{"id":1421,"date":"2023-12-22T19:49:55","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T19:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shakti50.com\/?page_id=1421"},"modified":"2023-12-23T19:30:12","modified_gmt":"2023-12-23T19:30:12","slug":"shakti-50th-anniversary-tour-reflections-by-bill-milkowski","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.shakti50.com\/shakti-50th-anniversary-tour-reflections-by-bill-milkowski\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakti 50th Anniversary Tour Reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Shakti 50th Anniversary Tour Reflections with Bela Fleck, John Scofield, Bill Frisell, Jerry Douglas. Jimmy Herring, Dennis Chambers, Jeff Sipe, Oz Noy, Joel Harrison and others-By Bill Milkowski<\/em><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

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London, June 27, 2023 Photo: John McGloin <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Bill Milkowski<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guitar god of my youth, John McLaughlin, now 81, sat cross-legged on the carpeted dais floating in the middle of a spare stage at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. It was yet another stop on Shakti\u2019s international 50th Anniversary Tour, which commenced in the States on August 17 in Boston and continued into September with stops in California, Oregon, Illinois, Michigan, and Texas. Looking aged but elegant as always, John-ji engaged his audience of thousands of adoring fans \u2014 many, like me, who had witnessed Shakti in concert during their initial Stateside tour in 1976 or caught the later iteration of the group, Remember Shakti, in 2001 \u2014 by reminiscing about his own first time playing in the historic and Byzantine theatre built in 1926. It was 1970 when McLaughlin landed there with Tony Williams Lifetime, led by the preternaturally gifted drummer who had left Miles Davis\u2019 second great quintet to form his own version of Cream; in essence, launching the fusion movement in the process. That was before John had formed Mahavishnu Orchestra, the seminal fusion juggernaut acclaimed for its complex, intense music melding rock, jazz and Indian classical music. That band had also played at The Capitol Theatre back in the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sondcheck at The Capitol Theatre, Photo: Souvik Dutta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


But on this August night in 2023, McLaughlin was hailed as a returning hero, and he delivered in dramatic, inspired fashion alongside his Shakti bandmates \u2014 tabla master Zakir Hussain, violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan, percussionist Selvaganesh Vinayakram and glorious vocalist Shankar Mahadevan, a huge pop star in his native country and leading composer in Indian film music. Together they performed material from Shakti\u2019s latest recording, This Moment<\/strong><\/em> (Abstract Logix), the group\u2019s first studio album in 46 years, along with some memorable nuggets from the band\u2019s past.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This Moment (2023, Abstract Logix)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Three months after that Milwaukee gig, the Mahavishnu Orchestra played the Schaefer Music Festival in New York\u2019s Central Park (on Aug. 17 and 18, 1973, which was documented on the live album Between Nothingness & Eternity<\/em>). Around that time, McLaughlin performed a one-off concert with an acoustic Indian flavored ensemble at Saint Thomas Episcopal Church in midtown Manhattan, marking the first public performance of Shakti. I would later see that incredible East-meets-West group on their first Stateside tour when they opened for Weather Report on May 18, 1976, at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain met in early 1970’s. Photo: Jamie Soja<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since that time, I have witnessed McLaughlin in concert with the One Truth Band in 1978, with The Guitar Trio featuring Al Di Meola and Paco de Lucia in 1980, with The Translators featuring Katia Labeque on synths and Tommy Campbell on drums in 1982 followed by a 1984 incarnation of the Mahavishnu Orchestra with Bill Evans on saxophone, Jonas Hellborg on bass, Mitch Forman on keyboards and Danny Gottlieb on drums and again in 1986 with Jim Beard on keyboards. I also saw John in various trio configurations between 1987 and 1992 with Trilok Gurtu on drums\/percussion and either Jonas Hellborg, Kai Eckhardt or Dominique Di Piazza on bass. I caught him again in 1996 with his Free Spirits organ trio featuring Joey DeFrancesco and drummer Chambers, in 1997 with his Heart of Things band with bassist Matthew Garrison, tenor saxophonist Gary Thomas, keyboardist Jim Beard and drummer Dennis Chambers, and then with a new incarnation of Shakti (now dubbed Remember Shakti with the marvelous mandolin maestro U. Shrinivas replacing violinist L. Shankar in the group) at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 1999 and then again at the Beacon Theatre in New York on Nov. 5, 2000 and at the Central Park Summerstage on June 28, 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shakti with original member Vikku Vinayakaram, Mumbai January 21, 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2007, McLaughlin unveiled his 4th Dimension Band (with bassist Hadrian Feraud, keyboardist Gary Husband and drummer Mark Mondesir) at a Town Hall concert, then in 2009 he appeared along with Chick Corea, bassist Christian McBride, alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett and drummer Brian Blade in the Five Peace Band at Jazz at Lincoln Center\u2019s Rose Theatre. In 2012, I caught John trading licks with fellow guitar hero Mike Stern at the Nice Jazz Festival and the following summer of 2013, he brought his 4th Dimension Band into New York for a week-long engagement at the Blue Note, and I attended every night. Later that year, in October of 2013, I was part of an intimate gathering to witness John playing duets at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with pianist Gary Husband in a demonstration of Paul Reed Smith Guitars, following a ceremony in which the luthier presented one of his custom instruments to be part of the permanent display at the museum. Then on Dec. 10, 2016, McLaughlin appeared at the Blue Note in a special Return To Forever-meets-Mahavishnu Orchestra concert (with Lenny White on drums, Victor Wooten on bass and guests Bela Fleck on banjo, Kenny Garrett on alto sax and Wallace Roney on trumpet) as part of Chick Corea\u2019s eight-week residency at the New York City nightclub. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vikku Vinayakram joins Shakti in Mumbai on Jan 22, 2023, Photo: Pepe Gomes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to 2017, when McLaughlin returned to Town Hall on his \u201cMeeting of the Spirits\u201d tour that combined his 4th Dimension Band with fellow guitarist Jimmy Herring\u2019s Invisible Whip band into a 9-piece amplified orchestra that recreated vintage Mahavishnu Orchestra material from The Inner Mounting Flame<\/em>, Birds of Fire<\/em> and Visions of Emerald Beyond<\/em>. It was billed as John\u2019s farewell tour of America (due to a debilitating arthritic condition in his hands he was reportedly going to retire from touring). As he said at the time, \u201cThe American tour is it for me because the situation with my hands is deteriorating. Short of a miracle, I think that\u2019ll probably be it, at least in terms of touring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Soundcheck Kolkata, Jan 24, 2023 Photo: Pepe Gomes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After completing that Stateside \u201cMeeting of the Spirits\u201d tour, McLaughlin would return to his home in Monaco, where he subsequently recorded 2020\u2019s beautiful, orchestral-sounding Is That So?<\/em> with fellow Shakti members Zakir Hussain and Shankar Mahadevan recording their parts remotely from their homes in San Francisco and Mumbai, respectively, and also 2021\u2019s Liberation Time<\/em>, both recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following a seemingly miraculous cure from his arthritic condition, McLaughlin was back on the road with a new edition of Shakti, featuring his longtime musical partner Zakir Hussain on tabla, Selvaganesh (from Remember Shakti) on ghatam, Shankar Mahadevan on vocals and newest member Ganesh Rajagopalan on Carnatic violin. Following a European tour earlier in 2023, they came to the States during the summer to celebrate the group\u2019s 50th Anniversary in a 17-city tour. The tour was in conjunction with the release of Shakti\u2019s first studio album in 45 years, This Moment<\/em>, which has since been nominated for a Best Global Music Album Grammy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For longtime Shakti fans like me, their stop at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY (about a 90-minute drive from my home in West Hartford, CT) was a peak experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Pepe Gomes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Opening the concert with an adrenalized \u201c5 in the Morning, 6 in the Afternoon\u201d (from 2000\u2019s Remember Shakti), it was clear from the outset that McLaughlin\u2019s legendary chops were very much intact. This was a great relief to fans who had mourned his announced retirement from touring in 2017 due to complications from arthritis in his hands. But John-ji was in peak form in Port Chester, shredding like the guitar hero of old on his tastefully distorted Paul Reed Smith electric guitar (as opposed to his original Abe Wechter-built acoustic Shakti guitar with scalloped fingerboard and sympathetic drone-strings transversely across the sound hole). In fact, McLaughlin performed in jaw-dropping fashion throughout the volcanic set, seemingly merging his Mahavishnu past and Shakti present.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n