This Moment

As a cornerstone of what is now called World Music, the vision and virtuosity of Shakti has inspired generations of musicians from around the world to explore sonic hybrids once thought impossible. Born of the musical and spiritual brotherhood shared by the revolutionary British guitarist and bandleader John McLaughlin and master Indian percussionist Zakir Hussain, Shakti's soulful, organic intermingling of Eastern and Western musical traditions has proven transformative for both the band's members and its listeners.

The compositions making up This Moment each pass through a series of connected movements, highlighting different vocal and instrumental sub-groups within Shakti while transitioning between taut thematic statements, riveting solos from McLaughlin and Rajagopalan, invigorating rhythmic shifts, and soaring vocal passages by Mahadevan. The increased use of vocals - both sung and konokol (a Southern Indian tradition of spoken percussion) - gives today's Shakti a new degree of warmth, humanity, and universality. McLaughlin's contributions are remarkable in their ability to reconcile the great Ragas of North and South India with a chromaticism born of jazz and the blues, and the speed and precision of his articulation remains exhilarating. The engine room of Hussain and Vinayakram (son of original Shakti ghatam player T.H. "Vikku" Vinayakram) gives space to allow passages to breathe and resound, while equally capable of fomenting a roiling, galloping underpinning that push the soloists to increasingly ecstatic heights.
For founders McLaughlin and Hussain, Shakti's astonishing longevity - along with a legacy that has affected musicians and audiences around the world - is met with humility and gratitude.

But while recognizing the group's past achievements, Shakti continues to evolve, as demonstrated so compellingly on This Moment. "You could say that we have returned to elements of an older Shakti sound by bringing back the violin," reflects Hussain. "In some ways it completes the circle. But the musical mindset that the artists in the group bring to the table reveals many layers of creative thought that we in our initial incarnation did not have the time nor the means to explore. And now, the decades of individual music experiences we all have had poured into this gathering's offering has resulted in an extraordinary depth to the sound and interaction of this band."