The guitar has evolved over the last five centuries to become the guitar of today. The 16th century guitar differed from the guitar of today as it had a rose shaped sound hole instead of having a round sound hole (Grove). These instruments had gut tied around their necks rather than the wire frets that are hammered into the fretboard of today's guitar. The first American reference to the classical guitar was in a Pennsylvania newspaper in 1774. In 1833, C.F. Martin, a native of Germany, began building guitars in New York. These had a heavier bracing system to enable the guitar to bear heavier strings made of steel rather than of gut. With these new steel strings the guitar could produce a louder sound.

It is believed that the first use of a guitar as a jazz instrument was in the late 19th century (Grove). It was used by Negro singers as an accompaniment to the primitive form of jazz

While also in America, McLaughlin met Guru Sri Chinmoy. McLaughlin learned from the guru the music of India (Amazon, Shakti). He studied under Chinmoy for some time. He then sought out to form a band combining jazz and the music of India. Once found he called his band the Shakti, an all acoustic band with Indian instruments. Shakti means "creative intelligence, beauty, and power" in Indian. This band was a form of fusion, but instead of merging jazz and rock, it combined traditional North and South Indian ragas and rhythmic patterns with Western jazz, blues, and rock influences, and improvisation (Amazon).

Amazon.com: Biography: John McLaughlin Amazon.com Inc. 1996-2000

After releasing three albums with Shakti, McLaughlin veered away from that particular style to concentrate more on his solo works and small combo groups. One group consisted of guitarists Paco de Lucia and Al Di Meola. A successful night session in San Francisco in 1980, brought a large crowd together to see them perform music of all sorts from the flamenco music of Spain, to Mancini's Pink Panther, to 12 bar blues.

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