Shakti is the first group that brought together Hindustani (North Indian) and Carnatic (South Indian) musicians. Their new album celebrating the landmark anniversary, This Moment, was released on June 23 and their final tour, the first in 45 years, will launch in Boston on August 17th.
Our Bureau
Boston
John McLaughlin, one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and Zakir Hussain, the greatest living tabla player, have shattered the boundaries between eastern and western music to forge the template of what is now called “World Music.” Shakti is the first group that brought together Hindustani (North Indian) and Carnatic (South Indian) musicians.
Their new album celebrating the landmark anniversary, This Moment, was released on June 23 and their final tour, the first in 45 years, will launch in Boston on August 17th. The tour cements Shakti’s pan-cultural ethos by introducing Jazz and American elements via the supporting spots by a rotating cast of players, either Jerry Douglas, Bèla Fleck, Brill Frisell or John Scofield.
The album is available on CD and vinyl LP. Shakti’s soulful, organic intermingling of Eastern and Western musical traditions has proven transformative for both the band’s members and its listeners.
“This Moment’, the new ‘studio’ album is a true labor of love. The music on this recording represents a quantum leap in the musical evolution of Shakti. It represents 50 years of working and playing together beginning in 1973. The numerous concerts we have played, the number of times we have been together working on our musical development, have brought us to the point where it has all been brought together here and now in the 21st Century. This album is a crystallization of 5 decades of love and dedication. Our musical evolution recorded here, is really a revolution in the history of Shakti,” said John McLaughlin.
A heartening feature of this album is the dedication of the recordings by the artistes to the memory of the inimitable late ‘Mandolin’ U Shrinivas, a former band member of Shakti. A work of immense depth and radiant optimism, This Moment offers a set of new compositions and performances that burn with a rare intensity born out of passion. With McLaughlin (guitar, guitar synth) and Hussain (tabla) joined by vocalist Shankar Mahadevan, violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan, and percussionist Selvaganesh Vinayakram, the Shakti of now is a powerfully dynamic collective, defined by deft interplay, dazzling unison passages, extraordinarily dexterous improvisations, and the ability to draw from a vast well of global traditions and, miraculously, put them in conversation with one another.
Shankar Mahadevan enlightened “We took advantage of the fact that we were all isolated during the lockdown, and John ji took the lead. So, from remote places all over the world, files were going back and forth, we had a common dropbox, everybody listened to it put their part, brought it back, exchanged comments on a WhatsApp group, oh my god! how we executed this album ‘This Moment’ is really remarkable. It was an experience, and we really enjoyed the process.”
The compositions making up This Moment each pass through a series of connected movements, highlighting different vocal and instrumental sub-groups within Shakti while transitioning between taut thematic statements, riveting solos from McLaughlin and Rajagopalan, invigorating rhythmic shifts, and soaring vocal passages by Mahadevan. McLaughlin’s contributions are remarkable in their ability to reconcile the great Ragas of North and South India with a chromaticism born of jazz and the blues, and the speed and precision of his articulation remains exhilarating. The engine room of Hussain and Vinayakram (son of original Shakti ghatam player T.H. “Vikku” Vinayakram) gives space to allow passages to breathe and resound, while equally capable of fomenting a roiling, galloping underpinning that push the soloists to increasingly ecstatic heights.
“The discovery each time you sit as a group, to play and perform, is like climbing Everest from different angles. Every time it is a whole different point of view, marveling at how you do the same but it’s not the same. Having that kind of interaction, conversation between the group, the creative idea process is something that is Shakti and it is exclusive to Shakti,” Zakir Hussain
Shakti will be celebrating the release of This Moment by undertaking an extensive performance tour scheduled to begin on June 27 & 28 in London with Special Guests Gary Husband and Nguyên Lê, followed by Europe and thereafter their first US tour in 18 years. Beginning August 17 in Boston, the shows further reinforce Shakti’s pan-cultural ethos by introducing jazz and American elements via supporting spots by either Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck, Bill Frissell or John Scofield – “Truly fine musicians whom I’ve admired for decades,” in McLaughlin’s words. The feeling is mutual, with Fleck recalling that ‘hearing Shakti was a revelation,” and Scofield adding, “I’m as much looking forward to playing on the bill with Shakti’s 50th Anniversary tour as simply being there to hear them.”
