The Allaboutjazz.com Interview: An Affair of the Heart. Click here.
The Gibson Interview: Walter Kolosky, Author of Follow Your Heart: John McLaughlin, Song by Song
by Andrew Vaughan
Walter Kolosky, renowned jazz critic and the world’s foremost authority on guitar legend John McLaughlin, has written a detailed, song by song, guide to McLaughlin’s incredible pioneering career. The book is called Follow Your Heart: John McLaughlin, Song by Song, published by Abstract Logix. Walter kindly took time to sit down with Gibson.com to talk about the guitar master.
What led to you writing this book?
In my last book, Power, Passion and Beauty – The Story of the Legendary Mahavishnu Orchestra,
I described many of the band’s tunes in a detailed way. I continue to
receive a lot of mail from readers telling me that it was very rewarding
to listen to the individual songs as they read about them. Also, I was a
writer for Jazz.com, which used to feature reviews of
individual jazz cuts. I came to believe that focusing on one song at a
time was a very elucidating exercise. A lot of people were also asking
for a biography of John that told the story of his times with Miles
Davis, Shakti or The Guitar Trio. However, I decided I would only do
another book featuring McLaughlin if it could be something very, very
different. Then one day, I had a “eureka” moment! I realized I could do
something quite unique and provide a valuable service to thousands of
fans and musicians who admired, or even studied, McLaughlin’s music.
Thus, the idea of a listener’s guide, which looks at every McLaughlin
album and tune he ever recorded. Once the seed germinated, its growth
could not be stopped.
How high is high? I mean, you don’t write two books about somebody you don’t have a huge admiration for. At least, I don’t. He and I have become friends over the years, but frankly, that has nothing to do with me writing two books about him. I would have written them anyway because someone needed to chronicle McLaughlin’s career for posterity. As a sign of our friendship (at least from my point of view), I don’t sense any pressure from him for me to write about his music in any particular way. I am honest in this book. I don’t like every single tune McLaughlin has played. Knowing John, I think he would have less respect for me if I did.
What did you discover about McLaughlin doing this book that you didn’t know previously?
John McLaughlin likes his music. That sounds trite or obvious, I know, but I mean it in a different way. When you sit down for hundreds of hours listening deeply, as I did for this book, you discover that McLaughlin continually revisits old ideas to try and squeeze every last ounce of possibility out of them. Every great artist does that, for sure, but I think McLaughlin does it in the most unexpected ways. There was one time I was listening to music from his band The Heart of Things. I am listening and then– wait, what was that I just heard? I ran to my CD shelf and pulled out his Extrapolation album from 1969. There it was! He had plucked out a short motif from one of the songs, altered it a great deal, and placed it into the middle section on a very different tune almost 30 years later! I had listened to these tunes hundreds of times and never heard this reference before. There is much of that mining recalled in Follow Your Heart. Listening can be like being on an archeological dig – some stuff you find comes from the past, but it is new! When I asked him about it, he simply said, “I enjoy playing my music.”
You had John’s cooperation – how did that work out?
It worked out fine! I did not tell him about the book until just before I interviewed him for it. The book was 95 percent done at that point. I waited because I didn’t want his answers to influence how I wrote about his performances or compositions. I visualize music. To me, music has a plot, like a movie does. It turns out that the themes I see aren’t always what McLaughlin may have had in mind, but I think my feelings, or any listener’s visceral impressions, are just as valid as the artist’s intent. You make of art what you make of art.
Who do you think the book is aimed at?
I know who Follow Your Heart is for – it is for any fan or musician interested in getting into the heart of a great artist. I purposely wrote the book so that it would appeal to the everyday fan and serious musician alike. You could read it for enjoyment or you could use it as a reference book. The book provides inspiration for both fans and musicians, in the form of John McLaughlin’s own words, having more to do with life than music. I am also very grateful that Chick Corea wrote such a heartfelt foreword. Many fans will purchase the printed version of the book for its pictures alone. There are scores of historic images from McLaughlin’s career that have never been published. Fans of Gibson guitars will be treated to several compelling pictures of John wielding one of his various Gibson axes.
Is McLaughlin a genius?
Of that, there is no doubt.You just have to spend some quality time with him to know. However, his type of genius is different from what most people would think of. It is a down-to-earth genius and not just pertaining to music. You could mention virtually any topic and McLaughlin will expound upon it in a way specifically meant for you. He may even pontificate. [Laughs] Having knowledge learned from books or experience does not a genius make. McLaughlin looks deeper into the knowledge to question its origins and consequences. I was lucky enough to be present for a first meeting between the artist Peter Max and John. Peter is also an astronomer. He brought up the topic of the vastness of the universe in some specific way. I was incredulous as McLaughlin exchanged detailed knowledge and understanding with the painter on everything from the number of the suns to the question of how the universe relates to the smallest cells in the human body. You will very much see this side of McLaughlin in the book.
How would you assess his influence on popular music?
I would say it is huge, but it is the kind of influence that 99% of the people benefiting from it have no clue where it came from.There are very few guitar players around, in any genre or in any country, that don’t owe something to McLaughlin’s technique, approach, or even his involvement in the evolution of guitar design. It goes beyond the guitar, however. Follow Your Heart also delves greatly into McLaughlin the composer. In the book, I list all of the artists who have covered McLaughlin’s compositions. They are not all guitarists and they don’t all play jazz or fusion music. A Google search will turn up an impressive list of mainstream artists who list McLaughlin as an important influence on them.
How would you assess the impact of the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the big picture?
I guess the easy answer would be to tell people to read my book about the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Power, Passion and Beauty. I spent 339 pages explaining it. In fact, that is what I am going to say. Please read the book.
Is there a new generation out there ready to discover McLaughlin?
That is an ongoing phenomenon. I just had the honor of emceeing the wonderful Abstact Logix New Universe Music Festival at which McLaughlin was the featured performer, among a slew of some of the world’s greatest musicians such as Lenny White, Jimmy Herring, Gary Husband, Zakir Hussain, Wayne Krantz and many others. A lot of the fans there were familiar with my books and stopped to chat with me about McLaughlin’s music. I would say the youngest was about 18. If they allowed minors into that show, I would have met even younger fans. Come to think of it, I remember a few years back at a book signing at The Moog Fest in New York City, a young guitarist from The School Of Rock came up to me and bought the Mahavishnu book. He was 10. Now, that’s a boy who was following his heart.
The Abstract Logix Interview:
Over the summer of 2010, Kolosky presented a sneak peek of the new book during a presentation he was invited to give by The Cordoba Guitar Festival in Cordoba, Spain.
Recently, Abstract Logix interviewed Kolosky to find out why he decided to write about John McLaughlin again and why he chose such a unique format to do so.
Abstract Logix: Before we get to the actual book’s contents, you must have been thrilled that Chick Corea agreed to write the foreword.
Walter Kolosky: More than I can say. His manager Bill Rooney was most helpful in getting this done. Chick is the busiest man in jazz. For him to find the time to write something for me was a dream come true. At the same time, I was quite confident that Chick’s deep admiration of John would play in my favor. I am very thankful Chick proved me right!
Abstract Logix: Where did the idea to write about 298 of John McLaughlin’s songs from 1969 to 2010 come from?
Walter Kolosky: I was driven to write this book mostly by fans that convinced me there was a real need to chronicle McLaughlin’s career above and beyond Mahavishnu and put it in one place for purposes of enjoyment, history and study. Truthfully, I didn’t need much nudging. After all, we are really talking about one of the most important musicians on the planet today. However, I decided that if I were to write such a book, I had to take a totally unique approach.
My last book, Power, Passion and Beauty: The Story of the Legendary Mahavishnu Orchestra came out about four years ago, but I still receive a lot of mail from fans who tell me one of their favorite things to do is to listen to a particular Mahavishnu Orchestra cut while they read about that song in the book. The idea also stems from my experience writing for Jazz.com. Reviews on that site were of individual tunes and not whole albums. This made you listen to each song much more deeply. I heard many new things by doing that. I thought John McLaughlin fans and others would be interested in doing the same thing. I’ll never forget the thrill of discovering McLaughlin’s music. It was literally life-changing. It was an experience I thought I could never relive. I was wrong. Going back and listening to every single minute of music again in such a focused way was very profound. It didn’t matter I had already heard “Birds of Fire” about 1,000 times. I still discovered things. There were true revelations. I would find myself listening to The Heart Of Things’ albums and pausing the CD player to run to the bookshelf and grab a McLaughlin album from 1970 to discover the genesis of a motif or melody. It was fascinating.
Abstract Logix: Who is the audience for Follow Your Heart?
Walter Kolosky: It is a listener’s guide and is best enjoyed while listening to the music. So, first and foremost, it was written with the listener in mind, whether that be the everyday fan, musician or student. The more McLaughlin music you have, the more you will get from this book. If you don’t have all the music, I hope Follow Your Heart makes you get some more. Of course, I am very interested in reaching people who are not yet fans of McLaughlin’s work as well. The book is more than just a listener’s guide. It can be read straight through as a history of jazz, rock, fusion and world music. It is also a quick reference guide and, very importantly, it is a source of inspiration as well. John McLaughlin kindly agreed to comment on many songs. He very much agreed with my approach, which was to shy away from dry analysis and, instead, focus more on the pure act of listening. It is really about cause and effect. That’s why he plays. He wants to make people happy or to move them in some way. Readers will not only learn about the music in this book, they will learn about the man behind it as well.
Abstract Logix: Follow Your Heart is not simply a collection of reviews. Each album and song seams to be approached in a different manner. Some tunes, for instance the Mahavishnu and Shakti stuff, can be quite detailed when it comes to describing song structure. There are other songs on which the structure is not touched upon.
Walter Kolosky: This is quite on purpose. Form and structure are emphasized when I think it is important. They are not emphasized when I believe they are not so important. This is all very subjective. Not everyone will agree with me about everything and I probably made a mistake or two in counting time or structural analysis that someone will point out to me. This is music that sometimes can quite easily fool you. But, I hope readers will get a fuller understanding of McLaughlin’s musical portfolio that allows them to enjoy it in a way maybe they never thought about before. I simply let the music lead me.
Abstract Logix: As you said earlier, the book is designed so that regular fans and musicians can both enjoy it. How did you go about trying to obtain that equilibrium?
Walter Kolosky: I am not a musician. I can play guitar just good enough to impress myself in my own house. However, I have a very good ear and know just enough about structure to be dangerous. I used a simple formula to make this book accessible. With the help of some fine musicologists, who have studied McLaughlin’s music deeply for many years, I acted as any good news reporter would. I asked them specific questions about music structure in McLaughlin’s work that I had questions about. In the end, if I was able to grasp what they were talking about, and write about it in an understandable way, it may appear in the book. If I couldn’t – it does not. By following that rule, I could represent the everyday fan and the serious musician at the same time. For the uber-serious, I provide resources in the book for deep study and analysis of McLaughlin’s music.
I am most grateful to the musicologists who helped me – Marco Anderson, John Curtin, Marc Rossi, Nat Janoff and Massimo Morrone. My senior editors, Rod Sibley and Ted McCallion, were also very knowledgeable.
Abstract Logix: What was the hardest part in writing about 298 songs?
Walter Kolosky: It is to try and not repeat yourself. I mean, how many different ways can you say John McLaughlin is a great composer and guitar player, or that two musicians may play in unison? It is very difficult. It forces you to approach each album and song from a different place. I think readers will be appreciative that I had to do that. Each album and song is its own story.
Abstract Logix: I must say that Follow Your Heart has some of the most remarkable pictures of John McLaughlin’s career I have ever seen.
Walter Kolosky: Thank you for bringing that up. I spent months searching the world for images of John McLaughlin that have never been seen before. I contacted everybody I could think of. In many cases, we had to scan photos from private collections that were over three decades old and make them as presentable as possible. I am so thankful to each and every photographer whose work appears in the book. I have confidence that my written words are good enough to support interest in this book, but I believe many fans will want to own Follow Your Heart for the photos alone.
Abstract Logix: That’s a beautiful cover too.
Walter Kolosky: Thank you. Joe DeRenzo, its designer, and I wanted it to be clean and pure. That is why it is mostly white. Although I associate many colors with John McLaughlin’s music, white is the most dominant in my mind. The pictures on the cover represent John McLaughlin in transition. And of course, the title Follow Your Heart, which came from McLaughlin’s composition of the same name, is the core of McLaughlin’s life and music. For that matter, it should be the driving force for us all.