John McLaughlin - guitar
Joey DeFrancesco - hammond organ
Elvin Jones - drums
1. My Favorite Things
2. Sing Me Softly of the Blues
3. Encuentros
4. Naima
5. Take the Coltrane
John McLaughlin (born 4 January 1942, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England), also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer. His music includes many genres of jazz, and rock, which he coupled with an interest in Indian classical music to become one of the pioneering figures in fusion.
In 2010 guitarist Jeff Beck called him "the best guitarist alive".[1] The Indian tabla maestro Zakir Hussain has called him "one of the greatest and one of the important musicians of our times". In 2003 McLaughlin was ranked 49th in Rolling Stone magazine list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
After contributing to several key British groups of the early sixties and making his first solo record Extrapolation (with Tony Oxley and John Surman) he moved to the USA where he played with Tony Williams's group Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his landmark electric jazz-fusion albums In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew, A Tribute to Jack Johnson and On The Corner. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences.
Joey DeFrancesco (born April 10, 1971) is an American jazz organist, trumpeter, and vocalist. Down Beat's Critics and Readers Poll selected him as the top jazz organist every year since 2003.When DeFrancesco was seventeen years old, Miles Davis asked him to join his band. DeFrancesco toured Europe and recorded Amandla with Davis.[1] He became well known in the 1990s, however, through his work with John McLaughlin's trio Free Spirits. He has also played with jazz guitarists Pat Martino, Paul Bollenback, Jimmy Bruno, Dave Stryker, Danny Gatton as well as trumpet player Big Jim Henry and many others.Today, Joey DeFrancesco plays an average of 200 nights a year on the road with various musicians. His core bands include Byron Landham (drums), Paul Bollenback (guitar) or Pat Bianchi (keyboards). When not on the road, he resides in Arizona with his mother, father and daughter Ashley Blue Defrancesco.
Elvin Ray Jones (September 9, 1927 -- May 18, 2004) was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era.He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan.From 1960 to 1966 he was a member of the John Coltrane quartet (along with Jimmy Garrison on bass and McCoy Tyner on Piano), a celebrated recording phase, appearing on such albums as A Love Supreme. Following his work with John Coltrane, Jones led several small groups, some under the name The Elvin Jones Jazz Machine. He recorded with both of his brothers during his career, jazz musicians Hank Jones and Thad Jones.