Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Cankarjev dom (Gallusova dvorana) / Slovenia
Concert date: November 12, 2013
Attendance: 1,000
Ticket price: €29.00 / €32.00 / €37.00 / €44.00 / €26.00
The great jazz guitar guru John McLaughlin dropped by Cankarjev dom with his quintet Remember Shakti, after being absent from our parts for quite a while. Remember Shakti, a lineup where everyone plays an equal role even though the legendary guitarist is one of the most important jazz musicians of our time, is the logical continuation, you could say the newer extension, of McLaughlin’s cult band Shakti. Shakti made a name for themselves in the seventies with a blend of traditional Indian music and jazz elements that was groundbreaking for its day. The driving force behind that fusion of traditional Indian music and jazz was of course McLaughlin, not just a jazz lover but also a huge devotee of Indian spirituality and Eastern philosophy, who wanted to try something new after the end of the cult jazz fusion champions Mahavishnu Orchestra. After three pretty fascinating studio albums, Shakti ceased to exist at the end of the seventies, but after a twenty-year break McLaughlin decided to revive them in the nineties under the telling name Remember Shakti.
Since then they’ve been playing actively on concert stages around the world, and they still thrill audiences with a fairly unique musical approach that has won over plenty of music lovers who don’t usually listen to traditional Indian music. Besides the Englishman McLaughlin, the band is made up of four top-class Indian musicians. Zakir Hussain on tabla is, along with the legendary guitarist, the only member of the original Shakti, while U. Srinivas on mandolin, singer Shankar Mahadevan and V. Selvaganesh (son of original member T. H. Vinayakram) on traditional Indian percussion (kanjira, ghatam, mrindangam) have also been part of the Remember Shakti story for a good while now. The cult violinist L. Shankar, a member of the original Shakti and also known for his work with Frank Zappa, sadly isn’t part of this story, since McLaughlin never managed to track him down after reviving the band. By the way, in Sanskrit Shakti means ‘power’ or ‘goddess of power’, which clearly shows how spirituality is an integral part of Remember Shakti’s atmospheric vocabulary.
The music of the traditional Indian players and their famous English guitar ‘brother’ is best described as one big celebration, and you could already hear it in »Bending The Rules«, the opening number of the evening. They started playing it in the traditional Indian seated position, with their legs covered by a blanket (and they stayed that way until the end of the show), before the curtain had even fully risen. It’s worth mentioning that the original Shakti were primarily an instrumental band, whereas Remember Shakti have a singer in their ranks, while both percussion masters also deftly handle vocalizations when needed, a form of traditional Indian chanting that would tie the tongue of the average Western listener in knots in no time.
Mandolin player U. Srinivas is incredibly precise and fast, and he complemented McLaughlin’s proverbial virtuosity and amazing sense for witty improvisation perfectly. The two percussionists, Hussain and Selvaganesh, were a story all their own, and they repeatedly got tangled up in what were almost epic duels on pentatonically tinted percussion, creating downright ethereal ambient soundscapes. Remeber Shakti also played two songs by the original Shakti, namely »Bridge Of Sighs« and »La Dense du Bonheur«, after which John introduced all the band members.
The legendary guitarist also provided some typical English humor that evening. An awkward moment came up just as he wanted to introduce singer Mahadevan, when the whining of a small child in the audience beat him to it. He turned it into a roar of laughter by introducing the unknown kid as ‘our singer’. Then he did introduce Mahadevan properly. Mr. McLaughlin didn’t hold back on the jokes otherwise, either, saying for instance that these days probably only aging hippies still remember the Shakti music of the seventies. In the second part of their set, Remember Shakti kept spreading their unforgettable ambient magic in all directions, and some concertgoers could easily ‘move’ in spirit toward some ‘astral meadows’. Surprisingly, though, the high point of the evening with Remember Shahkti wasn’t McLaughlin’s crazy guitar improvisations, in which Srinivas on mandolin was his complete equal, but the solo spots of the two percussionists. Selvaganesh first staged a solo stampede on the kanjiras and successfully challenged Hussain on tabla, who didn’t stay in his debt when it came to chasing traditional Indian rhythms, driving the audience further and further into delirium.
After the regular set, the members of Remember Shakti came back on stage and played one more song for the finale, »Finding The Way«. The thunderous applause just wouldn’t die down, which was only right at the end, since this was a concert of pure highlights. The only ‘problem’ worth mentioning during this wonderful evening, when the members of Remember Shakti took us off to faraway eastern lands, came from the audience, because certain people simply didn’t know when the clapping had gone beyond reasonable limits and that the artists would have liked to focus in peace on starting the next number. ‘Mahavishnu’ John McLaughlin deserves one more bow and a big thank-you for this special concert occasion, which flew by far too quickly. Together with four Indian masters, he delivered a world-class international jazz fusion event, the kind we sadly still get far too few of around here.
Setlist
1. Bending the Rules
2. Ma, No Pa
3. Bridge of Sighs (Shakti cover)
4. La Danse du Bonheur (Shakti cover)
5. Anna
6. 5 in the Morning, 6 in the Afternoon
7. Sakhi
8. Kiki
9. Being You
10. Kanjira solo (V. Selvaganesh)
11. Tabla solo (Zakir Hussain)
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12. Finding the Way
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