Jazz Articles about Shakti

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Shakti: Mind Explosion

by Ian Patterson
August 4, 2025

This is the end--the final recording from arguably the greatest of genre-busting bands. A celebration, not only of Shakti's 50th anniversary tour in 2023 but of an entire career--one that began in 1973, when John McLaughlin and Ustad Zakir Hussain first jammed in New York's Greenwich Village. By embracing Indian Carnatic and Hindustani traditions--fused with McLaughlin's jazz DNA--Shakti broke down musical boundaries, and by extension, cultural and social boundaries as well. Cherry-picked from multiple shows, these six tracks ...

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Shakti 50th Anniversary Tour at Hill Auditorium

by C. Andrew Hovan
September 27, 2023

Shakti Hill Auditorium University Musical Society's 145th Annual Season Ann Arbor, Michigan September 14, 2023 Having learned his lessons well during his brief stay with Miles Davis in the late '60s, guitarist John McLaughlin has never let any grass grow under his feet, embracing many styles and following his creative muse at will. Back in 1973, casual meetings between McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain enlightened the guitarist to the Indian music tradition, ultimately leading to ...

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Shakti: Joy

by Ian Patterson
August 17, 2023

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Shakti: This Moment

by Geno Thackara
July 7, 2023

The Shakti of This Moment is essentially the Shakti of all its moments--a natural fusion bridging jazzy interplay with the forms and rhythms of Hindustani carnatic music, even if the sound is leagues away from the all-acoustic wildfire that first singed countless ears with the live Shakti with John McLaughlin (Columbia, 1976). The group's unexpected reemergence after never-mind-how-many decades comes with a share of surprises, from touches of vaguely reed-like MIDI guitar to the presence of a co-lead violin for ...

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John McLaughlin and Shakti: This Moment

by Dave Linn
June 13, 2023

John McLaughlin was known for his work with Miles Davis on Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970) and with Tony Williams' Lifetime before forming his groundbreaking fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra. He then shocked people with his next project, John McLaughlin and Shakti, an acoustic fusion of the Carnatak music of South India combined with some Western influences. After three albums, he disbanded the group and went in different directions before revisiting the genre 20 years later in 1999 with Remember Shakti, for ...

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John McLaughlin And Zakir Hussain: Shakti's Half-Century Of Spontaneous Joy

by Mike Jacobs
June 12, 2023

John McLaughlin. Ustad Zakir Hussain. Speak either name and a host of musical notions can come to mind. Pair them together and they conjure just one: Shakti. Indeed, the iconic jazz guitarist and celebrated Indian percussionist have each built long careers replete with enough musical achievements, stylistic innovations and instrumental mastery to gain entrance into a rarified musical pantheon. But it's their musical brotherhood in Shakti that has outdistanced all of their other individual efforts, active and vibrant ...

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Shakti: This Moment

by Ian Patterson
June 12, 2023

It has been a while alright. 46 years have slipped by since Shakti's last studio album, but the band founded by John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain in late '73, is back to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The old road dogs could easily have marked the milestone by touring the back catalogue, and doubtless it would have been a roaring success, but it says a lot for McLaughlin and Hussain's artistic drive that they chose instead to write an album's worth ...