Mahavishnu Orchestra- Dance of Maya

I knew I’d post odd time signature stuff at some point, and what better place to start than the Mahavishnu Orchestra… This performance is crazy, it seems like all of the musicians were at their peak at this time, and has a lot of 60s-70s era influence on it.  John Mclaughlin is using an iconic doubleneck guitar with a phaser like effect, and Billy Cobham is tearing through this piece with explosive drum fills throughout.  I always liked how this piece starts with a chordal 10/8 intro then goes into the 20/8 blues-rock riff.  I found it interesting the violin played this riff at like 2:38, even though its a typical guitar riff.  The musicians all keep time perfectly even when Billy Cobham isn’t playing during the solos, which is very impressive.  When Cobham comes in at 4:25, the entire dynamic is shifted and tension is built, until 4:43 when he returns to his normal playing.  Jan Hammer also has a killer tone out of his keyboard, and I love how this tune overlays the intro 10/8 over the 20/8 section at 11:10, so a lot of different metrical subdivisions happen at once, but overall line up together.  The only thing I didn’t like was Mclaughlin revealing the time signature at the beginning of the performance as I find a lot of fun in listening to odd-time music by figuring it out myself.