Play it loud! One of the UK's greatest jazz exports guitarist John McLaughlin turns 80 tomorrow and to mark the milestone we have created a new playlist featuring a healthy sampling of some of his greatest work. McLaughlin is best known for his work on Miles Davis classic albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew at the tail end of the 1960s, later work with Tony Williams in the ex-Miles drummer's band The Tony Williams Lifetime and for his own acclaimed and still highly influential and ridiculously ahead-of-its-time jazz-rock group Mahavishnu Orchestra formed in 1971 and whose albums The Inner Mounting Flame and Visions of the Emerald Beyond are highly revered classics of the genre. McLaughlin is also known as a major figure in pursuing creative development in the language of jazz-rock combined with Indian music in Shakti collaborating with violinist L. Shankar and tabla player Zakir Hussain. In recent decades McLaughlin's Five Peace Band Live dating back to 2009 won the Englishman a Grammy Award for best jazz instrumental album and 'Miles Beyond' on 2017's Live at Ronnie Scott’s won the Grammy for best improvised jazz solo.
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