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 of new material. Splendid stuff it is too. Instantly recognisable as Shakti, yet with fresh sounds, as one might hope and expect from such a pioneering band—the band that, as many would have it, invented World Music before the term was born. Read more