ArtistInfo

Shakti

Band, GB
Jazz, Folk and World
A.k.a. Shakti

Shakti was a group which played a novel acoustic fusion music which combined Indian music with elements of jazz; it was perhaps the earliest practitioner of the musical genre world fusion. Its leading member was the English guitar player John McLaughlin, but it also featured the Indian violin player L. Shankar. It also included Zakir Hussain (on tabla), and R. Raghavan (on the Mridangam) and T. H. "Vikku" Vinayakram (on Ghatam). In addition to fusing Western and Indian music, Shakti also represented a fusion of the Hindustani and Carnatic music traditions, since Hussain is from the North, but the other Indian members are from the South. It came together in 1975, after the dissolution of the second incarnation of Mahavishnu Orchestra, and toured fairly extensively during the period 1975-1977; it made only sporadic appearances (with personnel changes) thereafter. After 1977 the albums which L. Shankar recorded with Z. Hussain and T. H. "Vikku" Vinayakram stayed close to the music made popular by Shakti. Some twenty years later McLaughlin and Hussain put together another band with the same concept, called Remember Shakti, including V. Selvaganesh (son of T. H. "Vikku" Vinayakram ), mandolin player U. Shrinivas and eventually Shankar Mahadevan. Shakti means creative intelligence, beauty & power. (from wikipedia)

Members

	John McLaughlin g, acg *1942 GB
	Shankar vn, voc *1950 IN
	Zakir Hussain tab *1951 IN
	Vikku Vinayakram voc, perc *1942 IN
	Ramnad Raghavan 1927-2009 IN
	V. Selvaganesh voc, perc IN