Earlier in March, I released a single with Aman Jagwani on drums based on an arrangement of the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s track Meeting of the Spirits. This is the story behind the arrangement and recording.

This composition is very typical of the style and sound McLaughlin was developing with the Mahavishnu. It was a very original take on Jazz-Rock, or fusion, which was only nascent at the time. Particularly important in this piece, I think, are the influences from Indian Classical music, particularly in terms of rhythm and in the modalism adopted. From that perspective, it is possible to note the use of a particular raga from the Melakarta, Hanumatodi (S R1 G2 M1 P D1 N2 S), and a pentatonic sub-set from it. The rhythm structure is, for the most part, based on a 5+5+2 pattern, which is also described by the Carnatic tala Khanda Jati Matya. The tempo is lightning fast, which was typical of many of his pieces.

First Version

Last year was John McLaughlin’s 80th birthday and it occurred to me to make a recording of one of his classic compositions. I had already done a version of his 11/8 12-bar blues Follow your Heart, which was itself a re-recording of Arjen’s Bag originally from Extrapolation of 1969, but now I wanted to tackle something else. It was actually a choice between Birds of Fire and Meeting of the Spirits, which were very close in format. Both were Mahavishnu (mark I) tracks with rolling arpeggio figures and slightly odd rhythmic patterns. I went with the latter, which seemed to provide a bit more scope to do what I wanted.

My idea was, following from the earlier recording to do a multitrack/multiscreen video in order to capture all the parts (bar the drums, which I could not play and would not want to replace with a programmed part). For this, I recorded several overdubbed audio parts, capturing some of these on video too. Then I mixed these down and recorded an improvised synth solo on top of it, also filming it.

Following this, I prepared a final mix of the audio. To complete the project, I just had to edit the video parts into a multiscreen film and sync them up with the recorded audio parts. The result then went into youtube and I used it as my intro video for the channel.

For this arrangement, I did a number of changes from the original. First of all, I removed the introduction, which would not have worked without the drums. The main tune structure was also modified slightly. In the original, following the statement of the theme there is a guitar solo. Then the theme returns complete with its tag where the arpeggio pattern is replaced by a few sustained chords. The piece continues with an electric piano solo. Towards the end of it, there’s a fast background figure played in unison by guitar and violin. We’re then back at the beginning: after eight bars the theme comes back followed by the tag. The track finishes with the arpeggio figure going into a long fade out over which a short violin solo is played.

In my version, I played first the theme complete with the tag, and then followed it with a solo. This was finished off with the full theme and tag, ending with the arpeggio pattern fading out. This made my version a lot shorter, but it made sense given that it was a keys only recording and I did not want to stick in another synth or piano solo. I was happy with the result and left it at that.

Second Version

Towards the end of last year, I recorded some ideas as a demo, which, later on in January, I developed into a track called The Singing Wind. I then asked Aman Jagwani if he was interested in recording drums for it. We went into the studio and in a short session laid the drums for the track. I did a rough mix of the recording and it was then floated about on the internet, where it got some traction. This led me to finish the mix, master it and make a release, which you can listen to here:

The experience made me consider what else we could do in collaboration. I showed my version of Meeting to Aman and he agreed to add drums to it. Now I had a stronger proposition. I could work out a more complete arrangement, adding back in the parts I had left out. So I reused parts of my earlier version like the electric piano, bass synth and string machine parts, as well as the synth solo, but restructured the arrangement completely, re-recording and adding many other keyboard parts.

In the earlier recording I had proceeded in a fairly traditional way, using the DAW simply as if it were a multitrack recorder with little editing bar fade outs. Now I started making cuts and move things about to accommodate the new recorded parts and the new arrangement.

I recorded a guide for the intro, playing the chords on the piano (not used in the final mix), and inserted it at the start. Then I overdubbed several parts to re-create the introduction in a rich-sounding way. The first part them followed more or less like in my original recording, but I added a number of background parts to fill it up and make it stronger sounding.

For the second part, I had the electric piano starting the arpeggions on its own, with each part entrying in a gradual build up, at the end of which I inserted the background figure that I had not used in the first version. This was played on three parts, a double-track synth and a fast-leslie organ. From this I went straight into the theme and tag. In the original, there is an eight-bar space between the end of the background figure and the theme re-exposition. It did not make sense to have it here since I had prepared this whole build up and so following up with the theme was to me the right thing to do.

The second part was designed as the background for a solo by the drums. So when we went down to the studio to record Aman’s part, he was able to take advantage of the build up to structure it. I thought it was particularly brilliant the way he did this leading to a really explosive ending with the theme. The coda of the track was then very similar to my earlier version with a short fade out.

Following the recording session, I took my time to listen and to mix it properly. I wanted to achieve a sort of vintage sound for the drums, which I think was helped by the minimalist way we tracked these: a stereo microphone overhead plus another for the kick drum. Some work in the mixing/mastering allowed me to get the sound I wanted. You can judge for yourself here,

Video

Since I had a completely new track with a much stronger arrangement, it made sense to revise the video so that it could be linked to the release. The trouble was that I did not have footage for the drums recording or for any of the new parts I had re-recorded and added this year. So I decided to re-cut the video to match the first part, which was possible to do, and fade out at the start of the drums solo (basically a ‘single cut’ of the track). The intro had come out so well in the master that I decided to keep it and place it under the title, syncing the text with the first strike of the chords.