The Mahavishnu Orchestra The Inner Mounting Flame

Featured in Michael Fremer's Heavy Rotation in the February 2009 Issue of Stereophile!
As British bands like Yes, ELP, and Genesis extended the borders of rock & roll, John McLaughlin had seized the opportunity to do the same with jazz. The first stars of the jazz/rock fusion camp, the Mahavishnu Orchestra played sellout concerts, sold records in quantities previously unheard of by jazz musicians, and captured a crossover audience of forward-looking jazz devotees and progressive rock fans.
The music on The Inner Mounting Flame is incendiary and highly improvisational. Well-conceived unison melodic passages structure each tune, and McLaughlin and company play like the virtuosos they are throughout. "The Noonward Race" features a bluesy, yet harmonically dissonant solo from McLaughlin, and the frenetic drumming of Billy Cobham. In contrast, in "A Lotus on Irish Streams," McLaughlin soars passionately on an acoustic guitar, while violinist Jerry Goodman adds a simple, folky melody.
The guru Sri Chinmoy wrote the liner notes for "The Inner Mounting Flame" – what a buying argument! In any case, the music boils in a real hellfire from the first minute to the last second.
What the five top-class soloists from four countries deliver here in terms of inventiveness, vitality and the highest soloistic skills is first class. In addition, there is a truly dreamlike interplay; as if they were born and raised in the same 'spirit'. "Meeting Of The Spirit", "The Dance Of Maya" and "You Know You Know" are the highlights of this first Mahavishnu orchestra.
The aspiration – that is, the striving, the hope and the longing – should be the rising flame, the inner mounting flame, which brings people to 'Divine Perfection'. One can be divided on this. But what is certain is that this music of the year 1971 is refreshingly creative even after 36 years – and fortunately can be bought again in the record stores as a vinyl sound preserve.
This Speakers Corner production was manufactured using analog masterband and mastering 100% purely analog.

Features:

• 180g High Quality Vinyl
• Pure Analogue
• Recording: August 1971 in New York City by Don Puluse
• Production: John McLaughlin

Musicians:

• John McLaughlin, acoustic & electric guitars
• Billy Cobham, drums
• Jan Hammer, Fender Rhodes, ring modulator, piano
• Jerry Goodman, acoustic & electric violins
• Rick Laird, electric bass

Selections:

Side A
1. Meeting Of The Spirits
2. Dawn
3. The Noonward Race
4. A Lotus On Irish Streams
Side B
1. Vital Transformation
2. The Dance Of Maya
3. You Know You Know
4. Awakening