Pianist and percussionist Gary Husband is one of the world's most gifted musicians. It would be more accurate to say that he is not merely supremely talented but also a true virtuoso of both drums and keyboards. He played on John McLaughlin's Industrial Zen, released in 2006 and with the guitarist's 4th Dimension since its 2010 debut recording, To The One, where he featured on keyboards. But as those lucky enough to have caught McLaughlin in concert will know, Husband occasionally switches to drums, displaying equal dexterity.
Husband has played with some of the most legendary musicians in fusion, including the late Jack Bruce and Allan Holdsworth, for whom Husband released an album of music dedicated to the guitarist, The Things I See: Interpretations Of The Music Of Allan Holdsworth (Art Of Life, 2001). A Meeting Of Spirits is a paean to McLaughlin and was recorded in London in November 2005, well over a decade ago.
On the opening to "Are You The One?" Husband conflates the melody of "You Know, You Know" from The Inner Mounting Flame with the semi-spoken lyric of "Are You The One? Are You The One?" which appeared on Electric Guitarist. Following the call and response multi-tracked vocal (echoing McLaughlin and Jack Bruce), the piece settles down to recall the funky rhythm of the original. The familiar strains of "The Dance Of Maya" again remind the listener of the paradigmatic-shifting significance of the The Inner Mounting Flame, surely McLaughlin's magnum opus.
"Celestial Terrestrial Commuters" from Birds Of Fire takes that track's memorable opening melody and necessarily transforms it from the frenetic Mahavishnu Orchestra version to an attractively lyrical one. Where Husband obviously can't reproduce Billy Cobham's incendiary drumming he makes do with what he refers to, rather aeronautically, as "in-piano percussion," but still, it works.
The final four tracks "Alap"; "Lotus Feet (Reprise)"; "Earth Bound Hearts" and "Development And Closing" are partitioned into a segment entitled "Epilogue.""Lotus Feet" appeared on Shakti's eponymous debut album released in 1976. Husband's own "Lotus Feet Reflections" was inspired by McLaughlin's original composition from that Shakti album. "Alap" and "Development And Closing" are also Husband original compositions whereas "Earth Bound Hearts" is taken from Where Fortune Smiles.
A Meeting Of Spirits succeeds as an interpretational and at times, impressionistic representation of the music of McLaughlin, the undeniable maestro of jazz. It also serves as a timely reminder of the massive contribution that McLaughlin, now at the venerable age of 75 (although looking a lot younger), has made to music, whilst all the while Husband effortlessly exudes a prodigious talent of his own. - Roger Farbey
Originally released in 2006, shortly before he joined John McLaughlin’s 4th Dimension Band, this second of Gary Husband’s two interpretive solo piano albums finds him reimagining McLaughlin’s familiar themes from his Mahavishnu Orchestra oeuvre and other sources with passion and authority. Full of invention and creative fire, A Meeting Of Spirits is an intimate homage to the iconic guitarist, showing a profound understanding of the music.
Flaunting uncommon dexterity at the keyboard, Husband not only tackles the challenging McLaughlin heads—full of knotty twists, angular lines and radical intervallic leaps—he also takes liberties in transforming them with an arranger’s touch. The irregular blues “The Dance Of Maya” has him playing two-fisted barrelhouse piano, while the kinetic “Celestial Terrestrial Commuters” has the drummer-pianist accompanying himself by slapping the piano to percussive effect. The gentle “Lotus Feet” is given a luminous, rhapsodic interpretation, and the dense and tumultuous “Vision Is A Naked Sword” is given a sparse, understated touch.
Husband’s stirring and captivating interpretations of McLaughlin’s intense music are inspired and full of surprises. - Bill Milkowski
Few artists have been better positioned to appreciate the vision of John McLaughlin. A fan since his teen years, Husband has been McLaughlin’s keys man (and second drummer!) through Industrial Zen to the 4th Dimension, a span of over a decade. So this gorgeous evocation of McLaughlin’s music, all on acoustic piano, is a real view from the inside. The oddity, however, is that this first Husband outing on Edition is actually a re-run of an album that’s only, criminally, had a US release. Husband’s piano work, so articulate, so spare, so straight to the heart is ridiculously rare, so any opportunity to hear Husband at the keys has got to be welcome, even on a 12-year-old release. Hopefully Edition can see this as the start of a rich relationship. Husband’s approach, like McLaughlin’s, is eclectic: he can be meditative with long glistening runs as on ‘Spirits Opening’, he can be rambunctious, slapping and rattling the piano’s body on a broadly grinning ‘Celestial Terrestrial Commuters’ or downright mysterious, as on the fleeting excerpt, ‘Jazz Jungle’. Most of the cuts are tight and over half the 13 songs come in under two minutes: the epic contrast though is ‘Are You The One’, replete with piano percussion and sampled vox. - Andy Robson
Tracks
01. Spirits Opening (J. McLaughlin)
02. A Meeting Of Spirits (G. Husband)
03. It's Funny (J. McLaughlin)
04. Lotus Feet Reflections (G. Husband)
05. Celestial Terrestrial Commuters (J. McLaughlin)
06. Lotus Feet (Reprise) (J. McLaughlin)
07. Earth Bound Hearts (J. McLaughlin)
08. Development and Closing (G. Husband)
09. Jazz Jungle (Excerpt) (J. McLaughlin)
10. Maya Prologue (G. Husband)
11. The Dance Of Maya (J. McLaughlin)
12. Alap (G. Husband)
13. Are You The One? (J. McLaughlin)
14. Vision Is A Naked Sword
15. Joyful
16. Song For My Mother
GARY HUSBAND grand piano, 'in-piano percussion', voice, bell
Recorded November 9-10, 2005 at NuCool Studio, London
Alternity Records – ATY 0601