Friday June 8, 2007
Blurring the lines
By NANTHA KUMAR
World fusion pioneer Shakti deserves all the plaudits garnered over three decades of inspired recordings.
NEXT Wednesday, the spotlight is on world fusion genre as the Remember Shakti group, featuring legendary guitarist John McLaughlin, performs at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur.
Remember Shakti is basically McLaughlin’s labour of love that continues the world fusion work pioneered by his original outfit, Shakti, in the mid-1970s.
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One night only: Legendary guitarist John McLaughlin and Remember Shakti will perform at the PWTC next Wednesday. |
The star of the show – Yorkshire-born McLaughlin, 65, remains active with recordings and tours with Remember Shakti. The highly-accomplished group scheduled to play in KL next week also features legendary tabla player Zakir Hussain, along with renowned Indian musicians U. Shrinivas, Selvaganesh Vinayakram, and Shankar Mahadevan.
Perhaps, with the arrival of Remember Shakti, it is timely that the story behind Shakti, the original and influential world fusion force, receives a runthrough of its classic recordings from the 1970s.
The first wave of Shakti is still a gem of a group. It reflected the mutually respectful meeting between the nucleus of the group: avant-garde jazz guitarist McLaughlin and towering Indian violinist L. Shankar. When they crossed paths in the United States in 1972, McLaughlin was learning to master the veenai (plucked string instrument in classical south Indian music not unlike the sitar) and the chemistry forged was instantaneous as they pieced together their first composition.
The alliance led to the first Shakti album, named after the group, which means (as the album inlay interprets) “creative intelligence, beauty and power.” McLaughlin himself was no hippie charlatan as the information on the debut album Shakti with John McLaughlin, clearly seeks to stress.
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He swapped his electric guitar for acoustic earthiness. In mid-1975, McLaughlin and Shankar – joined by R. Raghavan on the mridangam (double barrel drum), T.S. Vinayakaram on the ghatam (earthenware pot) and mridangam and Zakir Hussain on the tabla – played together as Shakti in a concert in New York.
That live recording was released as Shakti with John McLaughlin in late 1975 under the Columbia Jazz label and contained three numbers of varying lengths, led by the storming 18-minute opener Joy, that showcases the instrumental mastery and fiery agility of McLaughlin and Shankar’s musicianship.
The epic, 29-minute 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 is the album’s masterpiece. It was a statement of sprawling ambition and unwavering conviction in cross-breeding genres like jazz and traditional music.
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It was apt that Shakti chose to start with the rhythm-laden La Danse Du Bonheur in recognition of the dialogues between the percussionists, Zakir and “Vikku” Vinayakaram, the mainstays of the group alongside McLaughlin.
The third number on the album, India, commences life in mid-tempo, grows to reach a funky ending but eventually returns dutifully to its contemplative beginning. This piece is shared by Shankar and McLaughlin and could perhaps point at the disparate artistic direction that the duo had desired for Shakti.
Shankar, it has been said, wanted a funkier edge to Shakti while McLaughlin was keen to keep extending its East-West synthesis. A Handful of Beauty was satisfyingly accommodative of their wishes to sustain their partnership. In the last of the 1970s trilogy, Natural Elements (1977), Shakti established its legacy.
Through A Handful of Beauty’s penultimate composition Isis, Shankar and McLaughlin had intimated at the importance of engaging Zakir, who in turn cajoles Vinayakaram for passages of percussive fervour.
It is this arrangement between the musicians that holds aloft Natural Elements as Shakti’s finest achievement. This is where the beautiful music flows right from Mind Ecology to Peace of Mind. The group also gets bolder, especially on Get Down and Sruti, which is probably Shakti's answer to the Bob Marley standard Get Up, Stand Up. Elsewhere, the deeply introspective Bridge of Sighs and delightfully carefree Happiness is Being Together holds this third album up as Shakti's finest moment.
Zakir, Vinayakaram and McLaughlin make up the second coming of Shakti, renamed Remember Shakti, which takes the Dewan Merdeka stage at the Putra World Trade Centre next Wednesday.
They have replaced violinist Shankar with vocalist Shankar Mahadevan but the most vital addition – which directly elevated their revival efforts to a higher plane – has to be that of mandolin maestro U. Shrinivas.
Though Shrinivas was not part of the initial reunion in 1997 which toured England with Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, his involvement has brought a new spirit to the music.
The impact of singer Shankar must not be underplayed. The first time Shankar’s voice graced a Remember Shakti album was on Saturday Night in Bombay (2001), and it has made an impact that resonates to this day.
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