Shakti

Shakti emerged as an international musical ensemble assembled by guitarist John McLaughlin alongside tabla master Zakir Hussain, violinist L. Shankar, and percussionists Ramnad Raghavan and T.H. "Vikku" Vinayakram. The ensemble’s Hindi designation conveys creative intelligence, beauty, and power. Their performances delivered an intense acoustic fusion that merged Carnatic and Southern Indian traditions with structured improvisation and modern jazz. The live debut Shakti with John McLaughlin surfaced in 1976, while the studio albums A Handful of Beauty and Natural Elements followed in 1977. The collective disbanded in 1978 to focus on separate endeavors. In the late 1990s the musicians reconvened, adding bansuri flute master Hariprasad Chaurasia, and issued Remember Shakti in 1997. Mandolinist U. Srinivas participated on 1999’s The Believer and 2001’s Saturday Night in Bombay, both released by Verve. Intermittent touring continued whenever calendars aligned. After Srinivas’s passing in 2014 the group again paused, only to reunite for the 2023 Grammy-winning album This Moment featuring violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan in place of Shankar.

Prior to the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s dissolution in 1975, McLaughlin encountered Indian tabla master Zakir Hussain—son of Ustad Alla Rakha, then regarded as the king of Indian tabla drummers—in early 1974. Hussain performed as a respected member of Ravi Shankar’s touring ensemble. McLaughlin requested and obtained lessons in Indian music, progressing rapidly. These sessions gradually transformed into extended jam sessions that led the pair toward forming a band. Deeply moved by his work with Hussain, McLaughlin disbanded Mahavishnu Orchestra in early 1975 and assembled Shakti with Hussain, violinist L. Shankar, ghatam player T.H. “Vikku” Vinayakram, and Ramnad V. Raghavan on mridangam, all of whom contributed to jam and composing sessions.

The musicians moved swiftly despite residing on separate continents. McLaughlin obtained a Columbia recording contract for Shakti, the same label that had issued Mahavishnu Orchestra material, because he still owed the company recordings. Through extended rehearsals the group forged an ecstatic new sound that blended elements of Carnatic and South Indian musical traditions with intense East/West improvisation and spiritual jazz, forging innovative routes that would later shape musicians worldwide.

The ensemble’s groundbreaking self-titled debut, captured at South Hampton College, appeared in summer 1975. The album entered the Top 200 and reached the Top 40 on jazz album charts. After touring, Raghavan left, reducing Shakti to a quartet. Their first studio album, 1976’s A Handful of Beauty, climbed higher on both the Top 200 and jazz lists. A brief tour preceded the recording of 1977’s studio release Natural Elements. Following another support tour McLaughlin and Hussain pursued other projects, yet Shakti never formally disbanded. The four musicians maintained close ties amid their demanding individual careers.

Following a twenty-year break, McLaughlin and Hussain chose to revive Shakti for touring and recording. They recalled Vinayakram but could not locate Shankar, so McLaughlin recruited legendary bansuri flute master Hariprasad Chaurasia and named the refreshed lineup Remember Shakti. The group produced a double-length studio album released in 1999 on Verve that contained five extended compositions—three by McLaughlin and two by Chaurasia. McLaughlin’s pieces included a new arrangement of “The Wish,” originally heard on his album The Promise, “Lotus Feet” from the 1976 Mahavishnu Orchestra release Inner Worlds (a shorter version had appeared on Shakti’s 1976 debut), and “Zakir,” first recorded for Hussain’s Making Music. Though less fiery, the album remained equally intricate and inventive, highlighting the ensemble’s compositional depth along with its dynamic harmonic and rhythmic explorations.

During the early 1990s McLaughlin encountered a recording of thirteen-year-old mandolinist U. Srinivas at the Berlin Jazz Festival. Captivated, he tracked the musician’s prolific output, which eventually encompassed more than 137 albums under his own name. In 1995 Srinivas released Dream, a successful world-fusion album created with Canadian guitarist and producer Michael Brook on Realworld. The project persuaded McLaughlin that collaboration with the mandolinist was essential.

After Remember Shakti appeared in 1997, McLaughlin invited Srinivas to join alongside himself, Hussain, and V. Selvaganesh, son of Vinayakram. The musicians toured internationally, and in 2000 Remember Shakti issued the live album The Believer on Verve, which reached the Top 20 on the jazz album chart. A year later they released another live recording, Saturday Night in Bombay, featuring the quartet joined by an array of Indian guests that included Hindustani slide guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya, santoor player Shivkumar Sharma, and vocalist Shankar Mahadevan, who later became a regular member.

In 2004 Remember Shakti performed at the 38th Montreux Jazz Festival and issued a limited-edition live album. The following year they released the archival Live at Miles Davis Hall, 8 July 1999. Both titles later appeared within McLaughlin’s extensive Montreux Concerts Box Set.

McLaughlin, Srinivas, and Hussain maintained active schedules across different continents, so Remember Shakti convened only sporadically when members’ commitments allowed. At home Srinivas remained a major figure, performing constantly while operating a free music school he had established as a teenager in Chennai. He and his brother U. Rajesh, likewise a virtuoso mandolinist, joined McLaughlin on the 2006 album Samjanitha alongside Hussain, Sivamani, and George Brooks; two years later U. Rajesh appeared as a featured soloist on McLaughlin’s Floating Point.

U. Srinivas died in September 2014 from complications nine days after a liver transplant, prompting Remember Shakti to cease touring. In early 2020, prior to pandemic lockdowns, Shakti reassembled with violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan for two sold-out concerts—the first in India on January 14 and the second in Singapore on January 16. Although isolated by the pandemic, these performances ignited the spark for the group’s rebirth. Throughout 2021 and 2022 they presented special live shows, culminating in the June 2023 release of the double-length studio album This Moment on Abstract Logix. Recorded across the United States, Canada, and India to celebrate Shakti’s fiftieth anniversary, the eight-song collection featured original and traditional Indian material, was co-produced by McLaughlin and Vinayakram, and performed by the quintet of Hussain on tablas, vocalist Mahadevan, violinist Rajagopalan, and percussionist Vinayakram. This Moment earned the Grammy for Best Global Music Album at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in 2024.