John McLaughlin
& Jimmy Herring
The Meeting of the Spirits

Sunday, November 12, 2017 | 7:30 pm

DPAC (Durham Performing Arts Center)

Single tickets to John McLaughlin & Jimmy Herring, and Duke Performances 2017/18 season ticket packages — including the Pick-Four or More — are now on sale. Patrons who buy a Pick-Four package will be provided with a 25% discount code via e-mail from the Duke University Box Office that can be applied at checkout for John McLaughlin & Jimmy Herring.

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At the dawn of the 1970s, British guitarist John McLaughlin, fresh from recording Miles Davis’ seminal Bitches Brew, reinvented the possibilities of his electrified instrument. With his Mahavishnu Orchestra, he unveiled an ecstatic, spiritual hybrid of rock and jazz, epitomized by the band’s visionary debut, The Inner Mounting Flame. On a series of vital records, McLaughlin declared that the most fertile territory for future improvisation was bold, high-volume fusion, a perfect extension of his work with Davis. Though he disbanded the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the late ’70s and often reinvented himself in subsequent decades, his exploratory approach remained.

For the Meeting of the Spirits tour, McLaughlin’s first comprehensive U.S. trek in nearly a decade, he revisits slices of Mahavishnu’s catalogue for the first time in forty years. He does so in esteemed company. Widespread Panic guitarist and jam-band icon Jimmy Herring, an avowed McLaughlin acolyte, opens with his five-piece band, the Invisible Whip. They turn over the stage to McLaughlin’s astounding the 4th Dimension for a second set. The 4th Dimension and the Invisible Whip then rendezvous for a third and final set to dig through the classic archives of the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

“A breakneck stylist, McLaughlin was peerless, mixing psychedelic rock, R&B, gypsy jazz, flamenco, and Indian raga techniques.”