Between Nothingness and Eternity (1973)
April 12th, 2008
New Online Stores Added!
Recently, I added a couple of online stores to my site. This is through the Amazon.com Associates program. Basically, you can add an aStore (your very own store at Amazon.com) and mine’s here. But, what’s even more cool is the fact that you can insert your store “inline” into your blog. I’ve created two so far:
Recommended Products
This is my main online store, and I’ll be featuring all kinds of stuff from CDs to DVDs to books and electronics… I add new products individually here, so whenever I come across a cool new gadget, a great book, or a new DVD, I’ll be sure to add it to the store.
Randomguru’s Jazz Store
This special store features the latest and best-selling Jazz music… Full Spectrum Jazz, so it’ll always show the top Jazz Music from smooth jazz to bebop to big band. All the latest, top-selling Jazz will be featured.
. . . .
Between Nothingness and Eternity
Well, back to the main topic of this post…
The Mahavishnu Orchestra - Between Nothingness and Eternity
This is a “LIVE” performance recorded in Central Park NYC, way back in 1973 when the Jazz-Fusion movement was bursting onto the music scene. Guitar virtuoso and bandleader John McLaughlin was simply amazing with his double-neck guitar, and dressed all in white (he was a devotee of Indian guru Sri Chinmoy).
From Wikipedia.org:
John McLaughlin “is regarded by many as one of the most influential and technically gifted guitarists of all time, having mastered a remarkable range of styles and genres, including jazz, Indian classical music, and fusion. He has also incorporated aspects of Flamenco music in some of his acoustic periods.”
I would give this album 5 stars if it weren’t for some sonic issues with this live recording. But, recording limitations aside, the energy and virtuosity of the musicians surely makes up for that. I won’t go any further because I reviewed this album before on my old blog over here.
It was re-mixed and re-mastered so the recording is a better improvement over the original vinyl version as I remember… the miracle of modern technology.
The Mahavishnu Orchestra was one of my favorite jazz-fusion groups… probably the best, fastest, loudest, and most technically brilliant of all the jazz-fusion groups of 1970’s… and drummer Billy Cobham was simply amazing… the odd meters played in ultra-fast pace were mind-boggling… one odd meter time signature seemed to appear to be in 15/8…
…15 eight note beats per measure played at a mind-boggling tempo, with the musicians playing fast sixteenth and thirty-second note triplet and quadruplet “flourishes” over this time signature with uncanny accuracy…
I remember thinking the album was a disappointment at first because it just sounded like glorified noise… garbage… then one night I had the time to spend on listening to it and gave it another try… with headphones.
I then realized that they were highly sophisticated and astonishingly accomplished at what they were doing, once you got past the noise and volume!
Incredible music… and today I feel it is even more of a masterpiece than back when I first realized it was so, years ago.
If you are a Jazz fan, or have an appreciation for the history of the Jazz-Fusion movement of the 70’s, then this album is a must-have! Buy this CD now from Amazon.com!
