The Inner Mounting Flame (with John McLaughlin)

When The Mahavishnu Orchestra\'s debut album appeared in 1971, jazz-rock fusion was still a revolutionary idea. U.K. guitar demon John McLaughlin and U.S. drummer Billy Cobham took the ideas they\'d absorbed (and helped initiate) working on the Big Bang of fusion, Miles Davis\' *Bitches Brew*; they expanded them into a more composition-oriented (but band-based) format. They were helped in this endeavor by jazz bassist Rick Laird, violinist Jerry Goodman, and burgeoning keyboard phenom Jan Hammer. While *The Inner Mounting Flame* is certainly a showcase for McLaughlin (whose fiery outbursts on the opening \"Meeting of the Spirits\" and \"The Noonward Race\" evoke a jazzier Jimi Hendrix), his sparring partners provide plenty of the frisson that makes this album a milestone. Cobham\'s fervid polyrhythms on \"Vital Transformation,\" Goodman\'s scorching solo on \"Awakening,\" and Hammer\'s visceral electric piano runs on the aforementioned opener all help stir the pot to a blissful boil.