Shakti With John McLaughlin - Shakti

Nov

9

Shakti With John McLaughlin - Shakti

≡ Category: 1970s, Essential, Reviews, World Fusion |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING

Rating:

Talk about a highwire act without a net. Shakti With John McLaughlin (on the Columbia label) was recorded live at South Hampton College and was his first release with Shakti. Two out of the three compositions on this release are over 18 minutes long. There is absolutely nowhere to hide. If McLaughlin didn’t have a good grasp of the concepts of South Indian classical music, it would be completely and immediately evident.

As it is, Shakti With John McLaughlin demonstrates McLaughlin’s determination and capacity for hard work as much as it does his brass balls in pulling off such as stunt.

McLaughlin seems completely comfortable with the complex rhythmic patterns characteristic of South Indian classical music. That isn’t totally surprising, really, considering his propensity for bizarre time signatures in his own compositions for the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

More so than even the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Shakti, at it’s inception anyway, was predicated on virtuosity and group interplay. There are no harmonic patterns in this music, only melody, rhythmic patterns, and allowed modes for improvisation. That puts the focus squarely on the inventiveness and quick thinking of the musicians.

All of the musicians are up to the challenge. The percussionists, R. Raghavan (mridangam), T.S. Vinayakaram (ghatam & mridangam) and Zakir Hussain (tabla) have almost a telepathic connection to soloists McLaughlin and L. Shankar (violin). Shankar is like McLaughlin’s Siamese twin brother, separated at birth and raised in India. The way they echo and feed each other is uncanny.

Whereas Joy is a showcase for pure virtuosity, What Need Have I For This — What Need Have I For That — I Am Dancing At The Feet Of My Lord — All Is Bliss — All Is Bliss, offers more possibilities for demonstrating the emotionally expressive qualities of the acoustic guitar and McLaughlin takes full advantage of the opportunity. Starting from a standstill, the tune works up to a medium tempo.

Later in the tune, we get treated to an extended dialog between Zakir Hussain’s tabla and the other percussionists’ mridangams (a wood and rawhide drum).

Coming after My Goals Beyond, his work with Miles Davis, and the two versions of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, we get yet another instance of McLaughlin coming up with a radical innovation, superbly realized the first time out, a true fusion of Western and Eastern music. Shakti With John McLaughlin is yet more evidence of John McLaughlin’s genius, if you weren’t already convinced.