John McLaughlin album Black Light confirmed for an autumn release

There’s a new album coming later this year from John McLaughlin. The guitar great announced the news on Twitter earlier today

Titled Black Light it includes a tribute to Paco De Lucía who died in 2014 and there’s a selection from that tribute, ‘El Hombre Que Sabía,’ translated as “the man who knew” featured in the video clip he links to.

In the early 1980s McLaughlin famously appeared on the Friday Night in San Francisco album with the great Spaniard and Al Di Meola on what has become widely seen as one of the seminal live acoustic jazz guitar albums of the last 40 years.

McLaughlin says a few brief words in the video before introducing a short slice of the tribute.

Black Light, to be released on the fusion label Abstract Logix, has eight original compositions written by the guitarist, and once again features his band the 4th Dimension with Gary Husband on keyboards and drums, Etienne Mbappe on electric bass and Ranjit Barot on drums.

The new album will arrive just over a year and a half after the release of live album The Boston Record recorded in 2013 at the performance centre of the global home of jazz education Berklee featuring the same band who picked up where they left off on 2012’s Now Here This. Last year also saw the publication of the book Bathed in Lightning: John McLaughlin, the 60s and the Emerald Beyond written by Colin Harper which drew on new interview material and charted McLaughlin’s career dating back to his early days as a young player. Stephen Graham