A Dave Sez contribution...Back From The Dead
Originally posted November 1, 2013
John McLaughlin & Jonas Hellborg
Schlosshof, Tuebingen, Germany
June 22, 1986
Schlosshof, Tuebingen, Germany
June 22, 1986
Soundboard or FM Source @320
John McLaughlin & Jonas Hellborg - Schlosshof,
Tuebingen, Germany.
22/06/86
(Art Included)
Line-up:
John McLaughlin - Acoustic Guitar
Jonas Hellborg - Electric Bass
Tracks:
1) unknown
2) Electric dreams
3) Trilogy
4) unknown
5) Guardian Angel/ You Know, You Know/My Foolish Heart/One Melody
6) Blues for LW
7) Goodbye Porkpie Hat
Sound Quality: FM broadcast, A+. Many thanks to Dr. Fusion!
.......................
In 1984, John decided to form a new electric band and christened it “Mahavishnu” (with the missing “Orchestra”), the band consisted of the then very young Jonas Hellborg, Bill Evans(the sax player), Billy Cobham, Mitch Foreman and Danny Gottlieb.
The group recorded an album in mid 1984 titled “Mahavishnu”. It was right before the recording sessions of the “Mahavishnu” album that John finally managed to make it to India on a tour with Shakti. The original four members of the group got together in April, 1984 and did a short tour of India. This was perhaps the finest sounding Shakti ever, the members had matured in their own way and Shankar was playing his double bow
stereo violin, which added a character to Shakti that cannot be described in words. It was a deadly combination. Sadly for some unknown reasons, this reunion was short lived and lasted for a month. There was however indication from the shows that the tour was perhaps intended to go beyond India, but it never did materialize. Right after this tour, John returned to France and started work on the recording of the “Mahavishnu” album and one track, “When Blue Turns Gold”, featured Zakir Hussain on tabla and most unusual of all, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia on flute. This partnership with Hari Prasad Chaurasia
would not blossom further until 1997 with the formation of “Remember Shakti”. After recording the "Mahavishnu" album, McLaughlin and Mahavishnu would then play at the Montreux Jazz Festival in July 1984. In 1985, John joined Miles in the studio to record “You’re Under Arrest” and also played a small role in the film “Round Midnight”. John also did a small tour with Jonas Hellborg as a duo and also continued to tour with the Mahavishnu band. In late 1986, John played on the outstanding Zakir Hussain solo album “Making Music”, which also featured Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Jan Garbarek. The Mahavishnu band came to an end by late 1986 and John did two short tours as a duo, the first was with Paco De Lucia and the other was with Jonas Hellborg (similar to the one back in 1985).
It was not until 1988 that John came back with a proper band, which was called the John McLaughlin Trio featuring Trilok Gurtu on percussion and various bass players over the lifetime of this band including Jonas Hellborg, Jeff Berlin, Kai Eckhart, and Dominque Di Piazza. This Trio recorded two albums "Live At The Royal Festival Hall" (1990) and "Que Alegria" (1992), the former was a live album while the latter was a studio recording. During this period, John also explored his love for classical music and recorded the classically influenced “The Mediterranean" in 1990. The JM Trio finally disbanded in 1992 and John was ready to explore new frontiers.
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Miss December 1986 - Laurie Carr



Thanks for putting this up, SilentWay! The first of four posts, all A+ FM@320, spanning twenty years of the work of Jonas Hellborg, Swedish bassist extraordinaire, playing first with McLaughlin here and then into the 1990s, meeting Shaun Lane for the classic HLS period (Fredmans, Stockholm), moving into an Indian groove together (Pizza Express, London), and finally Art Metal (Quasimodo, Berlin) in 2006. Since then, the lone and level sands stretch far away ... cheers, Dave Sez.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting set, thanks for putting this out there. There's a side of JM here that I hadn't heard before, moments when it sounded like Michael Hedges was jamming with Jaco (meant as a compliment). This will get a lot of plays here. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteThanks, it's great to hear them playing off each other. J McL is great in the smaller groups. Grand!
ReplyDeleteMost welcome, drkick and anonymous. For McLaughlin fans, there are several other recordings of this duo stretching from 1986 to 1988, of which the best - after this one is 1987.08.10 Nightstage Cambridge MA. I personally prefer the duet to the two full Mahavishnu group albums of 1984 and 1987. However, you should also catch the next Hellborg-related post (1996) with the great Shawn lane RIP on guitar - not McLaughlin but just as much of a master musician. Cheers, Dave Sez.
ReplyDeleteJust to say that, whilst this post has not apparently awoken great interest (well, none actually) and whilst previous posts here of Jonas Hellborg (search for his name) are dead (and awaiting revival, silent?), Arizona Jones' now-defunct blog has a few of Hellborg's recordings with the great guitarist Shawn Lane - go and get them before mega deletes the links!
ReplyDeletehttp://arizjones.blogspot.com/2015/07/shawn-lane-and-jonas-hellborg.html
http://arizjones.blogspot.com/2015/06/shawn-lane-and-jonas-hellborg.html
http://arizjones.blogspot.com/2015/06/shawn-lane-jonas-hellborg-jeff-sipe_61.html
http://arizjones.blogspot.com/2015/06/shawn-lane-and-jonas-hellborg-athens-ga.html
http://arizjones.blogspot.com/2015/06/shawn-lane-jonas-hellborg-jeff-sipe_14.html
Cheers,
Dave Sez
And
Deletehttps://arizjones.blogspot.com/2015/06/shawn-lane-jonas-hellborg-jeff-sipe.html
https://arizjones.blogspot.com/2015/06/shawn-lane-jonas-hellborg-jeff-sipe_75.html
too.
Cheers,
Dave Sez.