A Handful of Beauty

Tranquililty, astonishing virtuosity, hypnotic rhythm, introspection, joyfulness, timelessness, peace. You sort of immerse yourself in it, rather than listen to it.

I have bought literally thousands of LP's/CD's down the years. This is one of the two or three greatest. You should buy a copy.


The finest improvisatory music made by anyone, anywhere.   March 11, 2005
 7 out of 7 found this review helpful

Bought it when I was 15 and it remains in my top two or three albums more than thirty years later, despite having bought an awful lot of music, of all kinds since. And for improvisation it remains unsurpassed. Never have passion and precision, power, beauty and blistering intelligence been so perfectly and consistently blended, and this for each of the four players concerned. I wept the day I heard this band had split, and although they all went on to do often great and always interesting things, for me this was their finest hour.

At this time McLaughlin used a specially made acoustic guitar that involved an additional set of sympathetic strings, somewhat along the lines of a sitar. It sounded like no other acoustic guitar before or since, and was I astonished to read years later that it eventually just got 'lost'. With this guitar McLaughlin played with a fire and venom that he's never, in my humble opinion, quite got back since those days. The guitar also facilitated outrageous bending, again more like a sitar, that allowed him to throw a single note all over the place. Of course there was speed, but it was the actual notes he was playing that made it so electrifying. He wasn't just blindly shooting up and down scales, but rather he was executing the most sophisticated phrasing that truly captured a unique syncretism of east-west language. It was also just how hard, and indeed softly, he was hitting the notes, each one ringing out with absolute clarity. I've loyally followed John's work over the intervening years and allthough it has remained profoundly intelligent, it has become more urbane and airy. The music of a contented man rather than one who was reaching for the furthest attainable excellence.

The violinist L Shankar is another world musical prodigy. He too was at a pinnacle of excellence and exploration in his career at this stage. At his best he was clearly among the finest violinists in the world, made most apparent on his later solo album Pancha Nadai Pallavi.

Zakhir Hussain is always astonishing, defying the laws of physics with the speed of his playing and endlessly rhythmically inventive. He is complemented by Vikku Vinayakram whose Gatam (claypot) playing has just got to hurt.


BUY THIS DISC   May 25, 2004
 6 out of 7 found this review helpful

I bought this on vinyl in the mid seventies.
When it graced my turntable I couldn't believe my ears.
Intense structured layers of John's strange acoustic guitar fused withL.Shankars VIOLIN,the percussion on this is amazing with Zakir Hussain on TABLA AND T.H.VINAYALARAM on GHATAM,MDIDANGRAM.
The four of them creatad a masterpiece here its fast and uplifting much better than NATURAL ELEMENT their 2nd disc buy both.


the title says it all   July 26, 2001
 7 out of 7 found this review helpful

this is really beauty at its most.since the first piece it is really joy, and dreams. mclaughlin's guitar is now based more in the musicality than in the virtuosism, allowing shankar make a dissertation of how a ciolin should be played.

in resume: a great album containing extremely beautiful music, and played by tremendous musicians.