Kolkata is witnessing one the most splendid evenings in late January as the Eastern Garden of Victoria Memorial is being graced by poets, laureates, writers, historians, lyricists, and musicians, who are making each day magical at Tata Steel Literary Meet 2023.
Meanwhile, Tabla Maestro Zakir Hussain, Global Icon Musician John McLaughlin, breathtakingly breathless Shankar Mahadevan, Selvaganesh, and Ganesh Rajagopalan came together on stage to discuss 50 years of their band: Shakti.
Of all that was said, Zakir Hussain’s take on the connection of a musician with his or her instrument was something that every aspiring or budding player should note.
In response to an audience’s query about how the instrument seems to be the extension of the body in the case of Hussain and others on the stage, he said…
“My father told me when I was learning from him that every instrument has a living, breathing spirit inside of it. And half the battle in terms of learning music is to be able to have that spirit accept you, befriend you, and bring you in. If that happens, the connection with the instrument is almost like the reattachment of the umbilical cord, and you become one body, one thought, one soul, one expression. You must be able to interact before you know what’s coming. If that happens, the music flies, and the story is told”.
Adding to it, John McLaughlin said, “I think if people sense that you and the instrument are different, there’s a problem.”
Besides this, the musicians shared anecdotes of their entry and tenure in the band. It came to light that McLaughlin and Zakir sir happened to first meet in a music shop in Gwenyth village in New York, where the latter gave Indian classical vocal lesions to the former. The companionship was such that it grew into a whole band.
Shankar Mahadevan shared that there were days when he would chase the likes of Zakir and McLaughlin for photographs, and 30 years later, he was fortunate enough to make it into Shakti.
And Selvaganesh said that Shakti’s music was the first he heard as a child in the cassette. Little did he know back then that he would go on to become a part of it.
About Shakti
Shakti is a fusion band formed by English guitarist John McLaughlin, Indian violin player L. Shankar, percussionists Zakir Hussain (on tabla) and T. H. “Vikku” Vinayakram (on Ghatam) in 1974. The band played acoustic fusion music which combined Indian music with elements of jazz. The band’s Hindi name means, in English, “creative intelligence, beauty, and power.”
In addition to fusing American and Indian music, Shakti also represented a fusion of the Hindustani and Carnatic music traditions since Hussain is from the north region of India while the other Indian members are from the South.
The group came together in 1974, after the dissolution of the first incarnation of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and toured fairly extensively during the period 1975-1977; it made only sporadic appearances (with personnel changes) after that.
After 1977 the albums that L. Shankar recorded with Z. Hussain and T. H. “Vikku” Vinayakram stayed close to the music made popular by Shakti. Some twenty years later, McLaughlin and Hussain put together another band with the same concept, called Remember Shakti, including V. Selvaganesh (son of T. H. “Vikku” Vinayakram ), mandolin player U. Shrinivas and eventually Shankar Mahadevan.