Shakti At The Hammersmith Apollo, 27/06/23

[James W]

So, as mentioned on another thread, last night I went to see Shakti, a legendary group that now comprises John McLaughlin on guitar, Ganesh Rajagopalan on violin, Zakir Hussain on Tabla, Selvaganesh on Ghatam, Kanjira and Mridangam and Shankar Mahadevan on vocals (who also, along with the two percussionists did the Indian rhythmical scatting that is Konnokol).

Putting aside my soured mood (more on that in a few sentences) it was a great gig. They opened, much to my delight, with a tune from the Remember Shakti album The Believer '5 In The Morning, 6 In The Afternoon', and then followed it with two more segued into each other, 'Zakir' and 'Anna'. They were then joined by vocalist Shankar Mahadevan and there followed Selvaganesh's 'Mohanam' from the new album. I can't remember all the tunes played from this point onwards, but I do recall a very fine rendition of 'Sakhi', which is from the 2020 album Is That So? and, probably the highlight, Shankar Mahadevan's composition 'Bending The Rules'. It was so joyful and fun to see them trade solos, particularly violinist Rajagopalan and McLaughlin on that last number, I got the impression that the example of the violinist pushed McLaughlin to play ideas he might not have otherwise conceived. And McLaughlin's tone was very fine, I'm not sure quite how to describe it other than to say it was distorted just to an extent that in a certain register it produced a pleasant growl.

But, alas, my evening was curtailed by the necessity of having to get back from Hammersmith, where the gig was taking place, to Euston, where I would have to catch a train, what with the utter morons at St Christopher's hostel having rejected me because of my form of ID (an out-of-date driving licence which never hitherto had been rejected - I used it to vote, for example) even though I had already booked and paid for a shared room. So I missed the last half hour so that I could get back to Euston, a journey I made in an hour and ten minutes by alternating between running and walking (I didn't want to deal with the underground) on the way there it had taken about an hour and forty minutes to get to Hammersmith from Euston. But, anyway, before the gig I was spotted by a guy who recognised me from Paul Dunmall gigs, I think because of my ubiquitous Bitches Brew t-shirt. Small world eh? So it was nice chatting with him. Also, I have to mention the fine opening act of French-Vietnamese guitarist Nguyen Le and Gary Husband on drums and keyboard...

[ragman1]

Hey, James. Put some paragraphs in. Big blocks of text are hard to negotiate!

[GuyBoden]

Gary Husband and Nguyen are sublime improvisers.........

[James W]

Hey, James. Put some paragraphs in. Big blocks of text are hard to negotiate!

Done!

[ragman1]

Done!

Great, thanks, much easier.

I'm glad a Western person likes and understands their music. And, apart from the odd blip here and there, you had a good time!

[James W]

The best filmed video I've seen of this band -