The collaborative sound of Shakti, which modified musical discourse worldwide, will echo one last time when Mind Explosion: fiftieth Anniversary Tour Live releases on August 1. The tracks of the album hint the band’s voyage via genres and geographies.
With the passing of its celebrated Indian frontman, tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain, that is the final providing from Shakti’s steady.
For jazz exponent and Shakti co-founder John McLaughlin, Mind Explosion is about camaraderie and creativity. “On December 15, 2024, a curtain came down on a monumental part of my life. After 55 years of countless concerts, recordings, travels, meals, and laughter together, my brother Zakir, departed. The group Shakti, which we founded together in 1973, has ended. I sincerely hope other ‘Shakti’ kinds of groups will follow. The kinds of groups that unite diverse cultures for one reason only: joy, because joy was for 50 years the unshakable foundation of Shakti. We brought joy to each other and to listeners,” mentioned the 83-year-old maestro on e mail to The Hindu.
Shakti performing in Bengaluru on January 20, 2023, as a part of its fiftieth anniversary India Tour i
| Photo Credit:
Murali Kumar Okay
Apart from enjoying the truest East-West fusion music, the type hardly ever heard, Shakti’s largest contribution is popping the highlight on Indian classical instrumentalists. The band triumphantly tapped into their distinctive improvisatory abilities and projected their capacity to carry on to their very own fashion in a collaborative arrange. In the course of, it impressed an entire era of string and percussion artistes to look past the standard repertoire and discover new prospects of sound.
The Shakti story started in 1969 when Zakir first met John. Both frequented the identical music retailer in Greenwich Village in New York City. In 1973, they met once more in the front room of celebrated sarodist Ustad Ali Akbar Khan’s home in California. After which John remarked about Zakir: “We were musicians from the same family in another life”. Soon the formidable duo launched Shakti with ghatam virtuoso Vikku Vinayakram and maverick violinist L. Shankar. From 1975 to 1977, they toured extensively and launched three studio albums and one stay album.
The authentic Shakti quartet
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy: Shakti
In 1978, Shakti disbanded however regrouped in 1979 as Remembering Shakti. Along the means, Zakir and John introduced on board mandolin prodigy U. Shrinivas, singer Shankar Mahadevan and kanjira ace Selva Ganesh. In 2014, after Shrinivas’ premature loss of life, Shakti misplaced steam however solely to make a second comeback in 2020, this time with experimental violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan into the fold. The COVID-19 Pandemic struck and lockdown was spent recording The Moment. In 2023, Shakti celebrated 50 years with a world tour, making memorable stopovers at a number of Indian cities. In 2024, The Moment received the Grammy for Best Global Music Album.
“We planned to release Mind Explosion last year along with Shakti’s final three golden jubilee shows at NMACC in Mumbai and Dubai’s Coca-Cola Arena, but Zakir Hussain’s death left us shattered,” says Souvik Dutta, the U.S.-based music entrepreneur, who’s launching the album. He was additionally the man behind Shakti’s fiftieth anniversary concert events and the producer of its The Moment.
“Unlike his vibrant self, Zakir sounded exhausted when he called me in November 2024. He wanted to take some time off. He had told John he would be fine soon and back for the shows. He was conversing with all of us on our Whatsapp group and even took a look at the working album cover. Suddenly, his health began to deteriorate. After his passing, we lost the enthusiasm and energy to take the work forward. But we decided that we had to do it for him. His absence was felt every moment and in every musical aspect. It was painful. So much that even the cover design went through at least seven iterations before John arrived at the final one,” recollects Souvik.
Mind Explosion: fiftieth Anniversary Tour Live album cowl
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
The band wished to spherical off its golden jubilee celebrations with a stay album. Recording engineer Sven Hoffman recorded all 29 concert events carried out throughout the globe. The musicians listened to those recordings and zeroed in on six tracks – ‘Kiki’, ‘Giriraj Sudha’, ‘Lotus Feet’, ‘5 in the Morning 6 in the Afternoon’, ‘Sakhi’ and ‘Shrini’s Dream’.
Mind Explosion, blended by George Murphy and mastered by famend keyboardist Scott Kinsey, carries a giant slice of Indo-jazz music historical past. Dedicating the album to Zakir bhai’s reminiscence, Shankar Mahadevan, Ganesh Rajagopalan and Selva Ganesh see the album as a documentation of Shakti’s efforts in making a music world with out borders.
Published – June 18, 2025 11:41 pm IST
