For Grammy-winning guitarist John McLaughlin, the unrest and uncertainty of the last 14 months has unearthed a desperate need for global liberation. He sounds that message loudly and clearly in his 53rd album as a leader, Liberation Time.
"I had all my concerts and tours canceled last year, like everyone else," McLaughlin told me when we connected for this edition of Let Me Tell You 'Bout It. "When you get to play with the people you love who are also great players, you can have the experience of individual freedom...and even a collective [freedom] through improvised music. The desire to be free, through playing, is what I've missed most of all and it really came out."
The new album's title track is a canvas for catharsis. After casting his original melody on the form of Miles Davis' "So What" and John Coltrane's "Impressions," McLaughlin unleashes a vigorous, nearly seven-minute solo of the highest intensity that never lets loose. It is the driven, spirited and fearless McLaughlin that his fans have come to expect over his 50-year career as a leader and featured sideman. Throughout his musical evolution and growth, his muses have remained unchanged.
"Miles and Coltrane are my heroes," McLaughlin says. "Their artistry on Milestones, Kind of Blue, and A Love Supreme blew me away. For me they're both two great spiritual beings." McLaughlin's on-the-job training with Davis yielded a reciprocal relationship evident on recordings such as In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Live Evil, On The Corner, Big Fun, and, You're Under Arrest. The trumpeter even named tunes for McLaughlin ("Go Ahead, John", "John McLaughlin") pointing to the guitarist's contributions within the sound of Davis' evolving electric music. In the case of Coltrane, McLaughlin says he borrowed directly from the intensity and timbre of the saxophonist's sound to create a new conception for the guitar.
As a departure from the majority of McLaughlin's recording concepts, Liberation Time calls on different musical lineups to achieve the whole. Featured players include drummers Vinnie Colaiuta and Gary Husband, bassists Etienne Mbappe and Sam Burgess, pianist Oz Ezzeldin and saxophonist Julian Siegel. Liberation Time is an album executed during quarantine and recorded in different locations, but the energy is unified as it allows for McLaughlin and his players to bring their own interpretations to his basic framework.
"If you don't take a risk, then don't bother," McLaughlin says. "You've got to let go of the control. You've written a piece, but you've got to let everybody be who they are because that is the beauty of existence."
In addition to speaking about the new album and reflecting on his heroes, McLaughlin also reminisces about his friendship with Newark-born organist Larry Young and their tenure together with drummer Tony Williams' groundbreaking group Lifetime.
Liberation Time releases July 16 on Abstract Logix; preorder here.
