John McLaughlin was born in England in 1942 and is famous as a guitarist, bandleader and composer. His music has over the many years included genres including jazz and rock along with an interest in Indian classical music.

In 2010 the guitarist Jeff Beck called John the best guitarist alive and Indian table maestro Zakir Hussain gave him the title of one of the greatest and most important of musicians of our time. In 2003 he was ranked 49th in Rolling Stone magazine in 2003 in the list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all times.

McLaughlin has worked alongside several key British groups during the early sixties before moving to the USA and working with the Tony Williams group and Miles Davis. He headed the electric band the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the 70s performing a very complex style of music which was a mixture of jazz and rock with Indian influences. McLaughlin has been cited as one of the major influences for numerous 70s and 80s guitarists and even today current players still regard him as being highly influential, having changed the evolution of guitar throughout his many years of playing.

It is a pleasure to publish his replies to our 2 questions.

Editorial | Image Courtesy Of John McLaughlin