Heart of Things: Live in Paris [Live]

John McLaughlin | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 3, 2000)
• Original Release Date: October 3, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B00004RCAT
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,233 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A mature, balanced, and inspired night of fusion in Paris, October 8, 2000

By 

Edy Gibert (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heart of Things: Live in Paris (Audio CD)

"Live in Paris", also entitled "The Heart Of Things", includes three of the six themes that were previously released in Mc Laughlin's 1997 studio album with the same title. This CD offers six live themes performed live in Paris and the band is almost the same as in "Heart of Things". The only change is that Otmaro Ruiz replaces Jim Beard on keyboards.

Right from the beginning of this recording the group establishes that they play straight modern jazz-fusion with rock influences but without any psychedelic extravaganzas. Saxophonist Garry Tomas has a main role in the band and so does Otmaro Ruiz who beautifully responds with the keyboard to the music dialog. The performance of drummer Dennis Chambers and percussionist Victor Willimas is perfect and extremely dynamic throughout the concert. Both are responsible for the many rhythm and mood changes and the jazz-rock ambience that is present throughout the concert. McLaughling plays electric guitars and sounds very mature, concentrated, and relaxed. The concert is very much enriched, because Mc Laughling acts as a member of the band instead of a soloist with a backing group. There are several inspired and amazing guitar solos that go in and out of the music scales as he pleases (Mc Laughiling can afford to do so). Musically the album is closer to what you would expect to listen in a Weather Report album or in a C.Corea/A.Dimeola/S.Clarck collaboration, and a departure from previous Mahavishnu projects. Lastly, Matthew Garrison's bass playing is very energetic and supports the group's search for music expansion.

If it weren't for the audience applause celebrating the music's highlights you couldn't tell this CD is a life recording. The sound is outstanding. If you are into jazz-fusion and enjoy crossing music boundaries, this is a great opportunity to enjoy a group where the metals, the guitar, the keyboards, bass and drums have an equal opportunity to show their inspiration and expertise. Live in Paris, summarizes McLaughlin's capabilities as a guitar player and composer, plus it features an active and creative group playing with him. The material presented outperforms the studio CD: "Heart of Things", and the previously realesed live albums.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quiet Storm?! More like a raging hurricane, December 7, 2000

By 

TUCO H. "H. TUCO" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Heart of Things: Live in Paris (Audio CD)

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The record kicks off with the truly beautiful and sublime (yet, of course, odd metered) opening melody of "Seven Sisters" which serves the double function of setting a trap for mentally challenged listeners by letting them imagine they're in some sentimental Pat-Metheny-land that's going to stick around for 8 minutes before jolting them out of the blue with some superfast fusion licks. The tune goes through a variety of moods, and is contrasted with a relaxed meditative solo by Mclaughlin and one by saxophonist Gary Thomas, before it kicks into overdrive as Mclaughlin and Thomas simultaneously solo and take the tune out even more beautifully than it started.

A new supercharged version of "Mother Tongues" is next. This is a 13 minute electric version of a tune that appeared in an 18 minute semi-acoustic version on 1989's classic "Live at the Royal Albert Hall" and featured Trilok Gurtu's epoch-making percussion solo. Here, in place of a drum solo, we get to hear Mclaughlin and Ruiz jamming for some five minutes straight, trading endless fast guitar and keyboard licks. If it wasn't for Mclaughin being at the other end of the licks though, things would've sounded merely technical. As it is, welcome to your flight to fusion heaven.

"Fallen Angels" is a quietly magnificent and very deceptive sounding slow meditation that has nothing whatsoever to do with `contemporary jazz' even though the volume levels are the same. First of all, it stays in complex meters which shift throughout (a straight 4/4 or 3/4 meter is a relative rarity on Mclaughlin-land). Second, the spirit and organic cohesiveness that results is truly special and cannot be fully appreciated until you've listened to the tune many times and realized it just keeps getting deeper and better!

"The Divide," a 16 minute fusion odyssey written by Gary Thomas starts off very complicated and smokin' with Thomas delivering a long scorching tenor solo over odd meter (the high point of the record, I think), then rhythmically simplifies just a bit into a funk as Mclaughlin sets up his Mahavishnu style solo, which is soon back flying over more complicated meter again. Mclaughlin, however, to his credit, and to the annoyance of certain `Mahavishnu only fans' , refuses to go back to the hackneyed early `70s Gibson with sustain sound. The result is fresh and poignant. The tone he uses is a uniquely synthesized type of futuristic sounding jazz-rock hybrid with some serious bite to it. It is a GUITAR sound all the way through though, not some wimpy synthaxe sound. The tune does get a little silly towards the end, as Ruiz's good humored and proudly self-indulgent synthesizer solo, endlessly wheezes away, fully aware of the fact that big smiles are being formed on the faces of fusion fans.

"Tony," Mclaughlin's tribute to his former employer features an extended Drum Solo by Dennis Chambers. Folks, this is a flashy drum solo to end all flashy drum solos: it is quite ferocious. Chambers goes crazy on it, unfurling mountains of super-fast fills so thick in sound they make John Bonham sound like a manchichi tapping a toy drum. Cobham and Walden would be proud.

The last tune, "Acid Jazz" completes the 78 minute CD with a bit of a blast from the past. Thomas is featured on soprano in the beginning. Then, after the tune morphs through a `trippy' 'acid' middle section of semi-synthesized layered soundscapes, Mclaughlin distorts his guitar and feedbacks into Mahavishnu land as he plays a solo accompanied only by Chambers (who doesn't waste any time going wild with the fills in the background). Along the way John throws a few nods to one of his heroes, Jimi Hendrix (with whom he jammed on stage once; too bad a tape recorder wasn't running), by incorporating the riff from "Foxy Lady.".....

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fresh Fusion Lives Live, April 27, 2001

By 

Douglas Groothuis "Douglas Groothuis" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Heart of Things: Live in Paris (Audio CD)

Few are playing anything like fusion well these days. But John McLaughlin, one of its best designers and players, has assembled an able band with complex and driving/haunting compositions.

McLaughlin's playing has more of a jazz sensibility than it did in the Mahavishnu days, but that doesn't stop him from pulling out the fuzz box when necessary--as during his stunning duet with drummer Dennis Chambers on the concluding, "Acid Jazz." Yes, he's playing with the "Foxy Lady" (Hendrix) theme on it!

The band is quite tight, but tends to noodle a bit on some pieces. Nevertheless, it grows on you. Chambers is a creative powerhouse and is featured on a long solo on "Tony." McLaughlin does not solo on this piece.

Gary Thomas is an able tenor and soprano saxophonist, but his tone is somewhat muddy at times. I think this is due to recording problems not his own technique.

Matthew Garrison (son of Jimmy Garrison, bassist for the classic Coltrane quartet) is extraordinary busy and innovative on bass guitar, sometimes matching the lead guitar in speed and taste. He is relentlessly interesting.

The only draw major back is the keyboardist's cloying use of the synthesizer on a few pieces (especially the synthesized "voices"). That part of 70s fusion we can leave behind gladly. Give me a competent jazz pianist on acoustic piano any day! Nevertheless, he does trade some nice chops with McLaughlin at times, reminiscent of the Jan Hammer days of Mahahvishnu Orchestra.

Thank you, Mr. McLaughlin for all the enjoyable and excellent music you have given us through the years.

--Douglas Groothuis