StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: John McLaughlin and 4th Dimension

Today, let's look at some video clips of guitarist John McLaughlin and his band 4th Dimension, who will be in St. Louis to perform on Friday, November 19 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Also including keyboardist/drummer Gary Husband, drummer Mark Mondésir, and bassist Étienne Mbappé, 4th Dimension came together in 2007, revisiting and updating the high-energy electric jazz/fusion style that McLaughlin made famous in the 1970s with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Their St. Louis appearance is part of a fall tour that will see them do 22 shows in 21 different cities in a month.

The first video up above was recorded in 2008, and features a performance of McLaughlin's composition "Senor CS" recorded at the Vienna Jazz Festival. Down below, there's another clip from the same show, of the song "New Blues, Old Bruise." (Both feature bassist Dominique Di Piazza in place of Mbappé.)

Down below that are performances of "Light at the End of the World" and "The Fine Line" that were recorded in May, 2010 in Bucharest and feature the band's current lineup. These two videos were shot by an audience member using a handheld camera, so the video wobbles a bit in spots, but the audio quality is quite nice.

For more about John McLaughlin and 4th Dimension, check out this excerpt from a July 2010 Jazz Times article by Geoffrey Himes, and some reviews of the band's most recent CD, the soon-to-be-Grammy-nominated To The One, found here, here, here and here.