John McLaughlin - "The Mediterranean" concerto

[@Allentonstudios]

John did a U.S. tour after this...he performed this in Rochester, Michigan at the beautiful Meadowbrook Amphitheater with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra later that summer. He wore a white tux. He and Katia did not play before "The Mediterranean" as they did here. I was sitting in the 4th row. His performance was the first half of the concert. After intermission, to my astonishment, he and Katia were sitting right across the aisle from me for the second half of the concert. He was wearing a red blazer and was about to eat a peach as I recall, which he dropped on the floor and with cat-like reflexes retrieved it almost before it hit the floor. Naturally I spoke to him and Katia after the concert concluded and got a few pictures. He and Katia were very cordial and it was a thrilling night for me. Thank you John.

[@mortonwilson795]

Exquisite . . . still one of my favourite albums, such a perfect blend of piano and guitar by two exceptional musicians.

[@sheercerebralpower]

Masterful…..love this…..JM has been my focal point of guitar studies since 1982…..

[@shasba]

I saw this concerto during this tour. It was mid 1980's at the Dorthy Chandler Auditorium in Los Angeles Ca. Miles Davis was siting near the front row or in the front row.

[@Maheli1958]

Precioso concierto. Dos estilos diferentes , inquietos, Katia Labeque y John Mclauglin ....estuvieron fenomenales.

[@Pedro83214]

What a master! How can a human being memorize all these notes? This is no improvisation, it is his own composition and he played it in nearly the same way again and again (with some improvised parts)...I know that classical players can do such things, but John is a super brain in playing jazz guitar and additionally he composed and played this great stuff!

[@boomshankah1123]

Memorizing music is not that difficult. It follows a logical sequence and pattern in the form of chords and scales, similar how language is composed of words and sentences. There is an underlying logic and form that conveys meaning to the individual notes; or letters in the case of language. Viewing music as just a long sequence of unrelated notes is the same as viewing text as as just a long sequence of letters. Anyone can learn and recite long blocks of text with ease, but a meaningless random assemblage of letters is another matter. Music is much the same, if it means something to you it is quite simple. Over the course of my life, I have memorized many hours of music which I can recall almost instantly, even when I haven't performed it for years. Even when I can't quite recall things, just noodling about for a couple of minutes can bring it all back perfectly intact, similar to how your mind can bring back pieces of poems or text you learned at school and haven't thought about for years. The same logic applies to improvisation - you are assembling scales and arpeggios over a limited chord sequence which you have decided on beforehand . Just like writing a stream of consciousness poem on a chosen theme using the language analogy.

[@Pedro83214]

@boomshankah1123 Thank you for writing such a long answer. I believe you. But you are a master mind, too. I myself am a musician and guitar player, and I know some pieces of music by heart. But I know my limits and probably would not be able to memorize music in that level. And I am a improvising musician. I work as a music therapist. But there are different abilities and talents and not everyone can do the same things as others. Lucky you if you can!

[@boomshankah1123]

@@Pedro83214 Thanks for your interesting response. I can assure you I am no mastermind, and that I have no special talent or any super powers. And my memory is only average at best. What I do have is motivation to learn the pieces I want to play and a structured plan to memorize and preserve them. A little story, for many years I worked in Special Education with kids who were failing in the school setting. These kids had little motivation to succeed in a lot of cases. However, every year we put on a school performance of a Shakespeare play - sometimes even adapted to rap- performed only by Sp. Ed kids. The number of times I was amazed at these kids ability to learn their lines and perform was jaw-dropping. They were really into it. It taught me a lot about underestimating the ability of the human memorize things. Also, think of people who learn multiple languages. Frequently, it is propelled by desire to communicate beyond your native tongue; if you have a language only spoken by a small population there is a greater need and desire to communicate more widely. This goes a way to explaining why native English speakers are notoriously bad at learning other languages. Apologies, I got side-tracked there. Back to music. Take something like Bach's monumental Chaconne in d minor - in essence it is a short theme and 60+ variations - it can be taken in clearly defined bite-sized sections and worked on three or four at a time, and not necessarily in the correct order. Point being - having a plan and motivation to learn something is a major factor. In the case of something like the Chaconne a pretty good technique comes in handy, alas, if your performance of a piece doesn't please yourself then it is easy to lose the motivation. Keep on Learning!

[@madcyril4135]

He is a one off! That’s for sure!

[@JT-vt5kk]

A beautiful foil for much of his work. Gentle, lush, of course vibrant as always. He has had so many flavors in his career, so many gifts to us. I love jazz w orchestra/strings, with such a luminary up front. "Apocalypse" is a particular favorite in that vein; also CP with strings, Gary Burton w Steve Reich, Jarrett's "Arbour Zena", Metheny's "Secret Stories"; Marsalis' "Hot House Flowers"; even Africa Brass feels like part of that musical dialogue. I think in some measure what I like is the intentionality and originality that such music embodies; it is by definition not a default stylistically. Here, John plays with such romantic sensitivity, along with his usual fire. Much obliged for the upload!

[@user-ru8vj1bs6n]

l never seen this video before.The piece called David is very very beautiful played with orchestra too! Thank you for uploading!

[@elements-creactive]

That is really unique ! Thanx a lot for uploading and sharing the joy ... :-)

[@fabiencourtoistapping]

incredible qPERFORMANCE of the pianiste and of course !! john

[@kevinrombouts3027]

What a great performance from both of these wonderful musicians.

[@Gurci28]

8:08

[@Gurci28]

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN: “SEE CLEARLY … FEEL DEEPLY”: IMPROVISATION AND TRANSFORMATION BY: DANIEL FISCHLIN - 14 de julho de 2017 'On the cusp of a North American concert tour in late 2010 and hot off the release of “To the One”, his musical meditation on Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and his own lifelong spirit-quest, celebrated guitarist John McLaughlin agreed to a CSI request for an interview focusing on improvisation and spirituality.' Source: Abstract Logix

[@Gurci28]

12:52

[@andrecosta1362]

JOHN GENIUS MCLAUGHLIN! KATIA GENIUS LABEQUE!

[@rodrigosolisgonzalez803]

Espectacular concierto. Muchas gracias

[@rickowenkennedy]

Thank You for this post. I have a CD, but have never seen video. Outstanding.

[@burtmantooth8913]

The first composition is so amazing to me. It feels so American to me. Haunting, nostalgic, bittersweet, and many other words that I could easily adapt to this comment if I had the gumption to toggle back and forth between this performance and a digital, online representation of a thesaurus.

[@ernieball20]

JM is The Legend !! 😎😎👍👍

[@robertocrudo1967]

the Slow & sad movement is actually "David" (realeased on Passion, Grace and Fire 1983 with PdeL and AdiM)

[@peacetree5000]

JM's back ground is heavyly steeped in Indian classsical music and jazz fusion etc,that's enabled himself such a seemless transition in to this type of orchestral piece.

[@deportugees4542]

Masterpiece!!!!!

[@julioguzmanrock]

👏👏👏👏👏🎸🎸🎸🎸❤️

[@fav1000]

John’s a genius we know that. Shame on the sound guy ... couldn’t work a fader !

[@chrischoir3594]

Year?

[@guymartinenq6256]

Non, Paco, Chick Coréa, Carla Bley ne sont pas morts.

[@srb99100]

44:29 may have been a little out of tune. As John concurs 😅

[@hanswalter6626]

Each ton is planed.

[@MrMjp58]

Enjoyable, but the guitar is drowned out much of the time despite microphone and amp.

[@ghfhftguytyty5099]

Excellent, as always, but the tuxedo doesn't match with his playing/style. The pianist is lovely by all means.

[@tanapatpeemanee1230]

I love het style..... really !

[@cfibanez]

It's a smoking (black tie). Tuxedo is white tie (and tails). Awesome playing. Cheers!

[@pascaljeanne6520]

et la tete de katia au debut , et que je te regarde langoureusement , oui mon john ce soir tu vas rugir jte l dis ! non je ne swingue pas mais c'est pas le probleme ouh que tu m'excite avec ce costume ridicule ! viens vite , nu , et john ? il aime les française illuminées ! c'est des tigresses ! il reste bouddhiste mais crois moi ça doit donner la nuit !

[@clt8762]

Les triples croches ne font pas le printemps...

[@pascaljeanne6520]

oh man sorry for my english but its too funny ! i remember this tv show in france ! (le grand echiquier) it was terrible ! ok maclauglin is a great guitarist but the girl and her sister , that was boring but boring...and john dressed like a pinguin made sextolet katia , katia played some boring stuff with too many notes shaking her head ! ahaha ! she was kind of hysterical , she was in love with jhon i guess ! and she was excited like a fly ! john made so boring music very often but right here it was the universe ! the most borin music on earth !

[@misterree1443]

So you didn't like it?

[@varkony60]

@@misterree1443 Well, maybe just his English, and actually he wanted to express his enthusiasm.

[@marceloberestovoy7907]

@@varkony60 LOL

[@srb99100]

Anything else???

[@mishagasparovsky196]

Ok, so, you know nothing about music. You could just say so ...