Mahavishnu Project - Return To The Emerald Beyond
ARTIST.....: Mahavishnu Project
TITLE......: Return To The Emerald Beyond
LABEL......: Cuneiform Records
URL........: http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7347631&BAB=M
RIP DATE...: Jan-23-2007
STORE DATE.: Jan-16-2007
GENRE......: Fusion
QUALITY....: VBR / 44.1Hz / Joint-Stereo
SIZE.......: 168,5 MB
Track Listing:
cd1
01 - Eternity's Breath 14:33
02 - Lila's Dance 09:22
03 - Can't Stand Your Funk 06:59
04 - Pastoral 11:04
05 - Faith 02:54
06 - Cosmic Strut 05:41
07 - If I Could See 01:38
08 - Be Happy 07:30
cd2
01 - Earth Ship 12:03
02 - Pegasus 03:42
03 - Opus 1 02:09
04 - On The Way Home To Earth 09:06
05 - Smile Of The Beyond 05:38
06 - Vital Transformation 10:50
07 - Sister Andrea 11:11
─────
cd1: 59:41 cd2: 54:39
Release Notes:
Drummer Gregg Bendian's Mahavishnu Project is at it again: taking
a complete recorded work by John McLaughlin's second (expanded)
version of the original band, and playing it live. Visions of the
Emerald Beyond is unusual as a Mahavishnu Orchestra title in that
very little of it was performed live, and was never entertained as
a live date, according to Bendian in his liner notes. You'd never
know it. With Bendian, guitarist Glenn Alexander, bassist David
Johnson, and keyboard whiz Adam Holzman, the rest of the players,
including a string section, Premik Russell Tubbs plays both
saxophones and flutes. Minimal vocal chores are accomplished
beautifully and naturally by Mariah Neckham.
If anyone can help us hear the original album in a new light in
Return to the Emerald Beyond, it's Bendian. Having performed the
first version of every title the original Mahavishnu Orchestra
released, the Project had a duty in their collective mind to move
on past the confines of the early band just as McLaughlin did,
realizing his dream of a "full" orchestra on Visions of the
Emerald Beyond with an expanded string section. This 11-piece does
just that on Return to the Emerald Beyond. As is their wont, they
performed the album live for an entire summer and took the best
versions of the individual tracks to compile the CD. Sonically,
it's warm, immediate and full. Musically, it's revelatory.
Revisiting an album that early Mahavishnu fans had trouble with,
proves the longevity and enduring contribution of the music, but
more importantly, in the process, that this was music that can be,
and perhaps should be, performed live. The guitar work of
Alexander is full of emotion and power, but also restraint as he
moves through the knotty changes in McLaughlin's compositions. Rob
Thomas' solo violin work meets the challenge of Jean-Luc Ponty's
original parts with an edginess and mutability that is rather
astonishing. Bendian is no mere timekeeper; he's music director,
leading and guiding the changes and improvisations in these pieces
(check out the opener "Eternity's Breath" and "Can't Stand Your
Funk" on disc one, as well as "Earth Ship" and "Vital
Transformation" on disc two). The ensemble playing is tight but
also very flexible, creating space inside some of these tunes that
is not there on the studio recording but is necessary in live
performance. In sum then, the Mahavishnu Project has accomplished
not only their goal, but has also revealed how necessary and
filled with innovation Visions of the Emerald Beyond is; placing
the jazz-rock of the '70s firmly in the continuum of the music's
tradition, and offering a place for those compelled to both listen
to and play it as a way inside the complexity of the music and its
emotion.