Picture a reading lamp-lit hostel room in the 1980s. ‘Natural Elements’ is playing from a cassette deck. It is a heady fusion of Indian classical and Jazz. The westernised south Bombay dude finds room for it in his pantheon of rock and pop legends, and the Mylapore boy exclaims, “hey, it is Kathanakuthuhalam, da”. This encapsulated the power of Shakti.
By the 1960s the world had already gotten a glimpse of Indian classical music through George Harrison’s love for the sitar (think ‘Norwegian Wood’, by The Beatles), and by the performances of Pt Ravi Shankar and Ustad Allah Rakha at events like Woodstock. John McLaughlin, an accomplished Jazz guitarist, was greatly influenced by Indian music and philosophy. He dreamed of bringing Indian classical music and Jazz together in a new style of music. His own Mahavishnu Orchestra was an early version of this vision.
Soon after the disbanding of the Orchestra, he met the young son of Ustad Allah Rakha, Zakir Hussain. The two of them hit it off and developed McLaughlin’s vision into the original Shakti circa 1973. And there was no looking back. In the 1970s, Shakti — which included the maverick violinist L Shankar and the charismatic ghatam vidwan T H ‘Vikku’ Vinayakram — created fabulous music and won hearts around the globe. The very first album, eponymously called ‘Shakti’, broke into the 1976 Billboard 200, and into the top 50 on Billboard Jazz.
I had heard the music of Zakir Hussain and Vikku Vinayakram at Mood Indigo and other festivals. When I first heard Shakti’s music, it just felt right. Unlike many fusion attempts that seemed overwrought, the strands of Hindustani, Carnatic and Jazz were woven into a multi-hued but unified braid. The pulsating energy (‘shakti’!), the melding of the different strains, and the improvisational template that was a blend of Indian and Jazz styles, made for a powerful impact. Shakti remains a gold standard for this genre of fusion.
John McLaughlin is undoubtedly the guiding spirit of Shakti. His virtuoso guitar playing gave birth to the concept of Carnatic riffs! Even in the 1970s recordings and performances, one can see how a Carnatic-style mandolin would fit in. When Shakti was reconstituted as Remember Shakti, the legendary U Srinivas was invited to join, and remained a crucial part of the band until his sad demise. Likewise, over the years, many prominent musicians, including Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shivkumar Sharma, R Raghavan, V Selvaganesh (son of T H Vinayakram), Taufiq Querishi (brother of Zakir Hussain), Shankar Mahadevan, and Ganesh Rajagopalan have been associated with Shakti. The band is a veritable Ship of Theseus, with members coming and departing, without shaking the core aesthetic of its music.
With the addition of Shankar Mahadevan, voice came into the Shakti mix. There are still no words, but voice is used as another instrument. The original idea is intact. The Remember Shakti version of ‘Come on baby dance with me’ — one fantastic live rendition featuring Shankar Mahadevan as well as Mandolin Srinivas — evokes the same emotion and response as the original one.
2023 marked the 50th anniversary of the formation of Shakti.
It was also in 2023 that Remember Shakti released their latest album ‘This Moment’. My favorite is the track ‘Bending the rules’. The way the 82-year old McLaughlin bends strings — and, indeed, rules! — is laudable. It also harks back to the band’s salad days, and Ganesh Rajagopalan’s violin brings L Shankar to mind.
This album has just been awarded the Grammy for Best Global Music Album. This is a great — if somewhat belated — validation of Shakti’s journey. Their music has influenced and touched thousands of lives over the decades. This award is not merely for the current achievement, but for the entirety of the journey until ‘This Moment’. If any award is well-deserved, this is it.