Customer Reviews

Between Nothingness & Eternity

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You can call this album the live version of "The Lost Trident Sessions," the third Mahavishnu studio album for Columbia, unreleased until 1999. Recorded in New York City's Central Park, August 5, 1973, when they were the loudest and fastest band on the planet, it is the last recording (available) with the original line-up.

"Trilogy" is a good song--a nice composition with mellifluous harmonies. McLaughlin's distorted broken chords sound wonderful; the initial exhange in "The Sunlit Path" between him and Jan Hammer's Rhodes offer much more than just speed. There's a delicacy to this first part of "Trilogy" that I find absolutely charming. The second part, "La Mere de la Mer," is equally enchanting--what a wonderful theme, played on the violin, and followed by some really impressive but controlled drumwork. The last part, "Tomorrow's Story Not the Same" (and it's nice to see they corrected the spelling--"Trident" spells it "tommorow"), is a hard rocker with the double bass, and Goodman soloing while Hammer, McLaughlin, and Laird repeat the melody as a rhythm. Then, Hammer and McLaughlin get it on with the Moog and the guitar, and that's always good. What a trip.

"Sister Andrea," a standard jazz-rock-fusion tune (and as a composition therefore uninteresting), written by Jan Hammer, is one of those songs written to showcase the soloing talents of Hammer, Goodman, and McLaughlin. Especially Goodman seems a bit lost among all this violence and fury (and using a wah-pedal doesn't help him much here), but the emotional highpoint of the song, McLaughlin's solo, which doesn't even seem to need the band behind him (in fact, the spatial vista opened up by the band not playing a real 'tune' behind him reminds me of Miles Davis), is incredible, and reaches a height he couldn't even begin to aspire to on the studio album--I'm glad to have this song played live; the speed, the distortion, the arpeggios, and the gut-wrenching dissonances are amazing.

I like "Dream" much better as a composition. There's a mystery to it, a quietness that I'm surprised they managed to convey in an outdoor show. McLaughlin starts off acoustic; Goodman really comes out nicely in the song's first part. When they pick up the second, faster, theme, beautiful and violent things start to happen, beginning with Hammer on the Rhodes, in an almost free-jazz exercise, until the trademark Mahavishnu melody line--fast and furious, and elegant. The development of this song is great, even when it slipts into the standard groovy repetitive theme halfway through, featuring Goodman again, thoroughly in charge. They really get it going here, as tight as on any studio recording: this is a seemingly superhuman effort. And I love the end, with the single notes from McLaughlin screaming out from a quiet passage, leading into yet another, final, explosion.

Of course, it's not just the three big guys--Laird is solid on the bass, and more inventive than people tend to give him credit for, but then, it can't be easy to play behind the trinity. And Billy Cobham, I love Billy Cobham. He's a beast on the drums, with a violent beauty and unsurpassed skills in his line of work. I wonder about that ride cymbal of his: it sounds absolutely beautiful, and I've never heard one like it.

This is a great album. The sound may not be perfect, one of the songs may be an average composition, but the skills displayed here are about more than technical proficiency. These guys are at the top of their game in Central Park, and their game dazzles me every time.

This album absolutely floored me. It's hard to believe anyone could play at the incredible level of intensity and virtuosity as displayed on this recording. It surpassed what I had thought even MO themselves were capable of. Sure, the extended compositions ramble in a few places and the sound is adequate but not first rate. But the playing!? Holy cow!!! The duet between McLaughlin and Cobham during "Dream" will make your jaw drop, as will many other incredible moments on this CD. If you have other MO albums and debating whether this one is worth having, then wonder no more. If you are new to MO this is the one record of theirs you *must* have. ("Birds of Fire" comes a close second). "Between Nothingness and Eternity" is unmatched for sheer intensity, power and masterful playing by any band on any record at any time in history. A very bold statement, yes, but true nonetheless-hear for yourself.
Highest recommendation!

This album represents the only live recording of the original and unparalleled Mahavishnu lineup. Whereas later incarnations of the band lose the fire and raw energy of the first two albums, this album captures the band at its improvisational peak. I have trouble with later MO releases as McLaughlin is the only original member--they seem more solo albums than collaborative projects.

Anyway, the only reason this album didn't garner 5 stars is its wandering nature. On the first two studio releases (Inner Mounting and Birds), McLaughlin and Co. played tight compositions that were well organized and diverse. As complex and layered as Mahavishu's music is, it always walked a fine line between multifacted sophistication and improvisational chaos. On Nothingness, the band in their extended live versions tend to fall onto the chaotic side of that line, and the notes start running together. Otherwise, this is a great album.

Interesting side note: the studio versions of these tracks, available for the first time on the Lost Trident album, are superb, and not surprisingly, shorter and more coherent. The Nothingness album is much easier to enjoy once one has absrobed the studio versions, in my opinion.

The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Birds of Fire
The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Between Nothingness and Eternity
The Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Lost Trident Sessions

Of all the jazz fusion groups, the Mahavishnu Orchestra was indisputably the best. Its violinist, Jerry Goodman, had migrated from gypsy rock group The Flock and brought with him a different, rock-oriented sensibility in ensemble and solo; keyboardist Jan Hammer was solid and fluent, especially when he was trading eights, fours and twos with McLaughlin and Goodman; bass guitarist Rick Laird was rock solid, more in ensemble than in solo (but listen to his driving solo in "One World" on Birds of Fire). But the two stars of Mahavishnu were John McLaughlin and Billy Cobham. Both cut their eyeteeth in their fusion work with Miles Davis. Guitarist McLaughlin cut his chops in England on the exceptional album, Extrapolation, with John Surman on saxes and Tony Oxley on drums. He joined up with Miles on Bitches' Brew and drummer Cobham and guitarist McLaughlin both played on the less startling but more disciplined Jack Johnson.

Cobham is an underrated treasure. Mahavishnu pumped out so much volume that it's easy to assume the drummer simply flailed away at the drums, generating volume at the expense of taste and precision. But if you listen, you hear every drum stroke when Cobham plays, with no sacrifice at all to excitement. He is a very controlled drummer, a throwback to the days of precision drumming a la Jo Jones and Kenny Clarke. What a treasure he is on these albums!

McLaughlin is out of sight. A superb technician, for the brief lifetime of Mahavishnu I (the later versions of the group II, III- were progressively inferior), he knew exactly how to pump up the controlled frenzy that was the heart of the group's musical sensibility. When I think of Mahavishnu, it's not the volume or intensity, or the pseudo-rock accoutrements that I think of. It's the exchanges among its horn voices -Hammer, Goodman, McLaughlin, with McLaughlin leading-fiery, intense, high-volume, fast-speed tradings of sixteen bars, then eight, then four, then two, then all the voices mixing together raising intensity to the heavens. When they were good, they were really, really good.

I remember one night in 1967 at the Balloon Farm, in NYC, Esther and me dancing to Jeremy (Steig, electric flute) and the Satyrs and to the Free Spirits (Larry Coryell on guitar, plus a Coltrane-like tenor sax and rhythm section). I really loved that music!

In 1973, the last year of existence of the first Mahavishnu Orchestra, I was teaching college near Ithaca, New York, and Mahavishnu came to town. My crazy painter friend Anton and I took our three-and-a-half-year-old sons, Jeremy and Dylan, to see Weather Report (muddy sound system, bad concert) and Mahavishnu. The Mahavishnu Orchestra played for two hours, and their repertoire included a new piece called "Dream," which blew my mind.

So what of these albums? Birds of Fire is the best of the three: its cuts include "One Word" (the absolute best cut they ever recorded), "Celestial Terrestrial Commuters," and "Miles Beyond" (McLaughlin's bow to Miles's modal period). Between Nothingness and Eternity is an excellent, somewhat uneven album -all the cuts are good but they don't sound like they're pointed in the same direction (vide Jan Hammer's funk anthem, "Sister Andrea"). The Trident sessions bring together the three pieces from Nothingness ("Dream," "Trilogy," "sister Andrea") plus new material lost for thirty years -good stuff but missing the excitement of live performance in the Nothingness album.

This is all essential stuff in my book. When he's on, no one plays guitar better than McLaughlin. I had the good fortune to hear him in concert in Dubai in the spring of 2003 with Remember Shakti: his agility and inventiveness were still apparent, not changed by playing in the lower volume (but equally high intensity) context of this half-Indian half-western group of musical stars.

Quite simply one of the most stunning pieces of live rock music ever recorded, I only wish there were more songs, and some of the compositions had a little more meaning behind them. There is quite a bit of soloing going on between gutairist and keyboardist, and while Mclaughlin is truly one of the most profound, talanted gutairists i've ever heard, the keyboardist cannot exactly match the gutair soloing in terms of putting meaning behind the notes, too much of those exchanges come off as showey, and devalues some of the more amazing compositional moments. Whatever it is we are hearing however, it is always being played with the finesse and intuition only some of the greatest jazz units have ever accomplished live.

I originally bought the vinyl version of this in 1973. I have left the CD version in rental cars twice, which means I am buying it for the fourth time.

Recorded in 1973 in NYC Central Park, this recording has dated recording techniques and sub optimal sound. The portions of the compositions are hard to understand, and require repeated listenings to discern their structures.

Why buy it?

Passion.

I have not heard this much passion for craft ever captured on any live recording with the possible exception of early Coltrane or Miles Davis. There are times when the playing is so unbelievably hot that it literally melts down and transforms into a new riffs, explodes in new directions.

This performance is an experimental lab for high performance music. Few musicians ever go there live, certainly not in front of an audience of thousands of New Yorkers.

This is musician's music. On one night, five musicians played way beyond themselves. They took big chances and at times stumbled, but for the most part, stunned us with their craft.

Don't miss this.

Funny thing is I was there as I saw Mahavihsnu Orchestra at many venues in NYC but
was at all of their Central Park Concerts. The physical impact of the live concert made it
next to impossible to focus on every great riff groove motif being played by everyone.
It was happening in real time all at once with no do-overs.So like any great movie,book or music I find many things at each listen that I did not get first 100 times around.Why? Because this is real music being spontaneously created not a rehash of formula.So it's very dense the way elements have mass out of proportion to their size.Great CD!

John McLaughlin was a very innovative man. He, along with inspirational work from Miles Davis and others of the sort, were able to create Jazz-Rock fusion as a recognizable and innovative new music genre in only a matter of a few years. A few years after the dawning of the success of "Bitches Brew" by Miles Davis, McLaughlin decided it was time for something even more amazing. He hopped on the bandwaggon with a few other great musicians (in there includes legendary drummer Billy Cobham and keyboard virtuoso Jan Hammer) to create some of the most amazing music of their time. The project was called The Mahavishnu Orchestra. It was more of a side project for McLaughlin, but it was still some of the best music he ever put out.

The McLaughlin-lead extraveganza played a very nice fusion of rock and roll music and jazz music - some people considered it to be too frantic and energetic to call it jazz, but because of Mahavishnu's excellent and complex improvision skills, the audience eventually considered it Fusion music. The addition of some outlandish instruments also allowed the warrant of the title.

"Between Nothingness and Eternity" is a recording of a live performance that the Mahavishnu Orchestra performed in the mid-seventies. The band was short-lived, but this recording is by-far one of the best demonstrations of the tallent this group possessed. The guitar work is energetic and stimulating, and the drumming is incredibly impactful and speedy. In particular, this recording demonstrates the virtuosity of Cobham - he was able to combine the complexity of jazz drumming with the feel and impact of rock drumming to create, generally, a new style of playing. This style was later repeated, and possibly even copied, by other groups in the Jam Band scene many years later, such as the Steve Kimock Band's drummer Rodney Holmes, and by Phish's drummer, Jon Fishman.

The tracks themselves are quite long, and much of the music is on-the-spot improvision and creativity - but the songs are certainly set in stone to a degree - which is nice because it creates a very interesting set list, making each show different. If you have other copies of performances from similar dates, you may be pleasantly surprised by hearing the same songs but not at all recognizing the tune - this is because the Mahavishnu Orchestra did some very whacky and odd things with their music. They played multiple different time signitures at the same time, they'd fuse many different types of styles of music and play them all at the same time, and they just took the tunes to whole new levels. The level of oddity and complexity surely boggles the mind when listening.

If you can appreciate fantastic music, and have the ability to taste a bit of the excitement, complexity, and virtuosity that is all required to play this stuff, I highly recommend this album. It is one of the best albums of the Mahavishnu Orchestra - PERIOD. I'd say it's much better than many of their studio recordings. After all, it is always better to experience the music as close to live as possible.

If you feel that you do not meet the above qualifications, then just read this: If you are a fan of anything from Miles Davis to Frank Zappa - and all of it in between, from John Coltrane to The Beatles, this album is for you. And who knows - it may just open your eyes to a whole new world of music that you would have never discovered otherwise.

The Mahavishnu Orchestra demonstrates many things with this explosive live recording. First, it shows us that the music world is broad and complex - not only are there so many different genres and playing styles out there, it gets even more complex and broad when these genres are mixed together to create whole new styles. Second, it teaches us the roots of the rock music we hear today. It gives us a fantastic view at the origins of many of of today's contemporary hits. And finally, it shows us that with a little bit of imagination and a lot of practice, amazing things can be accomplished. The Mahavishnu Orchestra demonstrates some of the most awe-inspiring music ever recorded. It defies so many rules and breaks so many laws of recorded arts - it defies creative bounds and breaks free of any restrictions. The stage was their demonstration platform - and on "Between Nothingness and Eternity", every member of The Mahavishnu Orchestra demonstrated greatness not rivaled by many other artists in the last fifty years of music history.

This album is HIGHLY recommended. Enjoy the music!

-Andrew

As we are approaching the 35th anniversary of this recording, I thought this might be a good time to reflect on my feelings about this performance in Central Park, NYC in 1973. As one reviewer said at the time..."the music must have stopped a few muggers in their tracks"...is totally appropriate. The original MO certainly changed my life...forever. I personally saw them only once...Princeton, NJ in late 1973...three months after this recording. Sidenote: Chick Corea's Return To Forever opened for MO at this show...featuring Bill Connors on guitar. Tickets were $4.00...those were the days...yes indeed. No need to get into the superlatives about the level of MO's musicianship...intricate compositions...innovations...etc...they have all been beautifully articulated by the other reviewers of this and other MO recordings. What I do want to simply say is that this music continues to reverberate in my consciousness in 2008...it opened artistic doors that I didn't even know existed. John McLaughlin has always been a musical visionary...starting with Extrapolation...ending to where he eventually winds up. It's a beautiful...fantastic...journey.

Final sidenote to fans: check out some of the unauthorized recordings of the original MO on the net...OMG...

The reviewer who thought the original (that is, REAL) Mahavishnu Orchestra "not that great in concert" must have caught them on an off night. I saw them at the Mississippi River Festival (near the SIU campus) during the summer of 1973; I'd not seen a better concert before, and I've not seen a better concert since. "Between Nothingness and Eternity" is not as good as "Birds of Fire" and "The Inner Mounting Flame" only because its compositions are not as good; the improvising is supurb. Trust me: If you already own "Birds of Fire" and "The Inner Mounting Flame", you NEED "Between Nothingness and Eternity". (Take a pass on the second and third editions of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and on "The Lost Trident Sessions".)