Who knows - I may have seen Herring without ever knowing it.

[Dmitry]

Awesome show yesterday, scripted just as Ed had described. This was the longest set of music I've ever paid for - well north of 3 hours.

I ended up buying the concert poster for the Cranston/Boston shows. Very psychedelic. They produce a poster for every two gigs, and they are all different. I think they print 100 copies of each, each hand-numbered..

You guys, whoever had tickets for their upcoming shows, are in for a real treat. The only thing I found axcessive is Jimmy Herring's drummer playing every single piece of hardware he has, and ending every song with beating on a big effin gong. 

BTW, based on my eyewitness account, this is what an average attendee of yesterday's concert looks like. One dude yesterday took it one step further. Imagine the guy in the photo below taking his cloths off and doing the whirling dervish dance for a couple of hours.  Yes, I got it on film.

 

[BFrank]

[skeith]

congrats Dmitry....sounds great.

 

Anyone see the NYC show at Town Hall??

[Dmitry]

When he wasn't whirling, he was waving album covers at the stage. I'm assuming they were Mahavishnu records, but who knows. I'm just glad he wasn't directly in front of me.

 

Edited November 9, 2017 by Dmitry

[Dmitry]

The Mahavishnu jam. I took some shots from my seat.

Edited November 9, 2017 by Dmitry

[mandrill]

Great show in Durham, NC yesterday. The timing was about an hour for each set, perhaps given more time (compared to Ed's description) to Jimmy Herring, as he's Fayetteville, NC native son. "A big effin gong" was kept in check and only used sparingly on a couple of Mahavishnu Orchestra songs. The real highlight of 4th Dimension set was when Gary Husband joined Ranjit Barot on drums in the end, both of them raising up a storm and then ending with kind of call and response game.

 

 

Edited November 13, 2017 by mandrill

[skeith]

I saw this concert in Newark NJ on Friday night and I have to echo the sentiments of others that it was a fantastic show.   By the way mandrill, they did play "A Lotus on Irish Streams" in Newark --- an electric version of the original.

 

Wonderful and thanks to all of you who spoke so highly- this prompted me to go.

[7/4]

I was at the Newark and Port Chester shows.

 

 

 

[BFrank]

I still have about 3 1/2 weeks until my show.