Disbanding in the late 1970’s, Shakti lay dormant for
two decades whilst all the musicians involved pursued other directions; John
McLaughlin who chose to go in multiple acoustic and electric directions
continuing to earn major audiences and plaudits, violinist Shankar who created
a series of minor masterpieces deserving of much greater recognition and also
helped compose a notable number of high-profile film scores, and Zakir Hussain
and T. H. ‘Vikku’ Vinayakram who both built massive discographies of fusion and
world-music, while also taking on noteworthy music education roles.
Approaching the year 2000 and McLaughlin and Hussain
decided that the time felt right for the reformation, and further development,
of the Shakti group. However, while McLaughlin and Hussain were able to contact
and link up with Vinayakram, none of the three could find Shankar, and so
instead decided to continue on without him, replacing him for their return tour
with bansuri player Hariprasad Chaurasia.
Initially touring in celebration of the 50th
anniversary of the independence of India and Pakistan, this double-set is taken
from that tour and a good thing too, with the musicians here always going to
have excelled more in the live arena than that of the recording studio.
Less percussive and rhythmic than the original Shakti,
here the music is more introspective and thoughtful, and also happily, much
more emotionally reaching. The best example here being the hour-long epic ‘Mukti’,
which despite its length never feels long or dragging, but frequently, like
much here, does bring a wave of euphoria to the listener. Everything here is
played for the musical moment, with no egos vying for the spotlight, and no
solos dominating the other musicians – here the musical interplay is
everything.
Remember Shakti remain a pretty much one-off group of
unique and uniquely inspired players that continue to fuse western improvised
music with the music of India in an equally unique and compelling way. As with
the original Shakti, if you hope to hear blistering lead guitar lines from
McLaughlin, then you’re in the wrong place. Here though is a strong,
intelligent and emotional musical group that offers languid meditative deeply
reaching music of a very high order.
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