2025 · Album
Montreux Jazz Festival 2022
Recorded July 2022 · Unable to verify with certainty · Produced by Unable to verify with certainty
McLaughlin at the Lake Geneva Shore
McLaughlin brought his restless guitar energy to Montreux, delivering exactly what you'd expect from him at this stage.
John McLaughlin showed up at Montreux in 2022 with the same thing he's been doing for decades — finding new angles on the electric guitar and surrounding himself with musicians sharp enough to keep up. This live recording captures him doing what he does: building these intricate, fast-moving conversations between his guitar and whoever's on stage with him, rarely settling into anything comfortable for more than a few minutes.
At this point in McLaughlin's catalog, you're not getting surprises in the fundamental sense. He's refined his approach over fifty-some years, and he's not interested in reinventing himself. What you get instead is consistency. The guitar work here is precise, the improvisations go exactly where they need to go, and there's no wasted space. If you know his work from the Mahavishnu Orchestra days or his more recent fusion output, you'll recognize the language immediately. The Montreux audience seems to understand this too — they're not expecting a revelation, they're there to watch a master player work through his material.
This is a solid live document, good if you already follow McLaughlin or if you're curious about what he sounds like in his seventies at a major festival. It's not the place to start with him, though. Better entry points exist depending on what angle interests you. But if you're tracking his recent work or you want a snapshot of him performing at one of Europe's major jazz festivals, this delivers exactly what the billing promises — nothing less, nothing more.
