During the small hours one night in Spring 1969, John McLaughlin found himself jamming with Jimi Hendrix. But what should have gone down as a peak life moment turned into a “disaster” because the jazz guitar great had the wrong guitar – and no money to do anything about it.
The jam took place at the Record Plant on March 25, 1969. The New York studio, which had opened up two years prior, had been used by Hendrix to record portions of his third album with the Experience, Electric Ladyland. That night, it played host to quite the party.
“I walked into the studio with [Hendrix drummer] Mitch Mitchell, I knew him from the '60s with Georgie Fame, and it was loud,” McLaughlin tells Ultimate Guitar.
“Jimi was in a process of changing the Experience to Band of Gypsys. Mitch had come to see us because I was playing at the Village Vanguard with Tony Williams at that time, with Larry Young on Hammond organ.
“We were in the studio. Buddy Miles was already playing some boogaloo. He was unbelievable. And Jimi was there. But there were quite a few guitar players there. It was a big party.”
Legend has it that the jam session, which also featured Dave Holland on bass, went on from 2am to 8am. McLaughlin wasn’t well-equipped for it, he says.
“The problem is, the only guitar I had was a Gibson Hummingbird [acoustic guitar],” he explains. “I'd moved to Europe by that time, and I’d run out of money. I had to sell my really nice Gibson guitar. [The Hummingbird] was pretty cheap, and I had a DeArmond pickup over [the sound hole]. It was a bit of a disaster.”
“But, at that volume, I plugged my guitar in, and it was instant feedback. It was really hard to play. It was unfortunate. I needed a solid body guitar on that session.”
There was a silver lining to McLaughlin’s evening – he struck up a friendship with Miles, which saw him play on his second solo album, Devotion, released later that year. He’d also get to meet Hendrix at a later date, in less ear-splitting circumstances.
“He was a sweet guy. We had a chance to talk, and he was just totally unpretentious,” McLaughlin says. “But I think he knew he was causing quite a revolution on the electric guitar. He certainly affected me, and about another five million guitar players.
“He was a one-man revolution on the guitar. It was unbelievable what he was doing, with a wah-wah pedal and a Marshall amp. That was it.”
In related news, McLaughlin has recalled gifting Jeff Beck his Wired Stratocaster and the time Miles Davis stopped his band from playing to offer him some unlikely advice.
And Andy Fairweather has spoken about another late-night jam session involving Jimi Hendrix, and how it led to him guesting on a classic Hendrix cut.
