John McLaughlin

𝙅𝙤𝙝𝙣 𝙈𝙘𝙇𝙖𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙡𝙞𝙣’𝙨 “𝘿𝙚𝙫𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣” 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙬𝙨 𝙝𝙞𝙢 𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙧𝙖𝙬, 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙩-𝙙𝙧𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙥𝙨𝙮𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙘 — 𝙖 𝙜𝙪𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙛𝙚𝙡𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙚𝙙, 𝙎𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙧𝙝𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙢.

Recorded with Larry Young, Billy Rich and Buddy Miles, the album merges spiritual jazz overtones with molten rock attitude: organ haze, heavy drums, distorted guitar arcs and a sense of relentless forward motion. It’s McLaughlin before Mahavishnu — rougher, dirtier and charged with proto-fusion electricity.

A cult cornerstone in his catalogue, “Devotion” remains a fierce, atmospheric outlier: a smoky, high-intensity crossroads where psychedelic rock, free jazz and cosmic groove strike the same spark.