This band literally changed my life. I became a violinist and went to music school because of Jerry Goodman.

I was 16 when this came out on BBC2. It fried my brain completely and I fell in love the Mahavishnu immediately.

I became fascinated over MO in 1975. It's never gone away. It's eternal music.

Jan is pronounced “Yaan”. Jan Hammer was a key contributor to Jeff Beck’s second jazz rock album Wired.

Carlos Santana was also a follower of the eastern mystic Sri Chinmoy. In fact he and John McLaughlin did an album together called, "Love Devotion Surrender."

I saw this original band in 73, mind-blowing. An interesting anecdote. Ruth Underwood of Frank Zappa's band told of the time when they went to see Mahavishnu. After the show Ruth said she ran into Frank and that he was visibly shaken by the experience. After that Zappa started doing more fusion music. You've got to be doing something right to freak out Frank!

Billy Cobham’s first solo album, Spectrum, is a fusion classic. The tracks, Quadrant 4 and Stratus are definitely worth checking out.

I didn't know music could sound like this on my first hearing on an underground FM station after midnight. kind of a life changing experience.

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN WAS A GENIUS .. SURROUNDED BY MUSICAL GENIUSES

When Mahavishnu were on tour with Zappa, Frank realised he had some serious competition. Apparently, MO were off the scale loud, as well as seriously good.

Definitely need to check out their "Visions of the Emerald Beyond". Amazing album!

I have followed McLaughlin and Cobham since they played together in Miles’ band. Miles suggested that they both form their own band. The Mahavishnu Orchestra was formed and the rest is history. Btw, I consider Cobham the most creative and talented drummer ever. His background drumming is so perfect and tasteful. Thanks for sharing. I believe that their second album was their best.

Fantastic! Mahavishnu changed my whole musical world when I discovered them in my late teens back in the 90s. Glad to see them covered on your excellent channel.

Thanks to share this! May be you need to check the album Visions of the Emerald Beyond, it is quite a pinnacle of McLaughlin as a composer and the last of the Mahavishnu Orchestra with Jean-Luc Ponty in violin and a bunch of young (in that moment) musicians. Saludos desde Buenos Aires.

SO EXCITED! YKYK is one of my all time favorite pieces. I just saw Billy Cobham live in a small jazz club a couple months ago and he was fantastic.

McLaughlin: great guitar player and composer. Iconic band of rock-jazz fusion.

Billy is an absolute monster……blown away

A jazz fusion suggestion. Red Baron - Billy Cobham & George Duke Live. Absolute kickassery

I love Billy Cobham. He’s a beast!

Wow! Thanks for doing this review - I'd encourage you to try out Vision's of the Emerald Beyond too (Lilas Dance is a favorite). And if you get bored of that try Shakti (Le Danse du Bonheur)

Love good seventies jazz fusion. First time I ever came across Mahavishnu was on the In Concert TV show. Was absolutely blown away and immediately searched out an album by them. What I found was an eight track of Birds of Fire and have been hooked ever since. With Jeff Beck passing away, I've been hearing of how he was inspired by Mahavishnu to delve in to fusion and so produced the awesome Blow by Blow and Wired albums, the second of those and a live album he collaborated with Jan Hammer (BTW, I always heard it is supposed to be pronounced Yon). Here's a request for you. When the first iteration of Mahavishnu broke up, Jerry Goodman and Jan Hammer put out an album together that gave those of us devastated by the breakup to get a little fix--Like Children. One of the cuts from that album, "Full Moon Boogie", appeared on the Beck/Hammer live album. Would love to see you do a comparison review of the song--both versions back to back.

Passport, Jean-Luc Ponty and the Jeff Beck fusion albums would all be awesome to hear your thoughts on. Thanks Doug!!

I saw this line-up on their second gig of the 1972 UK tour at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. Possibly the best gig I've ever been to. I remember about 2 minutes into the gig John McLaughlin's amp blew. Cue roadies scurrying around and the 4 remaining members going into an improvised jam for 4 or 5 minutes while they changed the amp! Still sounded good!

Wow! That was fabulous Doug! Please keep adding more jazz fusion to your channel!

You should do Shakti eventually. To me, that was the pinnacle of John McLaughlin's work by far.

Apocalypse, the 3rd Mahavishnu Orchestra studio album, is a great listen, and was produced by the legend that was George Martin. He also produced Jeff Beck's fusion albums Blow By Blow and Wired in the mid-70s. McLaughlin also made an album with sitarist Ravi Shankar called Shakti, which also became the name of the group, so his involvement in and absorption of Indian classical music that you detect in his Mahavishnu music was well under way. No idea about all the technical stuff, the beats and numbers and all that, but I've been listening to this music for half a century, and I just go with the groove, the soundscapes, textures and shapes of it all. What key it's in is useful for identifying titles of classical music pieces, Mozart's G minor symphony, Schubert's E flat trio, whichever of Bach's Preludes and Fugues, but in the act of just listening, it's just the groove and the aural world it envelops me in.

Love these live Mahavishnu sessions. Pure music, not encumbered by one genre, two, three, four. There’s a great recording of the “Apocalypse” material out there too.

"Birds of Fire" was my introduction to MO as well as jazz fusion.

This is some of my favorite music, ever -- wonderful to see you doing a video on this, Doug!

Wonderful musicianship on these tracks. Between Nothingness & Eternity is one of my favourite Mahavishnu albums thanks for this reaction Doug 😀

Everything you said echoed my own thoughts, or was a great revelation; fantastic video!

This music brings back so many memories...sitting on the concert lawn in Western Mass, while McClaughlin created lightning, and Cobham added crashes and rolls of thunder, and Goodman and Hammer were the rain. Rick Laird doesn't get enough credit, haha! It wasn't so much meditative as immersive. At the end of their concerts, you were wrung out and happy.

Thank you for a great reaction. Phil Collins was in a Jazz Fusion band called Brand X. I recommend the track Malaga Virgen off their Moroccan Roll album. Features the great Percy Jones on fretless bass.

R.I.P., Rick Laird (2021).

Sounds of my chilhood. Your enthusiasm for what you hear and break down made my day! Keep on....

I love the music on this video, but also the editing and stage lights! Is an unique document , I probably seen it a hundred times ❣️

I saw this band 3 times and each time was monumental. And I will say, I have seen many great drummers- Tony Williams, Neal Peart, Christian Vander, Carl Palmer, but I have never seen a drummer more powerful than Billy Cobham, who I would watch simply slack-jawed in awe.

Narada Michael Walden's first album is EPIC. Mahavishu Orchestra first got me interested in Walden. Walden also followed this guru too. Don't let the album cover scare you away. How many first albums have both Jeff Beck and Santana as guests on two songs?

Mahavishnu was just loaded with virtuoso musicians....

I saw them perform Inner Mounting Flame & Birds of Fire a couple of times. Fondest memories of this HUGE band!

I had the privilege to see this band when they toured Europe in the early seventies. They were E P I C!

Genius,groundbreaking musicians

What's cool is Jan Hammer acquired a Moog after the album was released, so his solos have the Moog but it's not on the Inner Mounting album. Also I think Jan is pronounced "Yan". I remember when I first got into them, or sort of. I was intoxicated when I first heard this bootleg album and although I didn't remember the name of the band, my brother handed me the 8-Track of Birds of Fire. I asked what that was, and he said "That's the band you were digging last night- remember?" So I played it and was blown away and didn't know what it was. But I knew who Jan Hammer was from the Jeff Beck association. Spectum by Billy Cobham is one of the best Albums ever made. It has Jan Hammer, Rick Laird, and the late Tommy Bolin on guitar as well as horns, and acoustic Jazz. Spectrum is what got me into all the other kinds of Jazz, although I did like Louis Armstrong before that.

Amazing, so insightful! I found your video from watching Mahavishnu videos lol thank you for the video! Subscribed!

Great band/tracks/performance and analysis - thanks, Doug!

For having not heard before a lot of what you've been reviewing over the months, you have gotten quite good at throwing around adept comparisons to other pieces / groups 😃

So deceptive is that pushed lick ..Fantastic take on this !! Thank you !!

Awesome analysis. Bravo!

I very much love John and his work with Shakti,I was lucky enough to have seen John 4X,and my friends and I were always blown away

Bravo ! Loved the all exercise.

Awesome! Reminds me of Jean Luc Ponty and Weather Report. Editing his analog sound during the piece. Very cool.

Jazz Fusion ROCKS!

WOW.... this is an amazing live performance!

This band just fried everyone's brain back in 1972. Everybody went crazy on Fusion after that. Even King Crimson, Gong and everyone shifted their styles after hearing them. What a band! Both incarnations.

thanks for this. really enjoyed it being a massive fan of Mahavishnu...

Such amazing music. Thank you Doug!

They mopped the floor with almost any band in existence back in those day.

This is such an amazing performance

I think it's so cool that Jan Hammer would later go on to score Miami Vice, effectively giving the 1980s a soundtrack.

I had only heard the studio recording until now and this live version is just infinitely preferable in every way. Melodic and rhythmic structures are clear and under-embellished. I saw this lineup of the band 2 times in 1972-3 and have to confess my mind was not quite up to the task. I was impressed by the burning, what I later felt was the least important aspect of the music. Thanks so much for this bit of pure gold, Doug.

Awesome. More fusion jazz please. I would love to see you cover something from Alain Caron or his original band UZEB.

I've been waiting for Doug to do some Mahavishnu and some Return to Forever (especially the Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy album).

I wish I could have double thumbs up this one. Spot on.

Amazing group unbelievable, thanks Doug

I saw them at Winterand, SF billed behind Emerson, Lake Palmer. Breathtaking! half the crowd came for MO & many of us left after ELP's first number. Not even in the same ballpark.

Just Masters playing, some of the best performers of their generation. No more needed to analyse, frankly.

Yes. About time.

Ich bin jetzt 76 Jahre. Diese Musik von J.Mc.L höre ich von Anfang an bis heute. Sie hat den Wert von klassischer Musik, die mich immer wieder begeistert und mich wirklich verjüngt, auch optisch.

I fell in love for the Mahavishnu Orchestra by accident. Found a copy of the Inner Mounting Flame with no case 20yrs ago. It blew my mind with the virtuoso musicianship of the whole band. Still a favourite album of mine.

These musicians shared a very special relationship. To me their music is a religious experience, and I'm pretty sure a lot of other people feel the same way...

Thank you so much for this Mr. Helvering.

If I may be so bold, You reacted to the wrong MVO. I was lucky enough to see them in 75 supporting the "Visions of the Emerald Beyond" album. The warm-up act was Jeff Beck supporting "Blow by Blow." To this day, the best concert I've ever heard. I would love to hear your reaction to "Eternity's Beath, " both parts, and/or "Lila's Dance"--which has a really neat time signature--and puts every other "power trio" to shame. you'll enjoy it.

Thanks for this Doug!

so nice to know or see something else who can see the pure greatness of mahavisnu orchestra who i have listened to since i think i was 18 in 1978 i still air guitar with perfection to him

Jan Hammer is the dude that partly revolutionized synth soloing by Adding that "guitaristic" pitch Bending to his sound. And he had a rhythmic approach to his soloing which I haven't heard been surpassed to this day, his pitch bend technique is also really difficult to emulate. A more conscious and "connected" synth player then a lot of the synth shredders of today. Jan, Chick, Duke, Zavod, Hancock, Emerson. All great players, but Jan was the Moog soloist!

John McLaughlin still plays You Know, You Know. At 81, he is still truly amazing.

Check Jeff Beck's version of You Know You Know. He and McLaughlin toured together in 1975. Mahavishnu influenced him and so many bands in the 1970s.

Fantastic set of musicians. All of them.

When I was about 16, there were 2 guitar players that really floored me among so many other great guitarists: John McLaughlin and Jeff Beck. I'm not a guitar player, but these guys really fascinated me. McLaughlin plays with so much soul and feeling, and I've been a huge fan ever since. I got to see him with the trio a few times in the early 90s and it was such a great show. I'd love to see some more Mahavishnu reactions, especially Visions Of The Emerald Beyond, which is probably my favorite by them. Thanks as always, Doug.

You have to own "Visions from the Emerald Beyond ". Just A class. A journey through A Masterpiece!

I Saw Billy Cobham in Madrid with a Salsa band. I was amazed by his drumming.

70s jazz fusion was just before my time but I could still really get into it. Other bands: Soft Machine / Matching Mole Caravan - check out Auberge du Sanglier for crazy time sig Curved Air Gong Gentle Giant

I have a book of scores for the first two Mahavishnu Orchestra albums. I bought it as a teenager when I was first starting to learn guitar. Now, after 40 years of playing guitar, this music is still beyond my ability.

Great reaction sir! At some point you should check out their album Apocalypse. It's stunning! Apocalypse is the Mahavishnu Orchestra's fourth album and third studio album, released in 1974. It is performed by the second line-up of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. It was produced by George Martin, who regarded it as "one of the best records [he had] ever made". The song Hymn to Him is the radiant jewel of this masterpiece.

The comment about Rick Laird looking like the table next to him got their food first made me laugh outloud

Oh great to see you react to mahavishnu orchestra

I first heard "The.Inner Mounting Flame" in the Summer of ,'72. I had been camping for about 2 weeks, in the Catskill Creek in Upstate NY. My friend Sally stopped by with this on cassette, and I can still remember it echoing off the 70ft cliffs across the creek. A Magical Time. She also had the new Deep Purple 'Machine Head "album!

Love your sense of humor.

hey i love your analysis especially the buances of the upbeats and fownveats accents on terms of rhythmic displacement

Great commentary thanks.

Doug, please- PLEASE - listen to music by The Dixie Dregs (aka, The Dregs)!! Steve Morse is the leader/guitarist of the band and their music is very influenced by Mahavishnu Orchestra! They do Rock/Jazz fusion as well as Classical-influenced music as well was Blue Grass! They do everything! Check out The Dregs!

Thank you for the counting!

The fact that the the theme of You Know You Know begins and ends on an upbeat takes it away from the four-square and makes it ethereal - even though it is still 4/4.

Yes! Thank you! Keep the jazz fusion music coming!

Cool that you’re doing this one, Doug. Different outfit but just peaking- “Visions of the Emerald Beyond” and “Apocalypse”. Narada Michael Walden (drums) and Jean Luc Ponty (violin). Can’t say I like them better than Billy and Jerry, but the performances are equally stunning.

I saw them at the Gaslight Cafe for that 1st NY appearance in '72 before the album came out and many times after that. I am a guitarist and knew their music in and out. STILL, it took me years until I finally got the deceptive timing of You Know You Know. Nice review.

The Inner Mounting Flame album changed how I hear and understand music, not to mention transporting me to another dimension in 1971, when I was 19. It was my “University of Music.” I would never experience music the same way again; it became my lodestar, so to speak. I saw him and The Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1974. So grateful and happy John is still teaching us new things.

Rick Laird was once asked why he was the only MO member who wasn't into the _virtuoso_ thing. He wisely answered "Because in that band, somebody had to say ONE."

You may notice that during the opening of the band getting going, I suspect that the reason that they are going round the opening two chords is that Jan Hammer is suffering with a poor connection on the Fender Rhodes piano to his amp. Notice that he gets up to investigate but the cameras quickly focus away whilst the problem tries to become rectified. You can see Jan at 5.55 getting up to sort out the static interference, which is clearly evident in the recording. Thus, they move straight in to You Know, You Know. The MiniMoog becomes Jan's weapon of battle as a recent (and very new instrument in the day) acquisition and gets going on some formidable soloing. I saw this when it was first broadcast when I was 17. My dad encouraged me to enjoy the music, and only liked the band because John M. had short hair, of which my dad approved. I saw the Mahavishnu in Manchester England on their Birds of Fire tour in '72, and as recently met John and the 7th Dimension once again in Manchester, back stage. He's a wonderful man, very approachable, and best of all, he comes from our village in Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

You Know you know is a song of theirs I've always loved because it is a meditation. So simple that even I can play that riff (not many others of Johns), and playing it over and over is so meditative.