McLaughlin’s Back After Six Years

By I Oct. 21, 2003

Thieves And Poets, the orchestral studio project by guitarist John McLaughlin, has been released on Verve Records.

For more than 10 years, McLaughlin has been toying with the title track, a 26-minute suite for orchestra and guitar inspired by his tour with The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie.

Ballets de Monte Carlo choreographer Jean-Chrisophe Maillot persuaded McLaughlin to finish the piece. For assistance, McLaughlin turned to former student and arranger Yan Maresz to help him convert the ideas into instrumentation. The final piece was recorded with the I Pommeriggi Musicali di Milano conducted by Renato Rivolta.

Chamber tributes to jazz legends make up the remaining four songs on Thieves And Poets. “My Foolish Heart” for Chick Corea, “The Dolphin” for Gonzalo Rubalcaba, “Stella By Starlight” for Herbie Hancock and “My Romance” for Bill Evans were recorded with acoustic bass guitarist Helmut Schartlmueller and The Aighetta Quartet—guitarists Olivier Fautrat, Francois Szony, Alexandre Del Fa and Philippe Loli.

Why so many strings?

“I’m a guitar player,” said McLaughlin. “So what’s more beautiful than the sound of a guitar? Two? Three is better. Let’s have six. I can eat that sound.”

The title of the album comes, once again, from McLaughlin’s love of Indian culture—Indian deity Ganesh is the god of thieves and poets. “The thing is, basically we are all thieves,” said McLaughlin. “It’s a universal process, this kind of assimilation of influences. Not just music either. We adopt things from people we admire.”

For more information, visit www.ververecords.com