John McLaughlin's second and last album for Douglas–he's signed to Columbia now–is as different from his first, Devotion, as day is from night. The earlier recording was super-amplified and thundering, with Buddy Miles flailing away at the drums and McLaughlin proving, with tasty lines and sonic textures, that heavy can be musical. My Goal's Beyond is an acoustic album, with one side devoted to eight short pieces for solo guitar, and the other to two long numbers for a larger group, including soprano sax and flute, violin, bass, percussion, drums, tabla and tambura.

The solo side is a kind of retrospective for McLaughlin, since it includes reminders of some of his past associations. There's a tune of Miles'; a reworking of a theme from the first Tony Williams Lifetime album; a tune by another former Miles Davis sideman, Chick Corea; plus a Mingus favorite ("Goodbye Porkpie Hat," dedicated to Lester Young and previously revived by Pentangle) and some originals. The most beautiful tune is McLaughlin's "Follow Your Heart," which he originally recorded under saxophonist Joe Farrell's leadership. It's both haunting and stirring, the qualities in McLaughlin's writing that make it very special.

The group tunes "Peace One" and "Peace Two" are something else. Indian music has been echoing around jazz circles since Coltrane jammed with Ravi Shankar, at least, and it's surfaced and then submerged again in rock. McLaughlin's "Peace" pieces begin with the drone of tambura and the glottal tabla; the western instruments enter later. The lines, especially the unforgettable "Peace Two" with its soaring contours, graft western melodic and harmonic practices over the basic drone. It's nothing radically new, but McLaughlin's feeling for the emotional depth and spiritual ambience of Indian music makes his fusion particularly striking and successful. His solos employ a few sitar-like phrases, along with the open guitar textures of artists like John Fahey, and violinist Jerry Goodman and saxist/flutist Dave Liebman contribute thoughtful, emotional statements of their own. Bassist Charlie Haden is solid as a rock on the first tune, but his big, booming sound is hardly audible on the second cut; an accident during the mixing is responsible for this, the album's only serious technical drawback.

My Goal's Beyond is a quietly beautiful LP, certainly McLaughlin's best. His solos on the first side most of them are really duets, since he's overdubbed chording behind his single-note picking reveal an almost awesome technique, and an overriding concern with, shimmering melodic substance and harmonic ingenuity, while the longer tunes capture the raga's unique encapsulation of abandoned improvisation and restrained, empathetic spirituality. And "Follow Your Heart" and "Peace Two" are two of the prettiest tunes you're likely to hear. (RS 92)

BOB PALMER