THE MEETING OF THE SPIRITS dvd
by DiamondDog on Tuesday 08 November 2005

John McLaughlin Paco de Lucia Larry Coryell sound-setting; Dolby 5.1 & DTS



Tracks/chapters

00 Backstage
01 Entre dos Aguas
02 Lotus Feet
03 Morning of The Carnaval
04 Meeting of The Spirits
05 Guardian Angels


MEETING OF THE SPIRITS is the well-known song of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. One of the great anthems of that band. This DVD contains a fantastic performance of three great guitarplayers in different genres. John McLaughlin became very popular with his share with Tony Williams Lifetime, Miles Davis, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Shakti. Larry Coryell worked hard with Chico Hamilton, Gary Burton and the Eleventh House. Paco de Lucia is one of the best flamenco guitarist in this whole wide world.

The backstage footage is a short clip of the three guitarist practicing the song Guardian Angels. You can see that John McLaughlin is in charge of the whole thing. Entre dos Aguas is a combination of the two songs; Mediterrean Sundance and Entre dos Aguas. Larry Coryell and Paco de Lucia are performing this song on stage. This performance is a little bit slower than the original version. Larry start his solo with fire and Paco is finishing it.
Lotus Feet is a soft but beautiful song performed by John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia. John McLaughlin still stuck with his Shakti-period.
Morning of the Carnival is a brazilian song and beautiful by the whole crew. Larry doesn't have a big part in this. The most is played by John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia.
Meeting of The Spirits is the biggest show on this DVD. The song is about twenty minutes long. Again, Larry Coryell has small part here. He gives a good solo at the beginning, but it is rather short. This is an one-man-show by John McLaughlin. He's giving his all in this song. An unbelieveable solo with such an expression. Later in his solo he is dragging Larry Coryell with him with a question-answer solo. Good interaction between those two great guitar players. The masters of jazzfusion guitar.
The last song is Guardian Angels. I must say, that Larry Coryell is looking a little bit weak during his play. It looks like he doesn't know the structure of the song right, but he goes along with the other two.

The DVD MEETING OF THE SPIRITS is a great footage of the three guitar players. The quality of the DVD is good. You can choose between 5.1 or dts. They aren't any extra's. That's a little disappointing. Larry Coryell doesn't have a big part, but he is there and he plays like he use to do. It's good to see how he does those solo's. It's a good acoustic performance with a great spirit between Larry Coryell, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia.


Rating:

70%