Friday, June 17, 2016

High Music Makers




"I'm Not Invited"
By John McLaughlin


"Last year in Montreux, Switzerland I was doing a jam with Carlos' (Santana) band. The day before he left he came up to me and the Director of Montreux and said, "I got this idea of putting together, a "Supergroup."



He loves Wayne (Shorter) and Herbie (Hancock). He would love to be associated in a musical way with Wayne and Herbie because these are consummate musicians. They are the essence of jazz music. In that sense, they are like the teachers - the gurus of jazz. I'm very fortunate to know them and play with them.


Carlos and I go back 45 years and he wanted to base this project on one of Wayne's albums called "Super Nova." I was on that along with Miroslav and Sonny Sharrock.


I thought, "that sounds cool, we'll make some beautiful music." He's going on and I'm saying "let's make an event like when we played in New York in 1972." We made a float and powered it on the back of a flat bed truck. We put amps on the truck and we played our guitars driving down Broadway. I said, "let's do that. Let's get on a truck, the other musicians can if they want, and just play going through the town of Montreux.


The idea behind it was to invite great musicians from different cultures from all over the world to play with us. It's kind of a globalization of music and I was happy to be part of the idea.
Just before Christmas I get a call from Montreux and they said, "Carlos' agent just called and cancelled." I said, "what? He didn't call me." I wrote to him and said, "what's going on?" I didn't get an answer. I haven't really seen him since then but I know he's put together this "Supernova" band together with Herbie and Wayne. They're going to play "The Hollywood Bowl." I'm not invited."


*excerpt of part III of my (Jake D Feinberg) interview with John McLaughlin from May 2016



 

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