McLAUGHLIN STEPS INTO A NEW ARENA

As one of the jazz world’s most versatile guitarists, John McLaughlin has worn many coats--as an Eastern-influenced solo player, as a member of a flamenco-tinged acoustic trio with fellow hot pickers Paco DeLucia and Al DiMeola and as leader of the explosive jazz-rock fusion big band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and the jazz-Indian group, Shakti.

For his latest venture, however, the amiable ex-Briton is pondering whether to wear any coat at all. The setting this time is a bit novel for him: concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Tonight and Friday, McLaughlin will be soloist in the premiere of his Guitar Concerto.

“What does one wear at such a thing?” he asks in a gentle voice that bears only a hint of his British roots (he was born in Yorkshire 43 years ago). “This is all so different for me. I’m really going out of my world.”

Considering his eclectic tastes, that is going some distance.

According to McLaughlin, the concerto was the idea of Ernest Fleischmann, the Philharmonic’s executive director: “He heard me when I played at Hollywood Bowl in August, 1982, with Katia and Marielle (Labeque, who will also appear at the Pavilion concerts this week). He asked me to be soloist sometime in Rodrigo’s Concerto (‘Concierto de Aranjuez’). I was flattered, but I told him, ‘I’m a picker.’ He didn’t bat an eye. He still wanted me to do something with the orchestra--and that was encouraging.

“I told him, ‘If I do anything, I’ll write something.’ And that was fine with him.”

Soon after, the guitarist says, he realized what he had got into. “I had never thought of writing a concerto. It was terrifying. I put it off many times. Whenever I was in town during the next year, Ernest asked me about it. Finally, I was backed to the wall. Procrastination could save me no longer.” In mid-1983, the task of composing was begun.

And what a task it was: “I spent a lot of time on the beach near my home in Monte Carlo, thinking, drifting,” McLaughlin recalls. “In fact, I call the piece ‘The Mediterranean,’ since I spent so much time by it.”

The work is in standard construction--two fast movements surround a thoughtful Lento (“I was just following traditions in composing,” McLaughlin notes respectfully). Influences?

“There’s an unmistakeable Iberian quality. I’m very fond of (Manuel de) Falla. And I’ve been a fan of flamenco since I was 13.” Eight years of touring with flamenco guitarist Paco DeLucia left their mark, too, he adds. And what of the two musical loves of his life, jazz and Indian? “The third movement comes closest to jazz, though it’s more contemporary. There’s tremendous harmonic movement, but the rhythms? That’s another story: They are directly inspired by Indian beats.”

The orchestra, he points out, is more than a mere accompanist to the virtuosic musician’s fretboard pyrotechnics (his gut-string guitar will be discreetly amplified). “I want the players to be involved,” McLaughlin says. “I want them to kick, to feel free, to cut loose.”

“This is such an experiment for me. We have no idea if it will work. I finished my work only six weeks ago. All along, my friend Michael Gibbs was working on the orchestration, but the conductor (Jan Latham-Koenig) got his score for the last two movements only today (Thursday), so I have thus far never actually heard the finished concerto.

“But I feel good (about writing for orchestra), now that I’ve gotten my feet wet.”

Failure--or the possibility of it--seems to faze McLaughlin nary a bit. “Not to be in a vulnerable situation is a mistake. Being there enriches me. Even if the concert is a disaster, had I not done this, I would have lived with regrets.”