Jerry Goodman's Trilogy from 1985 to 1988 (On the future of aviation, Ariel, and Live)

 

He was mentioned some time ago in connection with the other fusion guitarists, those European ones I so adore.  I wasn't actually aware of his name at all, though musically, he is well-known as the violinist of Mahavishnu in their glory days.  Impressively he has his own wiki entry, it begins:

Jerry Goodman (born March 16, 1949) is an American violinist who played electric violin with The Flock and the jazz fusion ensemble Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Note that after Mahavishnu he made Like Children with Jan Hammer, an album obviously known to everyone whose cover is one of my favourites of all time (I used to keep it framed in my office at work before the kids), but then disappeared for a decade, as the verso blurb clearly indicates, should you read it.  That description begins thusly:

The sun shone straight through him. It shone straight through all of us. It shone straight through everything, and I suppose it still does.

-Clive James

That'll mean something to those who know. For the rest of you, the ones who have never heard Jerry Goodman (in his early days in the Flock, or during his founding membership in the M.O.--the band that defined, then and forever, all that was best in the fusion of rock and jazz) you won't understand why the rest of us are so eager. Yet. But you will, a few bars in. After ten years away, he's back. Two simple words, and an extraordinary promise.

-FREFF

Definitely agree with the assessment of M.O. there.  However, I'm not so sure I'd state the solo Goodman so emphatically unfortunately. His as usual possibly incomplete discography here.

The last track on the first one, Future of Aviation, called Sarah's Lullaby is quite traditionally light progressive fusion as we so love: