John McLaughlin (born 4 January 1942 in Doncaster, West Riding of Yorkshire, England) is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer. His music includes many genres of jazz which he coupled with elements of rock, Indian classical music, Western classical music, flamenco, and blues to become one of the pioneering figures in fusion. After contributing to several key British groups of the early 1960s, McLaughlin made Extrapolation, his first album as a bandleader, in 1969. He then moved to the U.S., where he played with Tony Williams’s group Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his electric jazz-fusion albums In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, A Tribute to Jack Johnson, and On the Corner. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences. In 2010, guitarist Jeff Beck called him “the best guitarist alive”. (More from Wikipedia)
During the 1950’s, Ginger Baker was a member of several of what were known in England as “trad jazz” bands, i.e., Dixieland jazz. Charlie Watts recommended Baker as the drummer for Blues Incorporated after he left the band. Ginger Baker crossed paths with lead vocalist, saxophonist and organist Graham Bond and bassist Jack Bruce; together with another alumnus of the band, saxophone player Dick Heckstall-Smith, the four began jamming together before enthusiastic crowds while performing with a band called the Johnny Burch Octet. Bond initially formed the Graham Bond Quartet with Bruce, Baker and guitarist John McLaughlin (an important figure in jazz fusion who performed on Miles Davis’s first gold record, Bitches Brew); when Heckstall-Smith joined up, the group was renamed the Graham Bond Organisation. It was in this period that Ginger Baker developed his signature drum solo, “Toad”.
(May 2014)
