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Showing posts from February, 2012

Apocalypse - The Mahavishnu Orchestra

Whilst in Wellington in January Keri Ford and I (who has commented here previously) fell into conversation about our admiration for the Mahavishnu Orchestra. However I realised I had never given Mahavishnu 2 a chance. The first "2" project, which was effectively a new band, included Jean Luc Ponty and Narada Michael Walden. John also decided to broaden the forces available to him and orchestrations were provided by Tilson-Thomas and the production, most interestingly, was handled by George Martin. For those interested in the kind of jazz stylings that informed much of Sound Chaser I think this project will be of considerable interest. Its also fascinating to see whether the use of orchestra leads to tokenism or a lack of the essentials.  "Power of Love" opens the proceedings a tinkling piano with tubular bells then some languorous late night New York brass sounds. A change and the strings emerge and the acoustic guitar states the melody and the melodic figure su