John McLaughlin and Shakti: A reunion tour for east/west fusion

Americans, who know John McLaughlin from his groundbreaking jazz with Miles Davis through his thunderous explorations with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, are rapturous about his return, since his “farewell” performance in Atlanta in 2017 promised quite the opposite.

Six years ago McLaughlin thought his playing days were over. Then an American doctor named Joe Dispenza helped heal McLaughlin’s hand through suggesting a course in meditation and the power of the mind. “He’s something else,” McLaughlin, 81, told Downbeat magazine.

“He brought John back,” said McLaughlin’s Shakti partner of 50 years, Zakir Hussain, 72, speaking from his home in San Francisco. “John’s enjoying it and loving it. I haven’t seen such joy emanating from a musician since I saw it from my father. It’s so heartwarming and so amazing and ecstatic to see John be in this space.”

The group is touring with different opening acts, including such talented string players as John Scofield, Jerry Douglas and Bill Frisell. On Friday Shakti plans to finish the evening by inviting Fleck to join them on stage.

Credit: Shakti

Credit: Shakti

The seeds of Shakti were sown when McLaughlin and tabla star Hussain played together for the first time in 1972 at the San Rafael, Califonia, home of Ali Akbar Khan. “We sat down to jam and I knew within thirty seconds I had to work with him” said McLaughlin, in a recent interview from his home in Monaco. “My life has been changed by this guy. And what an adventure it was.”

McLaughlin was, at the time, blowing the minds of a rock ‘n’ roll audience with the electric fusion of Mahavishnu. Within a few years he would turn into a radically different path.

In the place of Mahavishnu’s amplified storms, Shakti featured hand percussion, violin, and McLaughlin on a 13-string acoustic guitar.

The group’s raga-based improvisations went from contemplative to breakneck, the exchanges telepathic, the compositions up to a half-hour long.

When he decided to give up Mahavishnu for Shakti, “the wrath of god descended on me from my record company and my agent,” said McLaughlin.

Indian classical musicians were also not all thrilled. “There was a deeply entrenched fanaticism about Indian music being left as it is,” said Hussain.

“But look,” added McLaughlin, “fifty years later, what group is still alive and kicking? It’s not Mahavishnu. It’s Shakti.”

McLaughlin wasn’t a dabbler. He did his homework, learned the ragas and the complex rhythmic cycles of subcontinental music. Classical Indian music is linear, based on scales; there are no chord changes. “They don’t have harmony in India,” says the guitarist.

Credit: Shakti

Credit: Shakti

But in the newest Shakti album, “This Moment,” released this summer, McLaughlin meshes some harmonic movement with the ragas they use. “When I wanted to play with Indian musicians I didn’t want to be an Indian musician,” said McLaughlin. “I wanted to be a western musician. I was blues and jazz and flamenco. I wanted to bring my western core into Shakti. I know what ragas I’m playing, and I can bend the rules, and bring certain chords in, and the whole raga has a different movement, it’s completely different. They love that.”

Shakti has reassembled with different members over the years, always around the team of McLaughlin and Hussain. In 2014 the group was performing with U. Srinivas on five-string electric mandolin. Srinivas was a prodigy who gave his first concerts at age 11. That fall he died suddenly at age 45.

The loss put the band in a tailspin. “We were just scattered emotionally,” said McLaughlin. Said Hussain, “It took us two or three years just to talk about trying to get together.” Then COVID-19 hit.

They had compositions to record, but getting together was next to impossible. As a result, the newest record was assembled at long distance, with Hussain Dropboxing his parts from San Francisco, as did McLaughlin from Monte Carlo and vocalist Shankar Mahadevan and violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan from India.

Each reacted to the others’ revisions and additions, extending the recording process. McLaughlin sometimes utilized guitar synthesizer, creating a lush, produced sound, unlike the austere Shakti of 1975. “It was basically two years in the making,” said McLaughlin.

With the lapse of the pandemic, the group decided a world tour was in order.

Credit: John Davisson/Invision/AP

Credit: John Davisson/Invision/AP

That’s fine with McLaughlin. Shakti thrives in a live environment. “We don’t know what’s going to happen every night, which is one of the reasons it’s such a thrill,” he said. “There’s always excitement there; it will move in a different way than you think.”

On the other hand, life on the road is tough for an octogenarian. “Musically I’ve never felt better, but touring is not like it used to be,” said McLaughlin. “Bo, it is brutal. Airlines hate musicians.”

Despite being packed in sturdy cases, two of his guitars have been broken in luggage compartments, so he has to buy a seat for his instrument, and then hope the airline doesn’t give the seat away.

Considering that the members of the group are spread across three continents, could this be Shakti’s swan song? “I’m not going to give up music, but I really don’t know,” said McLaughlin.

As always he is focused on the present, an attitude encoded in the title of the new album.

“This moment,” he said, “is the only one.”

MUSIC PREVIEW

John McLaughlin and Shakti

Bela Fleck opens. 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25. $59.50-$149.50. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. 770-916-2852, cobbenergycentre.com.