mahavishnu orchestra

Never heard anything but the original three albums, plus The Lost Trident Sessions.

Hmm. Only heard the first two and Trident. What else is worth seeking out?

apocalypse is sick, the real mahavishnu orchestra, according to mcglaughlin, recording with the london symphony orchestra, produced by george martin. i know that sounds sort of prancey and stuffy but it's not

Birds of Fire for me. Love Billy Cobham's double kicks on the title track - total proto-metal!

I'm going to go w/Birds of Fire (esp for the title track and JM's solo in "Miles Beyond"), but really, the playing on the first album is the best. It's also the "rawest" sounding of their records, which goes a long way when you have a Jan Hammer in the band.

birds of fiiiiiiire - otm about the Miles Beyond solo ... by the way, i don't know if the links still work here, but if they do -- DOWNLOAD NOW http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=209

inner-mounting flame or lost trident sessions

birds of fire is still the only one of these I've ever heard and I've always feared none of the others are as good. so it gets my vote. love it.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

did not vote inner mounting flame but i would have. so great.

I've shaved my beard into a big moustache, have got my favourite cream suit on and I'm listening to The Inner Mounting Flame for the first time. It's smoking.

Oh man, it's just gone into some lame 12-bar blues.

don't worry, it will get awesome again

You are 100% right.

Well worth shaving my beard off for.

Dude, stellar shit (other than a couple of boring moments, i.e. the acoustic song for me).

Fucking "Noonward Race" still gives me chills. McLaughlin once ruled so hard.

vision is a naked sword

I much prefer Inner Mounting Flame over Birds Of Fire by a long way but "Birds Of Fire" and "Hope" from the latter are as good as anything in the debut.

"Hope" reminds me so much of that long Queens Of The Stone Age track I can't remember (or was it Desert Sessions?), to start with I thought maybe they even partially covered and extended it but it's probably more different than I remember.
Also sounds a lot like King Crimson in their Larks-Red era.

Such a great band, they should get more chat (the other thread devoted to them is a bit bigger). I hope the later albums approach these first two but they seem to be the overwhelmingly popular ones.

Just went thru a week or so of obsessing over this stuff and reading Power, Passion and Beauty, which is a totally enjoyable nerdfest.

Beyond echoing the comments of others about IMF vs BoF...

The last three records—Apocalypse, Visions of the Emerald Beyond and Inner Worlds—all feel pretty underrated to me. Orchestral Mahavishnu is kind of a trip – the song where Chick Corea's wife descends from the heavens to sing is pretty special (tho she sort of reminds me of a soprano Jack Bruce).

And the playing is generally amazing. Walden in the drum seat is just about as good as Cobham – Ponty even has some exceptional moments (his long slow Echoplex trip on "Pegasus" being one of the best).

McLaughlin had a talent for bringing the best out in players. A bit of a shame he seems to have pissed so many of them off.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/881605244?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1
is this a fair review?

Anyone heard Tony Williams Lifetime?

Sure. It's fairly spot on. There are dozens upon dozens of interviews with other musicians talking about seeing the band and what impact MO had on their development. It sounds boring but is actually pretty interesting.

The fact that it wasn't "scholarly" didn't bother me. That said, I could've done with a bit more appraisal of mach II which I think made some pretty interesting music. And selfishly, I'd have liked to have known exactly what went on between the band members. It sounds like McLaughlin and Cobham had a pretty big falling out but other than some whispers on the web it's not clear what it was over.