John McLaughlin Mahavishnu
Konzerthaus
Vienna Austria, 1985-02-10
original broadcast in 1985-03-00
re-broadcast (this share) 2025-11-07


John McLaughlin-electric (synclavier) guitar
Mitchell Forman-keyboards
Bill Evans-saxophones
Jonas Hellborg-electric bass
Danny Gottlieb-drums, loops

source/lineage-shared folder of Oe1 Austria 1 Jazz Night broadcast capture (unknown equipment)> foobar > Audacity> TLH > DIME

1. Clarendon Hills 10:15
2. Nostalgia 17:54
3. East Side/West Side 14:41
4. John speaks 1:12
5. Blues for L.W / Hellborg solo 10:56
6. Living in the Crest of a Wave 9:20
7. Jozy 7:27
8. JM speaks again 0:46
9. Pacific Express 6:53
10. Broadcast intro (in German) 0:36
11. Broadcast break 1 (in German) 1:28
12. Broadcast break 2 (in German) 0:54
13. Broadcast outro (in German) 0:22

Here's something that's "old, but new" via a 40 year old performance in Vienna from the 1980's Mahavishnu. Old refers to more than the date of the show. A version of this was shared by ricola in 2007, and presumably that might've come from an earlier transmission (possibly the original one in 03/85). New refers to the fact that this was re-transmitted just a few nights ago on Austria 1 Jazz Night. Thanks to some generous European based DIME'rs, this new run got to me, and now here it is. Presumably, this Vienna performance is back now for its first time since the ricola share.
Other than conversion in foobar, and tracking in Audacity the sound files haven't been changed from this recent broadcast. You'll see that the tracking was done in such a way that the performance constitutes tracks 1-9. A generic start to the broadcast that included a commercial has been deleted, and the parts of the broadcast with spoken word relating to the performance have been retained, but are now tracked in after the music ends. Broadcast break 1 had come between Nostalgia and Clarendon Hills, and the 2nd break came between Crest and Jozy. These are all in German, so any of our bilingual German DIME's might enlighten us as to what's being said through a comment below.
I never got a copy of ricola's share, so I'm unsure if the musical program here is the same as what had been contained in that. I did see via the dimebot archive and etree listing for this show, that many tracks were unnamed, and that future Mahavishnu keyboardist Jim Beard was credited rather than Mitch Forman, who's actually playing this date. John's 2nd stage announcement after Jozy alludes to Jozy being preceded by a duet with Bill Evans on Blue and Green followed by the Mitch Forman composition Just Ideas. Neither of them was part of this new transmission of the show, so if anyone has those tracks, please consider sharing them via a mini share of those tracks.
Regarding this "Mahavishnu". John's record deal with Warner's in the early 80's led to him hatching this project after a few years of acoustic nylon string playing with the Translators band. At least a couple of shows were played with a trio of John, Billy Cobham, and Jonas Hellborg, and eventually that led to a recording. The album included Cobham, but his photo wasn't on the sleeve along with the other 4 players here in Vienna. Oddly enough, Danny Gottlieb did the post recording live shows, and Billy reportedly was a bit in the dark about how this all happened. That WB Mahavishnu album featured John on a "synclavier" guitar, which is played in this show. Guitar synthesis on that level was something that had just come along and it managed to accurately track what he was playing live, which earlier guitar synths couldn't do. Pat Metheny also began using, and still uses, something like this today, and other players like Allan Holdsworth and Frank Zappa adopted another unit called a Synthaxe around this time for the same purpose. This is mentioned because John's many solos in this show will not sound like a standard electric guitar. He went back to that on the Adventures in Radioland follow-up to the WB Mahavishnu album, and the touring under this band name which promoted that release.

A brief blurb translated from the Oe1 website regarding this new transmission follows:

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"Austria 1 Jazz Night 11/7
A gem from the ORF archives: Guitar icon John McLaughlin performed in the Great Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus on February 10, 1985. He was joined by Bill Evans (saxophone), Mitchel Forman (keyboards), Jonas Hellborg (electric bass), and Danny Gottlieb (drums).

The band combined breathtaking virtuosity with chamber music precision, delivering dense grooves, edgy harmonies, and expansive improvisations. This performance is a historical document from McLaughlin's 1980s period, a time when the spirit of his early fusion band, Mahavishnu Orchestra, was rekindled and merged with the then-popular high-speed fusion music."