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John McLaughlin - Belo Horizonte CD (album) cover

BELO HORIZONTE

John McLaughlin

 

Jazz Rock/Fusion

3.84 | 37 ratings

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Gatot
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
3 stars "Belo Horizonte" is John's seventh studio album outside The Mahavishnu Orchestra which took its glory days in the seventies. This album represents his exploration of technical as well as conceptual skills in a stream of music. In doing so, he combines guitar virtuosity into his compositions in this album. Every single song in this album contains all his technical skills to the fullest, I believe. He uses more acoustic guitar in a very high speed notes and chords movement. The title track "Bellow Horizonte" proves it that way. It's also the case with other tracks like "Zamfir". This album gives a way to learn how musician expresses their life experiences into piece of music by crafting notes, scales and chords into what so called "harmony". That's the hardest part for me because I barely find excellent harmony in this album - or probably I have been so wrong in defining what harmony is all about. To me, most of segments in this album is just like a jam session music. This is not true statement indeed because there are some song-orientated compositions as well - say like "Stardust On Your Sleeve".

John also crafts a composition intended for his colleague guitar player Paco de Lucia - the master of flamenco guitar "Manitas D'Oro" where Paco also joins him in acoustic guitar duets. This is what I like about musicians - they produce their solo album but at the same time pays tribute to their colleague players. On the other category of music you might find Eric Clapton plays together with BB Kings in a collaborative effort "Riding With The King" - a blues album, for example.

I quite enjoy this album especially when my jazz / contemporary music mood is "on". During this stage I usually try to understand how the musician communicates his emotions, feeling through a stream of music - even though there is obviously no lyrical parts at all. This album is good for those who want to explore the musical journey into jazz-rock / contemporary music style. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Gatot | 3/5 |

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