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Product Details
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| 1. Birds Of Fire |
| 2. Miles Beyond |
| 3. Celestial Terrestrial Commuters |
| 4. Sapphire Bullets Of Pure Love |
| 5. Thousand Island Park |
| 6. Hope |
| 7. One Word |
| 8. Sanctuary |
| 9. Open Country Joy |
| 10. Resolution |
But in Billy Cobham, McLaughlin had found his Elvin Jones. Cobham's ability, with bassist Rick Laird, to focus ferocious energy toward making odd meters groove, and the band's funky, backbeats swing--while playing with an enormous tonal palette and a keen sense of dynamics--balanced the formal and improvisational aspects of each arrangement. Likewise, Jerry Goodman's soaring violin is the ideal vocal foil for an electric guitar, and the woefully underrated electric pianist and synth innovator Jan Hammer clearly helps flesh out the harmonic fabric on every arrangement, such as the funky changes of "Miles Beyond" and the classical airs of "Thousand Island Park." Ultimately, the joy of seeing Mahavishnu live was in sharing their sense of adventure and discovery, and that collective chemistry is what makes this reissue of Birds of Fire so vital. Truly, the sum was greater than the parts--too bad you can't go home again. --Chip Stern
It's perhaps appropriate that Cobham's gong splashes and rolling percussion alongside Goodman's chanting violin herald the title song with an Asian Indian-like mantra, as McLaughlin awakens with a piercing, rising flurry that sounds like a peacock in a courtship frenzy. The ritual reply comes back from Hammer's synthesizer, and then it's back to the guitar and violin as they weave and intertwine like DNA strands. "Miles Beyond" (dedicated to the late trumpeter) emerges slowly from the jazzy fog of electric piano, and then watches as Laird and Cobham raise the curtain for an opening statement by McLaughlin and Goodman. What follows next requires headphones-as much as you want to believe it's muted electric guitar, it's really a fascinating pizzacato on Goodman's violin, supported by more electric piano musings. The band then throws themselves into a brief summary, only to have McLaughlin and Cobham devastate the landscape, sounding like a ferocious firefight from the worst days of warfare, with machine gun-like guitar bullets flying in front of a bombardment of cymbal-and-drum mortar explosions. The song ends as the opening phrase is once again firmly planted in the ground like a waving banner.
Like a scurrying swarm of ants in action (or New York City in rush hour), "Celestial Terrestrial Commuters" features more electric guitar/violin duets and twin lead lines, swept along by the pace of Cobham and Hammer like two men with push brooms in a hyperactive frenzy to clean up after the crowd. It's followed by the brief (23-second) bit of electronic chatter of "Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love." The M.O. then offers one of the most delicate electric pieces ever recorded, "Thousand Island Park," with McLaughlin's flamenco-like acoustic performing a jazz ballet movement with Hammer's piano as his partner, praised by Laird's bass. With almost poetic resolution, "Hope" builds in what can be best considered grandeur, strengthened by Cobham's percussion and Laird's upright bowed bass, capturing some of the rich arrangement ideas that George Martin used so effectively with the Beatles on albums like Magical Mystery Tour's "I am the Walrus."
Track seven, "One Word," was born in the deep realms of space in a galaxy that contains life-forms unlike any found on Earth. Beginning with Cobham's skintight inside-out snare solo, the band frantically careens through the narrowest of channels like a bobsled race without brakes. They miraculously arrive unharmed with the rescue effort of Laird's solo, only to mutter and fuss behind his melodic tumbling notes. However, it's too easy to be safe, and in a three-way argument of "my opinion, and yours-be-damned," McLaughlin, Hammer, and Goodman take turns venting their thoughts and gestures with dramatic, flamboyant phrases. The climax is reached as each man/creature tries to shout down his colleague with overlapping statements that sound like a marriage counselor's nightmare day in the office, and Cobham steps up to clear the brawl. A muscular drum solo follows as he rolls effortlessly back and forth on his tom-toms, and the double bass drum pedals thump like a dangerous blood pressure reading. A series of staccato notes signals that the band is ready to snap its chains again and breaks into a final exhausting sort of cosmic orgasm.
Something is sure needed to calm down the fury, and it's time to seek "Sanctuary," a song that must be a eulogy from the casualties of all this turmoil. Hammer's grief-stricken synthesizer solo weeps behind the wails of dual violin-guitar lead, and there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel. However, this isn't the case, as "Open Country Joy" (a song that Kottke did on Dreams and All That Stuff and the newly-reissued 1971-1976: Did You Hear Me?) awakens like the first warm day of spring. Gliding violin and 12-string guitar preface the false ending, which bursts into full bloom behind McLaughlin's electric warbling, Hammer's return calls, and Goodman's ecstatic freedom. Cobham unleashes a summer shower while the sun shines, then pulsates away, switching to brushes while the others frolic and dance. All these adrenalin rushes have to find the time to regenerate, and "Resolution" closes out as the band redoubles its intention and vigor with a "you haven't seen the last of me" conviction that is almost patriotic in its foundation. If anything is needed, it's a towel and a shower as these five musical massage therapists have just finished pummeling the daylights out of your mental muscles.
Do not, under any circumstances, give this CD to anyone who is under a doctor's supervision and requiring bed rest. On the other hand, if you need to paint the entire house in one day (or build one) and don't mind doing the job yourself, the Mahavishnu Orchestra will gladly haul any gear or heavy construction material you need with the pure power of sound at its best-and it could move a mountain. I'll bet they don't require a ladder, either, because they know your speakers will use anti-gravity to get the job done. Crank it up and watch!
