The easy take on After The Rain is that it's a continuation of John
McLaughlin's 1993 return to high-powered jazz with the
guitar-organ-drums format. True, but this studio recording actually
improves on last year's Tokyo Live album by having the great Elvin
Jones taking over for funky strongman Dennis Chambers on the traps and
by having inspiring investigations of the Coltrane canon replace merely
good playing on a program dominated by McLaughlin compositions. In a
fashion, the guitarist's now following through in a big way on what he
started with the Trane tribute song "Do You Hear The Voices You Left
Behind?" on his 1978 album Johnny McLaughlin: Electric Guitarist.
McLaughlin plays with a dazzling sense of time and resourcefulness,
ordering the notes just so in testimony to the acuity of his musical
reasoning. When the tempos pick up, this world-class guitarist
easefully crams bristling phrases into small spaces a la Trane, yet
he's equally adept at mounting creative thoughts on passages that take
their time unfolding. On Trane numbers "Crescent," "Naima" and "After
The Rain," especially but not exclusively, his improvisations seem to
ride on a strong spiritual bond with the past saxophone master. Even on
the selections from outside the Trane realm, including Carla Bley's
"Sing Me Softly Of The Blues" and his own "Encuentros," there's a
certain piety to his playing, measured and unobtrusive, that appears to
emanate from deep inside.
DeFrancesco, despite being more in his element playing Bobby Timmons
and Irving Berlin than sizing up Coltrane, handles himself stirringly
in many B-3 drones and discourses. Elvin Jones is Elvin Jones is Elvin
Jones: His superb playing is shaped by firsthand experience with Trane
and his music, of course, and he's an emphatic presence all over his
kit, always creative to the highest degree and an inspiration to his
two colleagues on the session.
Let the friendly arguments begin on whether or not After The Rain
stands as the next pinnacle of McLaughlin's artistry after his
brilliant album Extrapolation back in '69.