McLaughlin Brings Searing Electric Guitar to Town

Seven months ago, John McLaughlin didn’t know whether he’d ever play guitar again. A day before leaving on tour, he caught the tip of his left index finger in the sliding track under a television set and nearly severed it.

“It was hanging by a piece of skin,” he recalled by phone from Denver, where he opened a U.S. tour Tuesday night. McLaughlin’s finger was successfully sewn back together, and he brings the rehabilitated digit to the Bacchanal for a show tonight at 8:30.

McLaughlin’s searing electric guitar first exploded onto the music scene during the late ‘60s, when he played on trumpeter Miles Davis’ “In a Silent Way” and “Bitches Brew” albums, seminal experiments in electric jazz/rock.

By the early ‘70s, he had formed the Mahavishnu Orchestra, an even more direct vehicle for his electric guitar. While he pushed the limits of fusion, he also began exploring Indian influences, and led the Indian-based Shakti during the middle and late ‘70s.

McLaughlin, 48, has a long history of assembling esoteric groups of musicians, and his current trio is no exception, including Indian percussionist Trilok Gurti and African-German bassist Kai Eckhardt Karpeh.

He was one of the first guitarists to use synthesizers, and he remains fascinated by technology.

“I’ve always been an experimenter in the forms and possibilities of the guitar,” McLaughlin said. “The first guitar synthesizer I tried was a mammoth unit. It was impossible to control.” Most guitar synthesizers are meant for electric guitars, but McLaughlin’s newest is compatible with the custom-built acoustic guitar he favors these days.

“What’s really wonderful is it’s very small and extremely efficient. I can keep the beautiful acoustic guitar sound, but bring in different orchestral textures at any moment.”

McLaughlin, who hadn’t released an album in more than three years, came out with two critically acclaimed projects this year.

One is a recording of his classical “Mediterranean Concerto,” featuring McLaughlin with the London Symphony Orchestra. The other is a live recording of his trio made last year at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

McLaughlin plans to play material from the trio album plus new music. Expect plenty of spontaneity. One cut on the album runs 18 minutes.

Sharing the bill with McLaughlin is guitarist Steve Morse, formerly of the Dixie Dregs and Kansas, whose latest solo project is titled “High Tension Wires.”

Pianist Marcus Roberts, 27, is among a new breed of jazz musicians who lean heavily on jazz’s rich heritage instead of ignoring it.

Roberts, who plays at Elario’s nightly through Sunday, chooses traditional reference points for his improvisations. His new album, “Deep in the Shed,” for example, consists of six original blues tunes.

“The blues is central to being a jazz musician,” Roberts said. “You have to be able to play blues. I wrote six (tunes), which all have different characteristics and moods.”

With a key change in each tune, Roberts noted, he was able to cover all 12 key signatures.

Roberts came to prominence with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’ band. Like Marsalis, he studies the music of the masters, much of it available now on CDs. He’s listened closely to John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Jelly Roll Morton, and has lately been spellbound by the playing of clarinet and soprano sax legend Sidney Bechet, whose musical history began during jazz’s formative years early this century.

“He swings incredibly hard,” Roberts said. “He has incredible soul and a blues feeling. He sounds like Louis Armstrong on a soprano.” (Bechet died in 1959).

Roberts’ next album, a tribute to pianists Morton, Monk and Ellington, has already been recorded and is due in January.

Besides critical success, Roberts is enjoying impressive commercial prosperity for a young, acoustic jazz musician. His last album, “The Truth is Spoken Here,” sold more than 60,000 copies, and the new one is in the same league, he said.

At Elario’s, Roberts is playing with the same four musicians he used on the blues album. He said he plans to mix material from his three solo albums with standards and a few of Marsalis’ tunes.

RIFFS: As he did last year, saxophonist Kenny G sold out six shows over three nights at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, tonight through Sunday. This summer, he regularly packed giant arenas across the country, so his return engagement at 1,000-seat Humphrey’s is something of a coup for San Diego. Those who don’t have tickets may find a partial substitute in a new album, “Kenny G Live.” . . .

Local band Checkfield will make its live concert debut at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay, sharing the bill with David Lanz. . . .

Jazz guitarist Bill Frisell makes his first San Diego appearance next Tuesday night at Elario’s. Frisell has worked with jazz and rock artists including Paul Motian, Power Tools, Marianne Faithful, Jan Garbarek, Vernon Reid and Julius Hemphill. His influences range from jazzmen Wes Montgomery and Jim Hall, with whom he studied, to Jimi Hendrix. . . .

South Market Street plays the Jazz Live concert at 8 p.m. Tuesdasy at the San Diego City College Theater on C Street downtown. . . .

Jazz pianist Mike Wofford is one of Ella Fitzgerald’s favorites. He backed her Monday night at El Camino College in Costa Mesa, possibly her last live performance this year. Wofford plays Giorgio’s Place in Long Beach on Oct. 19, 20, 26 and 27. . . .

Saxophonist Hollis Gentry plays the Catamaran’s regular “Jazz Trax” night next Wednesday. . . .

Guitarist Peter Sprague and vocalist Kevyn Lettau team up Friday night at 8 at Words & Music bookstore in Hillcrest.