Rick McLaughlin's work has been heard all over the world. A member of the Grammy-nominated jazz group Either/Orchestra since the 1990s, he has performed on stages and in recording studios in places ranging from his home town of Cambridge, MA to Los Angeles, CA; from Barcelona, Spain to Rome, Italy; and from Phuket, Thailand to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Over 20 commercially available CDs feature Rick McLaughlin, and his own debut as a leader, Study of Light (Accurate), garnered critical acclaim. He has been heralded by MacArthur Fellow George Russell as "one of my favorite bassists." "Electric and exciting," wrote Michael Nastos of Cadence Magazine of McLaughlin, a bassist who delivers "firm yet discursive support" according to Bob Blumenthal of the Boston Globe.

Although primarily known as a bassist, McLaughlin has spent much of the past decade teaching aspiring musicians, notably as a faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music where he coaches jazz ensembles, gives private lessons, and teaches classes on jazz theory, jazz history, and jazz composition/arranging. This position capitalizes on the work McLaughlin has done beyond his bass playing, as a published author, composer, and arranger. His publications have been featured throughout the DrumPro series of magazines, where he has written on the relationship between the bass and drums in funk and jazz music. His most recent paper, Which Way Do the Trade Winds Blow? Two Case Studies Examining the Voyage of Jazz to Africa is awating publication. 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 greatest singer Mahmoud Ahmed and 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); Le Scimmie (Milano, Italy); New Mississippi Jazz Club (Roma, Italy); Jazztone (Lorrach, Germany); Wasserwerk Bern (Bern, Switzerland). He also performed at festivals in Belgium, France, Portugal, Russia, 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 endorses AlterEGO basses and Gallien-Krueger amplifiers.

Download a copy of Rick McLaughlin's curriculum vita