John McLaughlin’s strong critique of current jazz

John McLaughlin is one of the biggest living names in jazz. The guitarist played with Miles Davis and then founded his Mahavishnu Orchestrawhich was one of the symbols of the golden age of fusion — roughly speaking, the fusion between jazz and rock.

I have been living through one of the most exciting periods in the style, McLaughlin guarantees: jazz is not dead. And he will probably never die. However, the British musician also admits that the genre don’t live your best days.

In an interview with Ultimate Guitarthe Brit offered his point of view regarding jazz today. He started by saying:

“No, (jazz) will never die. But I’m disappointed. But that’s me talking, I grew up with the old school, you know?”

He continues:

“For example, I was 16 years old and lived in the north of Englandjust south of the border with Scotlandand I really wanted to wet my beak. And because I was tall enough, I was able to sneak into a pub where I was supposedly already 18 years old. Why not United Kingdomalmost every weekend, pubs become jazz clubs, especially on Sundays.”

Shortly after this time, McLaughlin himself would be playing with giants like Alexis Korner, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and, later, Miles Davis. For him, these and other instrumentalists of the period had their own personality and made music happen with refined technique, but also feeling. Something he misses these days:

“I think part of what people call ‘jazz’ is almost robotic. There’s no blood there. I want that person’s passion. I want that passion. Whoever’s playing, when I go to a show, I want to be taken by the emotion, by the pure musicality and the love. I want to be taken by those musicians.”

John McLaughlin concludes with his verdict:

“I go to shows and they don’t take me anywhere. It’s very superficial. It’s a different world these days.”

• John McLaughlin