John McLaughlin and Jimmy Herring Hail the Glories of Improvisation

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On the surface, guitarists John McLaughlin and Jimmy Herring couldn’t be more different.

McLaughlin, who is British by birth, has lived for decades in Monaco, and has a distinctly European air about him. Herring—who is based in Atlanta, Georgia—is as American as baseball, apple pie, and RCA 7025/12AX7A preamp tubes, and he rarely plays outside of the United States.

“John gives me a tough time for not having a fly rig and playing all over the world,” says Herring, “but I just wouldn’t be able to rent the stuff I need in most countries.”

And that’s another point of departure—their approach to gear. Although 20 years Herring’s senior, McLaughlin takes a decidedly new-school strategy at times. For example, during the recording of his latest album, Live @ Ronnie Scott’s [Abstract Logix], McLaughlin performed amp-less, running his guitar direct into the P.A. system.

“If I tried to go direct like that,” says Herring, “I’d simply fall apart.”

There’s also no denying the guitarists forged careers in different genres. McLaughlin elevated the role of guitar in jazz, fusion, and world music through his influential tenures with Miles Davis, Tony Williams, and, of course, Mahavishnu Orchestra. Herring, on the other hand, expanded the psychedelic rock, southern rock, and jam-band genres via his transcendent contributions to the music of Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit, Phil Lesh, the Dead, the Allman Brothers Band, Jazz Is Dead, and Widespread Panic.

But in their hearts, souls, and musical trajectories, McLaughlin and Herring are both on a shared, lifelong mission to create improvised music that transcends the guitar—eternally trying to tap into an energy a million times more powerful than themselves, and have it pour out of