Play That Funky Music, White Boy

Some fascinating trivia about the early gigs by the now-mythical jazz fusion band from the early 1970s called Mahavishnu Orchestra...

Their first gig was July 21, 1971 at the Gaslight at the Au-Go-Go in NY City. They were a big hit, and were held over twice, ending their run August 9th.

Their next two gigs, a month later (also in New York) were at the Beacon Theatre, where they opened up for (gasp) Cannonball Adderly and Les Paul's godson Steve Miller.

After two more gigs widely separated in time, they came up here to New Hampshire, and were part of a triple bill at UNH, where they opened for (gulp) Blue Oyster Cult and The Byrds. They stayed with this tour for awhile, but also did some stand alone gigs, along with some other interesting dates. In November of 1971 they opened at SUNY at Stony Brook for The Kinks and Yes.

In early 1972, they opened several shows for Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales, but got kicked off the tour for blowing the main act off the stage, especially at Symphony Hall in Beantown on January 26. All reports I read at the time said that Uncle Jerry was NOT happy.

A month later, they went out west to places like Colorado, and opened for Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

On April Fool's Day of that year, they came back east to Princeton, where good old boy John Prine got to open for them.

Two days later (at sunrise) they played at the infamous Mar Y Sol Festival in Puerto Rico, where their first recorded "live" song came about (available on the soundtrack album from said fest, long out of print. They did a killer version of "The Noonward Race".)

Could their schedule get any stranger? Of course it could.

On June 18 1972, they opened in Berkeley for...Cheech and Chong.

3 weeks later, they played Carnegie Hall, right after a solo piano performance by Oscar Peterson. Needless to say, the crowd was confused.

Apparently, the gig opening for Cheech and Chong was the last gig they did as a "supporting act".

Unbelievably, they played with the following hackers just before they ended...

November 29 at Cornell...opening act Weather Report

November 30 at Princeton...opening act Chick Corea and Return to Forever

And stranger than truth, the last act Maha Orch toured with just before they quit was...

Papa John Creach