“Fusion - mixing or uniting of different thing into one”
In Jazz music’s terms it means mixing Jazz music with any other music.
John McLaughlin was born in 1942 in Yorkshire, England. When he was 12 he had his first taste of the blues from recording of Leadbelly, Muddy Waters, and Big Bill Broonzy. He had discovered the guitar via his elder brother, and started listening to flamenco music. Later, in the age of 14 he had discovered Django Reinhardt, which made him start working with plectrum, and later he heard Tal Farlow, which was a great influence on him. McLaughlin decided to become a professional guitar player and was playing in many kinds of musical situations such as R&B, avant-garde jazz etc. Then he started listening to trumpet player Miles Davis and to sax player, the legendary John Coltrane. The influence of Coltrane in McLaughlin’s Playing was very dominant’ especially in the middle sixties. Later he joined Lifetime. While he was in Lifetime, Miles Davis himself asked him to join his group. McLaughlin refused although Miles was one his favourite players. The reason in his words is: “All the guys in the group were marvelous. That’s why I refused Miles Davis’s proposition... I’d never felt anywhere else... playing with Miles was an enriching and exiting experience, but Lifetime represented much more for me.” After making a few successful records with Lifetime, he joined Miles’s group and played there for a few months, but then he left for making a group.
                  Finely, after many years of playing, McLaughlin had his own group - The Mahavishnu Orchestra. “I was always a sideman, but that was fine by me because I was learning. I still am.” Mahavishnu - A degree in indian music. The Mahavishnu Orchestra was a group which contained jazz-rock players with Indian players. This combination was very interesting and the result was a very different kind of music. It was combining the very difficult and complicated rhythms and melodies of indian music with the noise, weirdness, and insolence of jazz-rock music. That’s when John McLaughlin started to do fusion. After the Mahavishnu era, John started playing classic indian music with some of the greatest indian music players in the world in a group named Shakti. Shakti means creative intelligence, beauty & power. He had 3 albums with Shakti. After that he had many groups but the most known one was the Free Spirits. It contained 3 players. McLaughlin – guitar, Dennis Chambers – drums, and Joey DeFrancesco – Hammond organ. The bass line, which is a very important part of jazz music, was played by Joey DeFancesco. He played it with his legs on the bass pedals. The high tempos and the complicated compositions required from Joey an unbelievable coordination because he had to play bass line and organ solos simultanicly. Nowadays he is performing with Shakti and Free Spirits and the group from his CD – “The Heart Of Things”.
                The sound of McLaughlin’s guitar is very metallic and highly percussive and his technique is unbelievable. He has so much musical information, that he just has to say it all at once. That’s when he uses his great technique.
                What I like about McLaughlin so much is that he is open minded. He always tries to create new thing. He is always working on something new. He is very pluralistic too. Many be-bop or swing players are playing now the same as they were playing 40 years ago, and sometimes even worse. Most of the jazz musician I admire the most, were much beyond being musicians, they were/are researchers. They are always trying new formulas and ways of thinking.