js “Devotion” is an odd one in the John McLaughlin discography, known as John’s ‘psychedelic rock’ album, there are a lot of things that happen on this LP that don’t show up on any later outings. Apparently controversial producer Alan Douglas had been hosting jam sessions with John, Jimi Hendrix, Larry Young, Billy Rich and Buddy Miles. When Jimi left us for another galaxy far away, the sessions continued without him. Eventually Alan made his own mix of the sessions without any input from McLaughlin, and the result was this album. John does not care for this album, especially Alan’s mixes. There is so much on here that is not typical for John; the way songs meld into each other, the psychedelic production, the double tracked guitar solos and the overall murky lack of precision. Production wise this album is the opposite of John’s later albums, but truth be told, this album sounds great, even if some of the music is somewhat simple by McLaughlin standards.

Most of these tracks are easy one and two chord modal jams, but both John and Larry Young play some great solos on these basic platforms. The best guitar solos go down on side one, with McLaughlin’s double tracked guitars often battling each other, or intertwining in complimentary ways. Larry should have been given more solo space, but he does come through big time on the bluesy “Siren”. Kudos to Larry also for his very spacey use of the B3 drawbars as he builds walls of tamboura like shifting hallucinogenic backgrounds. This is another place where Douglas’ skills shine as his production brings out the best in Larry’s unique technique. Another track worth mentioning is the last half of “Don’t Let the Dragon Eat Your Mother”, on which John’s mystical guitar figures sound like an outtake from “In a Silent Way”. On some of the more fusion leaning tracks, the bluesy Buddy Miles seems a bit out of his element. It would have been interesting to hear Billy Cobham or Tony Williams in his place. As a jazz album, many may find “Devotion” lacking in substance, but as a psychedelic rock album, it ranks with the best.

Abraxas The John McLaughlin Experience

John McLaughlin is one of the most acclaimed jazz fusion guitarists alongside Allan Holdsworth, Larry Coryell and Al Di Meola, he’s considered one of the precursors of the shred and simply one hell of a versatile guitarist with an easily recognisable style, fusing Western and Eastern ideas, similarly to what his idol, John Coltrane, had done.

By 1970 John had already played with the impressive psychedelic jazz rock band, Lifetime, together with drum force Tony Williams and post-bop organist, Larry Young, as well as with the legendary Miles Davis and his innovating jazz experiments, most famously known for Bitches Brew. However, in none of these appearances he actually sounds like the McLaughlin we all know about, his style was still developing and maturing.

It’s actually on Devotion where John’s first exposure of his ferocious and unique style is shown in, I had always thought that it was in The Mahavishnu Orchestra’s debut released in 1971, but I was wrong. Here he finally drives his guitar crazy and sounds like if he’s putting it on fire, alike Hendrix showed us three years prior to this. And alike Hendrix, here he's repleted with wah-wah and other guitar effects, all in all making his guitar more akin to the psychedelic era.

But beyond McLaughlin’s amazing guitar, we’ve got once again beside him, the former jazz organist, Larry Young, now mainly playing one-of-a-kind trippy ambiences not known by many (or any) organists, who would later also repeat these special auras on the more famous guitar-devotion album, Love Devotion & Surrender, with Carlos Santana. There’s also Buddy Miles, from the Band of Gypsys, a very powerful and groovy drummer, plus a rather unknown but still competent bassist, Billy Rich.

Definitely not alike The Mahavishnu Orchestra, this is mainly psychedelic jazz rock more in the vein of Emergency! by The Tony Williams Lifetime, but John actually matures a bit from that session, and makes a much less improvised affair, mainly noticing in the length of the tunes, with five tracks out of six being below the 6 minute mark. Also, what is noticeable like I already stated, is the man’s guitar style, already fully developed in the beast that is very well known in his main band. It’s really surprising to already hear most of McLaughlin’s famous licks at such an early stage of his career, even though they're played on top of rather simplistic psychedelic/blues inspired tunes.

Devotion overall is really a special album and it should have made a bigger impact if it had had a better record label. But it’s really no big deal, since one year after this, John's abilities were recognised with his main band’s debut, Inner Mounting Flame.

This is far from the technical outburst of The Mahavishnu Orchestra, John McLaughlin here is simply having a lot of fun with incredible out-worldly concise jams which are never self-indulgent or long to bore you. Fans of Hendrix, Tony Williams Lifetime, Miles’ 69-75 releases, and any other psychedelic/improvised (jazz) rock record should check this.

Sean Trane Do you ever get the feeling some albums are simply a free for all for shady and less shady labels? I have seen this album released in at least a dozen different versions on some of the most dubious label with different artwork, none fitting the original one. And of course as you’d figure when such is the case, the Charly label is involved, and it is the version I have, graced with a picture of John in the mid-80’s. This is really a bit sad because this album is a real scorcher, one of the rockier releases of McLaughlin’s lengthy career.

And believe me, when I say scorcher (but not flawless), this is a real one keeping in mind that we are in the jazz-rock mould, but sometimes it sounds like jazz-metal. John has assembled a stellar cast around him including Buddy Miles (Santana, Hendrix etc…), Larry Young (the great organist in Tony Williams’ Lifetime, whom he hooked up with after his two album stint with them) and lesser-known Billy Rich. Jerry Goodman (ex-The Flock and future-MO) is also helping out after the previous My Goal’s Beyond. But these guys rock your brains out even if there are some lengths. This album comes also after the two albums he’d done with Miles Davis (Bitches Brew and Tribute To JJ). However at the speed these guys were recording albums (three solo for McLaughlin this year, plus his other projects), there are some misses and the messy (shoddily recorded) Siren is just one example. A torrid piece, but wasted by inappropriate recording.

Tracks like the 11-min+ title track are awesome in its power and tension and not a second is wasted. Clearly on all tracks, virtuosity is the key word, but no one commits the blunder of indulgence either and the whole group maintains a much-needed tightness when this type of music is recorded. If Dragon Song is yet another hard-driving guitar track, the following Marbles is a more reflective one where Young’s organs plat first role with McLaughlin’s lightning fast guitars having trouble to surface, but the interplay between the two is awesome. The rest of the tracks are still of the same calibre of the first few on the first side of the vinyl.

I have heard some purists dismiss this album as a collection of jams (some of the song’s abrupt ends and sudden shifts give this theory some credibility), and if such was the case, these guys were among the bests ever. McLaughlin’s next step was to form the superb and famed Mahavishnu Orchestra, which would keep him occupied for a while. But while this album is miles away from MO, it is no less essential for McLaughlin fans.