Rick McLaughlin

Rick McLaughlin’s work has been heard all over the world. A bandleader, and member of the Grammy-nominated jazz group Either/Orchestra, he has performed on stages and in recording studios in places ranging from greater Boston, MA to Los Angeles, CA; from Barcelona, Spain to Rome, Italy; and from Phuket, Thailand to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Featured on numerous CDs including, his own debut as a leader, Study of Light, which garnered critical acclaim. Compositions of McLaughlin’s can be heard on Study of Light, as well as on an forthcoming Either/Orchestra CD, and his arrangement of the second movement of Ravel’s String Quartet is the first of its kind.

McLaughlin has shared the stage with a wide range of musicians, from jazz luminaries such as Don Byron, Steve Lacy, John Medeski, Danilo Perez, and John Zorn, to rock musicians Willie “Loco” Alexander, Morphine and Peter Wolf, and country music star Roger Miller. A frequent collaborator with musicians from all over the globe, McLaughlin has also performed with Ethiopia’s great singers Mahmoud Ahmed and Alemayhu Eshete, as well as the innovator behind Ethio-Jazz, Mulatu Astatke. Collaborations with Ahmed and Astatke were with the Either/Orchestra and have been released on CD and DVD.

Venues in which McLaughlin has performed include Regattabar (Cambridge, MA); Jordan Hall (Boston, MA); CBGB’s (New York, NY); Bitter End (New York, NY); Knitting Factory (New York, NY); Tonic (New York, NY); Green Mill (Chicago, IL); Jazz Bakery (Los Angeles, CA); and Teatro Manzoni (Milano, Italy). He also performed at festivals in Ethiopia, England, France, Portugal, Russia, and Uganda, among others.

McLaughlin graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA with both B.M. and M.M. degrees, the latter he received with Academic Honors and Distinction in Performance. He is an endorser of AlterEGO instruments and Gallien-Krueger amplifiers.