PIONEERING GUITARIST AND BANDLEADER
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN
TO RELEASE BLACK LIGHT SEPTEMBER 21ST
Album Features McLaughlin’s virtuoso 4th Dimension band
World Tour To Follow Album Release
“Playing and working with the same musicians in a band is a living process which unfolds as time goes by,” reflects guitarist, composer, and bandleader John McLaughlin when considering the release of his latest album, Black Light – the third studio album to feature his band, the 4th Dimension. Available via Abstract Logix on September 21, 2015, Black Light finds the relentlessly inquisitive, exploratory McLaughlin continuing to uncover new melodic and rhythmic pathways with the same fearless zeal that has made him one of modern music’s most admired and influential figures.
Black Light includes 8 original McLaughlin compositions, but the emotional core of Black Light, and one of McLaughlin’s finest acoustic performances on record, rests in “El Hombre Que Sabia” – a deeply moving tribute McLaughlin’s late collaborator, Paco de Lucía, who passed away in early 2014. “You cannot imagine how much I miss him,” reflects McLaughlin. “‘El Hombre’ is one of the pieces Paco and I had planned to record on a new studio album last year.” The two had intended to compose an album’s worth of new material just before De Lucia’s untimely passing.
Otherwise electric, Black Light features the 4th Dimension – drummer/vocalist Ranjit Barot, keyboardist/drummer Gary Husband, and bassist Étienne M’Bappé – McLaughlin has gathered a trio of fellow travelers with the collective discipline, technical ability, musicianship, and imagination to support, enhance, and enrich McLaughlin’s challengingly expansive new material and methods.
“I am always excited to play with these musicians,” McLaughlin says enthusiastically – no small compliment given he has performed alongside an array of revolutionary talents in his lifetime. “Not only are they marvelous players, but they are great human beings, and as such we have developed, over the years, a deep complicity that comes through in the music.”
The latest dispatch from a life-long musical journey, Black Light shows no sign of slowing down or complacency on McLaughlin’s part. Rather, it is the fulfillment of an ongoing, evolving ambition to thoughtfully, consciously imbue his sonic constructions with maximal emotional resonance. What exactly does the title, Black Light mean to McLaughlin? “The words are irrational, but then, music is irrational, though with a particular kind of logic. What the words mean to me is the following. Musicians and artists of all kinds live in their inner world, and everything we do comes from the inside of our brain, heart. When I look inside my head there’s only nothingness, nothing to grasp hold of and yet, I can see images clearly, and more importantly, I can hear music without sound, and that has never been played. To me, this is also a world of light, but there is no light, very strange but wonderful. This is ‘Black Light’”
Following the international release of Black Light, McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension will set out on a world tour, continuing to explore and elaborate upon the album’s genre-defying material. More dates to be announced shortly.
John McLaughlin – Australia/Asia Tour Dates
Tuesday, October 06, 2015 Perth, Perth Music Hall
Thursday, October 08, 2015 Sydney, Recital Hall
Saturday, October 10, 2015 Brisbane, The Tivoli
Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Melbourne, Melbourne Festival
Friday, October 16, 2015 Jakarta, Cotton Club ** TBC
Saturday, October 17, 2015 Jakarta, Cotton Club ** TBC
Sunday, October 18, 2015 Bali, Arma Ubud
Friday, October 23, 2015 Tokyo, Blue Note
Saturday, October 24, 2015 Tokyo, Blue Note
Sunday, October 25, 2015 Tokyo, Blue Note
Sunday, November 01, 2015 Bangkok, M-Theatre Hall
Thursday, November 05, 2015 Dhaka , Dhaka Jazz Festival
Friday, November 06, 2015 Mumbai, ** TBC
** To Be Confirmed
