Review: A new John McLaughlin recording is, for me, a highly anticipated event. Floating Point even more so, as it is perhaps the first time that the guitar legend has merged his two great musical passions, electric jazz and Indian music. The results are impressive to say the least and constitute a balanced and highly appealing blend of progressive jazz and popular Indian music. For this recording, McLaughlin, on electric guitar and synthesizer guitar, works with an incredibly proficient and sympathetic core band consisting of keyboardist Louiz Banks, trap drummer Ranjit Barot, bassist Hadrien Feraud and percussionist Anandan Sivamani. Barot, a self-taught prodigy who is referred to by many as India's finest jazz drummer, first worked with Banks as a teenager in the early 1980s, when he joined Banks' incredible Indian jazz-fusion group Jazz Yatra Sextet. His restless, splashy, polyrhythmic style is a perfect fit for McLaughlin's searching improvisations and odd-metered phrasing. There's a palpable chemistry between Barot and the rest of the band that gives each of the tunes on Floating Point a real sense of immediacy. I haven't heard McLaughlin's music sound so fresh and vital in many years, at least since his first trio recording with Dennis Chambers and Joey DeFrancesco.
Each tune, except for the mellow funk anthem "Maharina," features a guest soloist and to a considerable extent, each guest musician adds an extra bit of spice to the proceedings. Nearly all of the guests have appeared on various McLaughlin projects, such as the Remember Shakti band, over the past decade. George Brooks adds some soulful soprano saxophone to "Abbaji," though he is overshadowed somewhat by McLaughlin's rapid-fire guitar-synth runs and by the spectacularly hyper-aggressive tandem drumming of Sivamani and Barot. Traditional vocalist Mahadevan adds an mournful touch to "The Voice," which stands out as the closest thing to a ballad on the CD. On "Raju," a more straightforward jamming tune, McLaughlin's and Bhattacharya's duelling strings spiral into near-ecstasy as they negotiate their way through Banks' keyboard washes and Barot's ceaselessly crashing cymbals.
"Off The One" is a more complicated piece with a lengthy, multi-sectioned theme that reminds me of several pieces McLaughlin has written since the demise of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Shashank's bamboo flute has a pleasant, reedy sound and his limber vocal-like phrasing contrasts beautifully with McLaughlin's other-worldly guitar synthesizer. Banks chips in an incredible, but all too brief keyboard solo here. Banks gets a bit more time to develop his ideas on "Inside Out," where mandolinist U. Srinivas, who sounds a great deal like McLaughlin himself, reels off rapid flurries of impossibly bent notes, sometimes in perfect unison with the guitarist.
Banks, Barot and Sivamini provide a funky kick-start to the CD-closing "Five Peace Band," a driving 5/4 rocker which features Hadrien Feraud's finger busting bass work and Niladri Kumar's guitar-like zitar. Like mandolinist Srinivas, Kumar has McLaughlin-esque sound and technique on his instrument and goes toe-to-toe with his mentor as they trade solos over the seething rhythm section. "1 4 U," despite its obvious and somewhat silly, sing-song theme and 80s-style keyboard sounds, has some really nice exchanges between bassist Feraud, flutist Naveen Kumar, and the leader's guitar synthesizer.
All told, Floating Point will surely please die-hard McLaughlin fans and I imagine it would be a good place to start if you are merely curious about the guitar master's music, or about jazz-rock fusion music in general.
Tracks: Abbaji (for Alla Rakha); Raju; Maharina; Off The One; The Voice; Inside Out; 1 4 U; Five Peace Band
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