John McLaughlin - Original Album Classics - 5CD-BOX 2007

This second box in Sony's German Original Album Classics series focuses on five titles from John McLaughlin's solo years immediately following the breakup of the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

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John McLaughlin became absorbed in his acoustic playing with his Indian classical music based group Shakti (energy). McLaughlin had already been studying Indian classical music and playing the veena for several years. The group featured Lakshminarayanan L. Shankar (violin), Zakir Hussain (tabla), Thetakudi Harihara Vinayakram (ghatam) and earlier Ramnad Raghavan (mridangam). The group recorded three albums; 'A Handful of Beauty' (1977), 'Shakti' (1976), and 'Natural Elements' (1977). Based on both Carnatic and Hindustani styles, along with extended use of konnakol, the band introduced ragas and Indian percussion to many jazz aficionados.

In this group McLaughlin played a custom-made steel-string acoustic guitar made by Abe Wechter and the Gibson guitar company that featured two tiers of strings over the soundhole: a conventional six-string configuration and seven strings strung underneath at a forty-five degree angle - these were independently tuneable 'sympathetic strings' much like those on a sitar or veena. The instrument's vina-like scalloped fretboard enabled McLaughlin to bend strings far beyond the reach of a conventional fretboard. McLaughlin grew so accustomed to the freedom it provided him that he had the fretboard scalloped on his Gibson Byrdland electric guitar. (wikipedia)

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John McLaughlin - Original Album Classics 1976-1979
(5CD Columbia, Sony, BMG 2007)

CD1 Shakti - Shakti 1976
CD2 Shakti - A Handful of Beauty 1977
CD3 Shakti - Natural Elements 1977
CD4 John McLaughlin - Electric Guitarist 1978
CD5 John McLaughlin - Electric Dreams 1979