Shakti - the legendary Indian Classical-Jazz Fusion band - Part II

Hi World...

Shakti came together again briefly in 1997 (after two decades) in the 50^th year of India’s Independence when Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia joined the group. Pt. Chaurasia on the flute replaced Shankar in the melody segment, as Shankar was unavailable at that time. The concert and the subsequent two-volume album were christened Remember Shakti (Polygram), the new name by which the group would be known thenceforth. Their second avatar was in complete contrast to their first. Unlike Shakti’s dominant fast fusion sound bordering almost on the aggressive, Remember Shakti (with Pt Chaurasia) was unhurried and meditative with Pt Chaurasia holding forth with his marvellous bansuri on long raga explorations, with Mukti (with others contributing as well) unfolding for over an hour and Chandrakauns (name of a Hindustani Classical raga), a little over 30 minutes. In fact, flute is the most influential sound during this brief phase of the ensemble. McLaughlin and Pt. Chaurasia jam together for a musical piece called Zakir (composed by JML; presumably a tribute to Zakir Hussain) and the entire band comes together for Lotus Feet (which, I consider the group’s anthemic melody [composed by McLaughlin], which appears as a signature piece across their three incarnations and IMHO, gives continuity to the group’s musical journey).

Pt Chaurasia was not new to the members of Shakti. He had already jammed with McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain in another influential Indian classical-jazz fusion album called Making Music (ECM Records), where the aforementioned Zakir was one of the pieces rendered. Jan Garbarek joined them for this rendering in this album. Remember Shakti regrouped after two years in 1999 with a change in both the melody and rhythm segments. Vikku Vinayakram’s son Selva Ganesh came in the place of his father in the line-up, ensuring a continuity of Carnatic percussion rhythm and flavour. The strings came back with U. Shrinivas on the Mandolin replacing Pt. Chaurasia, thus reinstating the original 2 and 2 string and percussion blend (see photo above). This incarnation has come out with 1 exclusive album – Believer (Universal – Verve) and another ensemble (with Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Shankar Mahadevan, Sivamani, Debashish Bhattacharya, Bhavani Shankar, Taufiq Qureshi, and others) live concert album called Saturday Night in Bombay (Universal – Verve) (reminds people of another landmark concert and album of which McLaughlin was an integral part - Friday Night in San Francisco [John McLaughlin, Al DiMeola, and Paco De Lucia])

All I can say after listening to their music for over 15 years now (and will continue to listen…) is to reiterate the title of one of the compositions in their first album – What Need Have I For This – What Need Have I For That – I Am Dancing At The Feet Of My Lord – All Is Bliss – All Is Bliss…

Happy listening...

Jayasrinivasa Rao