Mahavishnu John McLaughlin - "Peace One"

"My Goal's Beyond" (1970) is the third solo album released by John McLaughlin but his first under the spiritual guidance of Indian guru Sri Chimoy.

While listening:

-       right off the bat, you’re given a challenging ostinato that perpetually ascends in the bass line. Counting your eighths and/or dotted-quarter’s, you’re going to come out with 18/8, divided (in eighths) as so: 3-2-3-3-3-2-1-1. Reinforcing that it’s in a compound meter, the tablas enter at 0:16 and clearly accent every six dotted-quarter’s within the bar:

 

-       while additive and subtractive processes contribute heavily to the rhythmic style of this tune, the overlapping of these patterns creates a rarely realized metric density. While the rhythm section establishes the 18/8 meter (with the bass constantly dodging the compound dotted-quarter accents of the tablas), the tambura (drone instrument) introduces a rhythmic figure that evolves through diminution. Beginning with the bass figure (at 0:09), the drone is played four and a half beats into the measure. The next two bars, the drone is played after four beats. Then, for one bar (0:18), you hear the tambura enter three and half beats in. This continually diminishing figure adds a subtle dynamic intensity to the ostinato pattern which culminates on the ninth measure (0:33) where the first distinguishable melody is presented in the strings (next point).

 

 

-       concerning harmony, it’s quite fascinating what McLaughlin accomplishes in this introduction of 45 seconds. The D-dorian mode is clearly established in the bass line for the whole introduction, but is then superimposed by two violins at measure nine (0:33) that communicate a G-dorian mode in a parallel fourths. To spice it up, in the 11^th measure (0:39), the violins outline a B^b-dorian mode - this time in parallels fifths. Zing!!

 

-       also notice how right before the solo section at 0:45, the guitar takes over the bass line for about 2 bars, and then jumps right into the higher register. I doubt that McLaughlin actually made that leap without a cut in the take, but the effect is quite interesting nonetheless