McLaughlin and band slightly disappointing

Press, 2 July 1979, Page 6

McLaughlin and band slightly disappointing

By

NEVIN TOPP

Humour and enjoyment of music seemed to be the prin- j Cipal ingredients of the con-; cert by John McLaughlin and | the One Truth Band at the; Christchurch Town Hall auditorium on Saturday even-' tng From the outset, on "Comforter of Dreams,” McLaughlin and the five-piece One, Truth Band emphasised they were going to play jazz. • McLaughlin has “given up! the white,” that is, his long; association with the Eastern. mysticism of the Bengali gu-[ t’i, Sri Chimnoy, and the mu-] sic lacked the spiritual ele-l Merit of his previous visit to Christchurch in November. 1 1974. with the Mahavishnur Orchestra. Collectively and individu-j' »’lv the iazz influence was very strong, at times surr isingly funkv in the Herbie Hancock mould. j

, A certain sameness oft sound pervaded the group work, and unfortunately one] .lesson had not been learnt! from McLaughlin’s last visit; I — the music was so loud that individual instruments ;were hard to distinguish. L. Shankar played admir- • ably on electric violin, but !the limitations of the instrui ment compared with its acoustic counterpart were obvious. The best parts of the eveni ing were when McLaughlin [showed his pace on banjo; and when he and L. Shankar performed a humourous song, -“Two Sisters.” in which they 'depicted two sisters arguing [first with acoustic guitar and electric violin, then Shankar changing over to tambourine, and finally “scat” singing which recalled some of the :old Goon Show voices. The concert’s continuity was broken by the emphasis on solos while the rest of the! jbaqd wandered off and on at

will, which was a bit disturbing.

At the same time the solos I did show the quality of each • musician, particularly the Brazilian, Alyrio Lima, whose amazing array of percussion instruments produced an endless variety of exciting and funny sounds, and the bass guitarist, Fernando Sanders, who got good audience response to go with his base solo.

The hardest worker in the pne Truth Band was the drummer, Tony Smith, who really shone, laying down great rhythms for the rest of the group to follow.

A great deal of handslapping by the players marked the end of the concert, which showed that they had really enjoyed working out front. In spite of that, if the One Truth Band was not a spiritual one, it was slightly disappointing in presenting an artistic concert.