The guitarist Jimmy Page calls “instinctively the best”
Throughout his career, Jimmy Page has rubbed shoulders with some of the greatest guitarists of all time. As well as being hailed as one of the finest rock axemen for his work in Led Zeppelin, before starting the group, Page had already established a remarkable oeuvre in The Yardbirds and as a lauded session musician.
Due to his celebrated work in the studio during the ‘Swinging Sixties’ London scene, in the middle of the decade, Page became a part of the city’s most eminent group of guitarists alongside Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Big Jim Sullivan. However, this small set of players was only the tip of the iceberg; at the time, the English capital was home to a dazzling array of players, including the likes of The Who’s Pete Townshend, The Kinks’ Dave Davies, and a man soon to be in the newly formed Deep Purple, Ritchie Blackmore.
London was the epicentre of the country’s booming cultural revolution, attracting many players from the traditional peripheries. Whilst there is a long list, which includes both Syd Barrett and David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, one of the most eminent is Mahavishnu Orchestra leader and guitar-playing extraordinaire John McLaughlin. This is a man Jimmy Page would come to know through the close-knit nature of London’s scene. McLaughlin would also draw high praise from Page’s great friend and one-time Yardbirds bandmate, Jeff Beck.
When speaking to Reverb in 2020, Jimmy Page reflected on those heady days in the ‘Swinging Sixties’ and revealed that the London Selmer music shop was more than just that; it was a social hub, too. Here, he would first meet McLaughlin, a man he effused about, calling him “instinctively the best” player of the era.
Page said: “Well, I did meet—not at this point, he wasn’t working there at this time—but later on I was to go in there and meet John McLaughlin, who was working in there. He came down from [Doncaster], and he was living in London. He was sort of introducing himself on to the jazz scene and welcomed with open arms, as you can imagine.”
He continued: “He was instinctively the best, I could tell. I didn’t listen to a lot of jazz—or it was selective, what I listened to—but I could tell from what I knew that he was easily the best that I was gonna hear [laughs] or witness in front of me. He was the best one I was going to see, that’s for sure. He was working there, really, to practice all week, because the only day that was busy was Saturday. That’s what he said. Fantastic! This bloke knows what he’s doing and he knows where he’s going.”
Watch John McLaughlin in action below.
