112 Quotes by John McLaughlin

Everyone can lock into the rhythm on a tune. It’s organic in nature. It connects the band as a whole and connects the band to the audience.

Music that touches the transcendental aspect of a human being is reserved for a marginal audience.

The whole point of working and practicing your whole life is so that you’re ready when that moment arrives; when the inspiration arrives, you are ready to be at the disposal of inspiration.

Spirituality is worthless if it’s not practical. Music is my work. I am a musician.

When you open box after box of old comics and they’re ALL “Archie,” you have suffered a trauma from which it is difficult to ever recover.

When Indian musicians play a raga it’s very restrictive. But, in a way these restraints are essential to liberate yourself through them, if that makes sense. I’m very much of this school of rhythm, it’s the direction I’m drawn in when I’m writing and improvising.

I find Indian music very funky. I mean it’s very soulful, with their own kind of blues. But it’s the only other school on the planet that develops improvisation to the high degree that you find in jazz music. So we have a lot of common ground.

I’m never trying to preach to anybody with my music, but I’m aware of the universal nature of the human experience and I try to reach out and connect with people in that manner.

There is really no spiritual message that I’m trying to convey with my music, it’s just a personal thing. I really believe that the more personal we get, in a way, the more universal the implications.