[rating=7.00]
Released in anticipation of John McLaughlin’s final tour of America, Live at Ronnie Scott’s features a cover photo of the famous London venue with the silver-haired musician pictured in the corner somewhat unobtrusively, gazing perhaps with some measure of nostalgia at the spot he served on the house backing band in the Sixties. Inside the CD sleeve, there’s a panoramic shot of (presumably) the immediate vicinity of the same spot, as if to position this latest album in the context of the legendary guitarist’s fifty-year career.
However, this title doesn’t pretend to be a comprehensive anthology of McLaughlin’s work even though it contains material all the way back to the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s 1973 album Birds of Fire (“Miles Beyond”) as well as “El Hombre que Sabia,” a cull from Black Light, the most recent studio work with his current quartet. Live @ Ronnie Scott’s is nevertheless in keeping with the understated means by which John McLaughlin has pursued his eclectic projects over the years, initiatives both low-profile and high, in realms acoustic and electric, in varying ensemble sizes.
There’s a practiced rigor to the musicianship in these nine tracks ranging in duration from approximately five—the relative quiet of “Gaza City”–to just less than thirteen minutes—the deceptive discipline of “Echoes of Then.” The sophisticated arrangements don’t allow for terribly extensive improvisation, but there’s little noticeable bombast either. Each member of The 4th Dimension, (bassist Etienne M’bappe, drummer Ranjit Barot, keyboardist/drummer Gary Husband) exercises restraint in his own way to minimize the exercise of technique for its own sake.
So, more often than not, mere flashes of their technical prowess are sufficient, such as the drum intro on “Here Come the Jiis.” Those who delight in such displays may or may not be wholly satisfied with that restraint, but it’s also safe to say that those music overs who find the likes of “New Blues Old Bruise” exacting to a fault won’t be convinced otherwise here; in fact, the latter demographic may find the vocal/instrumental back and forth self-indulgent during “Vital Transformation,” despite the pristine sound quality it shares with the other cuts.
Yet, there’s no denying the rage John McLaughlin himself injects into “Sanctuary” or the way he tempers that steely ingenuity on guitar during the opening number “Meeting of the Spirits.” As a result, Live at Ronnie Scott’s should placate not only those devotees of jazz-rock fusion, but also the prog-rock minded likes of the audience who dotes on the cerebral likes of Umphrey’s McGee and Tauk. It also represents a fair starting point for curious music lovers eager to become familiar with the remarkable diversity of this man ‘s diverse work over the years: the cutback in his roadwork might allow him the time to compile the multiple anthologies it would take to cover those varied endeavors.
