Shakti - The Legendary Indian Classical - Jazz Fusion band - Part I

Hello World...

I have been a fan of Indian Classical Jazz fusion music for the last 15 years. This bug bit me when I was in CIEFL doing my research, and a friend of mine, we used to call him KP, introduced this genre to me. I had known about Shakti, the legendary group, earlier, but heard them seriously on tape only then. Since then, it has been a great musical journey, a journey of discovery and joy. The first thing I did was to read up whatever was available on this niche genre and started collecting cassettes. Some albums, I got easily, some I had to really struggle to acquire, like Karuna Supreme and Rainbow (Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, John Handy, Zakir Hussain, L. Subramaniam). Now, I can confidently claim that I have almost all the landmark albums in this genre, if not all.

The group Remember Shakti had played in Hyderabad some years back and it was a dream that came true for me. I had heard all their albums, their various avatars over the years, read their interviews, etc., but nothing prepared me for their live performance. They had undergone a massive change…there was a drum kit next to Zakir Hussain and Shankar Mahadevan was singing with his full throated ease…What followed the next two hours was absolute bliss…Though I cannot explain in musical terms how it all went off, I was happy that I could see my favourite Indian classical Jazz fusion band perform live…

If not the first, Shakti is one of the earliest groups to experiment with Indian Classical and Jazz-fusion and make a huge success of it. The initial line-up consisted of John McLaughlin on the Guitar, L. Shankar on the Violin, Zakir Hussain on the Tabla and Vikku Vinayakram on the Ghatam (see above photo - the exuberant quartet). How the group itself came together is another story, worth a separate post. The eclecticism of this fusion ensemble can be seen in each artiste’s musical background and the instrument each plays – McLaughlin with his Jazz background on his specially modified scalloped Guitar; Shankar with his Carnatic Classical background on the Violin; Zakir Hussain with his Hindustani Classical background on the Tabla; and Vinayakram with his Carnatic Classical percussion background on the Ghatam (clay pot). This 2/2 melody and rhythm combination gave an almost perfect fusion effect and gave Shakti its characteristic sound. McLaughlin and Shankar played around each other, i.e., going back and forth to the foreground from the combined jamming, while Zakir Hussain and Vinayakram provided the contrasting rhythms. The first avatar of Shakti was known for its ‘fast furious fusion’, symbolised by Shankar’s sometimes alarming speed on the violin, McLaughlin’s snapping pace, Zakir Hussain’s and Vikku Vinayakram’s fingers almost a blur on the tabla and ghatam respectively. One can listen to this ‘triple-f’ effect and visualize the stalwarts on their instruments in all their three abums – Shakti with John McLaughlin (Sony-Colombia), Handful of Beauty (Sony-Colombia), and Natural Elements (Sony-Colombia).

This ensemble came forth with only three albums, but they were active throughout the seventies playing around the world. The members went their separate ways in 1978.

contd in next post...

Jayasrinivasa Rao