Any modern band that comes close to Mahavishnu Orchestra ?

psag---I feel the same way about Cream live. I saw them twice, and they played the recorded opening version of many of their songs, then went into really extended improvisational take-offs. The problem was that, unlike really good Jazz ensembles, wherein when one player is soloing the rest of the ensemble (particularly the rhythm section) plays in a supportive fashion, with Cream Eric, Jack, and Ginger would often all be "soloing" at the same time, walking all over each other. What a mess! Eric realized the error of his musical direction, he says, when he heard Music From Big Pink by The Band (which contains the finest ensemble playing I have yet to hear, in ANY genre). Eric told Jack and Ginger Cream was over.

I saw Jeff Beck after McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra opened the show and I was blown away! I was there to see Jeff Beck and he was great but John McLaughlin just stood there in all white and blew everyone away! Blow by Blow was a great album but I was about worn out after the opening of John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra fusion! Wow!! Al Di Meola is great and how about Leo Kottke I have never heard anyone play like these guy's?  And if you want to listen to some Blues how about Buddy Guy and Luther Allison if you want to hear some great guitar!! All the young players chase the masters and try to improve the sound good luck with that! The 70's still rule when it comes to the super groups of any generation period.

Lots of great recommendations here!  While not same-for-same as Mahavishnu but generally jazz-fusion, look into Snarky Puppy!

If you are attracted to the musical fusion of different styles and cultures and stellar musicianship, please find them on YouTube and go from there...hold on to your seat!

Enjoy!

The extended soloing Cream and Mahavishnu featured that some posters above have decried comes from John Coltrane’s "sheets of sound" style of lengthy soloing that explored the tune being played to the point where you could hardly find any connection to the original melody at all. Yet, many times, the playing did manage to come back to the song itself, but there have been occasions where, particularly under the guise of "free jazz," it sounded like there was more self indulgent noise than actual music being played. Ymmv.

Studio recordings of the Mahavishnu Orchestra were obviously structured with shorter pieces and no long solos. The Inner Mounting Flame, Birds Of Fire and Lost Trident Sessions are the 3 played by the original group, with Apocalypse and Visions of the Emerald Beyond by the second one, featuring Jean-Luc Ponty in place of Jerry Goodman. The original ensemble also released a live album, Between Nothingness and Eternity, with a second disc of it being released by Columbia as part of a 2011 Mahavishnu Complete Columbia Albums Collection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavishnu_Orchestra:_The_Complete_Columbia_Albums_Collection If you've not heard all of these, you should, although Apocalypse is by far the weakest of the bunch.

Advice for similar sounding music would lead to hearing the post MO recorded output of Messrs Goodman, Cobham and Hammer as well as to The Dregs (once known as the Dixie Dregs), whom Goodman played with as well. There are many musicians out there with the skills the band had back in the day, but few have the emotion and fire-Al Dimeola being a prime example.