This guitar grandmaster's talent has been appreciated all over the world since the late 1960s: it was then that he left Great Britain to join the legendary drummer Tony Williams's group, Lifetime. Before long, as a member of Miles Davis's band, he was playing concerts and making records that would become enshrined in jazz history, including the albums Bitches Brew, On the Corner and In a Silent Way. Having witnessed his huge talent first hand, it was Davis who encouraged John McLaughlin to start his own band. The result was the Mahavishnu Orchestra, which met with great success, as did his collaborations with Carlos Santana, Chick Corea, Jaco Pistorius, Paco de Lucia and Al Di Meola. He has also led the Shakti group (with whom he performed at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in 2013), creating a special fusion with world stars of Indian classical music, a meeting of not just East and West, but also of North-Indian Hindustani and South-Indian Carnatic music too.
Many people consider The 4th Dimension, formed in 2007, to be one of the greatest fusion bands of all time, and McLaughlin is still playing concerts with boundless creativity and artistry at the age of 74. The members of his group are also outstanding virtuoso musicians: bass guitarist Étienne Mbappé has already played in Hungary as band leader of the Zawinul Syndicate, Ranjit Barot uses highly complex rhythm patterns and his full knowledge of the Indian tála in his drumming, while the multi-talented Gary Husband on keyboards is also one of the world's most in-demand studio drummers.


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