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The Historic Shakti 50th Anniversary World Tour In Seattle
by Shakti 50
in Seattle
Event Type:
Celebrity/Artist Event
Description:
An unprecedented, transcontinental collaboration, Shakti united eastern and western musicians, and in the process forged the template for what is now called ...world music. From the West came virtuoso British guitarist John McLaughlin, who re-wired jazz via his work with Miles Davis and the Tony Williams Lifetime. From the East came visionary tabla player Zakir Hussain, who had accompanied legendary Hindustani musicians from adolescence. A music shop owner in New York Citys Greenwich Village connected the two in 1969, sowing the seeds of what was to become Shakti. ...There wasn't a first meeting, Hussain recalls today. ...It felt like a reunion of long-lost brother
Artist Info:
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Zakir Hussain
Ustad Zakir Hussain was born on March 9, 1951.He is a famous Indian tabla player. He is widely considered as the world's best tabla player. He has also won awards and recognitions for his contribution to the world of music.He was born in Bombay to the well known tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha in India. He attended St. Michael's High School in Mahim, and graduated from St Xaviers, Mumbai.
A child prodigy, Zakir was touring by the age of twelve. Zakir went to the United States in 1970, embarking on an international career which includes no fewer than 150 concert dates a year.
He has composed and recorded many albums and soundtracks, and has received widespread recognition as a composer for his many ensembles and collaborations. He has composed soundtracks for the films In Custody and The Mystic Masseur directed by Ismail Merchant, Bernardo Bertoluccis Little Buddha (for which Zakir composed, performed and acted as Indian music advisor), Vanaprastham (The Last Dance), chosen to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May, 1999, Saaz, and Everybody Says I'm Fine.
Zakir received the distinct honor of co-composing the opening music for the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, 1996. He was commissioned to compose music for Alonzo Kings Lines Ballet, and to compose an original work for the San Francisco Jazz Festival, both in 1998. He has received numerous grants and awards, including participation in the Meet the Composer programs funded by the Pew Memorial Trust and an Izzie (Isadora Duncan Award) for his composition for Lines Ballet. In 2000, Zakir worked again with choreographer Alonzo King, this time composing music for The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. In 2002, his commissioned work for choreographer Mark Morris Kolam premiered as part of Yo Yo Mas Silk Road Project with Yo Yo and Zakir performing together live for the performance. In September, 2006, Triple Concerto for Banjo, Bass and Tabla, a piece co-composed by Zakir, Edgar Meyer and Bela Fleck, was performed by the trio with the Nashville Symphony at the gala opening of the Schermerhorn Symphony Hall in Nashville. Zakir reunited with choreographer Alonzo King in 2007 for Lines Ballets 25th anniversary celebration, creating acclaimed music for Kings new work, Rasa. Also in 2007, the government of India chose Zakir to compose an anthem to celebrate Indias 60th year of independence. The song, Jai Hind, has been recorded by an array of Indias finest classical vocalists and pop singers.
Zakir is the recipient of the 1999 National Heritage Fellowship, the United States' highest honor for a master of traditional arts. He has been a professor at Princeton University, Stanford University, University of Washington, and at UC Berkeley in the prestigious post of Regents Lecturer. Zakir’s yearly tabla workshop in Marin County, California, draws hundreds of serious students and performers. In 2019, he was selected as a Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellow and awarded honorary doctorates from Berklee College of Music, Boston, and from Indira Kala Sangeet University, Khairagarh.
Zakir is the founder and president of Moment! Records, an independent record label presenting rare live concert recordings of Indian classical music and world music.
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Shankar Mahadevan
Shankar Mahadevan is an Indian singer and music composer. An accomplished musician in Tamil cinema, he is a part of the Shankar Ehsaan Loy trio team that provides music to Bollywood films. Early life Shankar Mahadevan was born in Chennai, India to a Tamil family, and grew up in Mumbai. He learned Indian Classical Music and Carnatic music in his childhood and started playing Veena at the age of five. He played Veena in the first song of Bhimsen Joshi and Lata Mangeshkar togeather composed by Shrinivas Khale]. He went to OLPS High School in Chembur.He graduated in 1988 with a degree in Electronics Engineering from R.A.I.T (D Y Patil,Navi Mumbai), under the auspices of Mumbai University . As of now he sings songs in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada,Telugu, Marathi, and Carnatic. Career Though a software engineer by profession and having worked with Oracle Corporation, Shankar's Interest in music made him venture into the field of music. He got his first award as a playback singer in Chennai film music, collaborating with A. R. Rahman and winning a National Film Award for his song in Kandukondain Kandukondain. A prominent star in the Kodambakkam film industry, he later gained more recognition by releasing his first music album called Breathless. He later got into music direction and became a part of the Shankar Ehsaan Loy trio, composing music for Bollywood films. He enjoys a successful run with Fusion-Jazz band SILK with Louis Banks on Keyboards, Sivamani on percussion, Sridhar Parthasarathy on Mridangam and Karl Peters on Bass Guitar. Shankar Mahadevan has also provided vocals for several compositions of Remember Shakti which features maestros like [[Zakir Hussain (musician)|John McLaughlin, U. Srinivas and Selvaganesh Vinayakram. He is also a mentor on Zee TV's musical reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009. He was music director for the famous School chale hum song that used to come on Doordarshan (DD). He was singer as well for that song.
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John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (born 4 January 1942), also known as Mahavishnu, is an English guitarist, bandleader, and composer. A pioneer of jazz fusion, his music combines elements of jazz with rock, world music, Indian classical music, Western classical music, flamenco, and blues. After contributing to several key British groups of the early 1960s, McLaughlin made Extrapolation, his first album as a bandleader, in 1969. He then moved to the U.S., where he played with drummer Tony Williams's group Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his electric jazz fusion albums In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, Live-Evil, and On the Corner. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences.
McLaughlin then became absorbed in his acoustic playing with his Indian classical music-based group Shakti (energy). McLaughlin had already been studying Indian classical music and playing the veena for several years. The group featured Lakshminarayanan L. Shankar (violin), Zakir Hussain (tabla), Thetakudi Harihara Vinayakram (ghatam) and earlier Ramnad Raghavan (mridangam). The group recorded three albums: Shakti with John McLaughlin (1975) A Handful of Beauty (1976), and Natural Elements (1977). Based on both Carnatic and Hindustani styles, along with extended use of konnakol, the band introduced ragas and Indian percussion to many jazz aficionados.[16]
In this group McLaughlin played a custom-made steel-string J-200 acoustic guitar made by Abe Wechter and the Gibson guitar company that featured two tiers of strings over the soundhole: a conventional six-string configuration and seven strings strung underneath at a 45-degree angle - these were independently tuneable "sympathetic strings" much like those on a sitar or veena. The instrument's vina-like scalloped fretboard enabled McLaughlin to bend strings far beyond the reach of a conventional fretboard. McLaughlin grew so accustomed to the freedom it provided him that he had the fretboard scalloped on his Gibson Byrdland electric guitar.
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V. Selvaganesh
V. Selvaganesh is an Indian percussionist working in the Carnatic tradition, and is the leading kanjira (or south Indian frame drum) player of his generation. He is also known as "Chella S. Ganesh."
A grandson of Sri T. R. Harihara Sarma, who founded the Sri Jaya Ganesh Tala Vadya Vidyalaya (Sri JGTV school) in Chennai, Selvaganesh gained world fame through tours with John McLaughlin's group Remember Shakti. He helps his father, Grammy-winner T.H. "Vikku" Vinayakram (himself a former member of the original Shakti), to run the Sri JGTV school and train a new generation of Carnatic percussionists. He has also composed and produced albums, and played with the Swedish bass virtuoso Jonas Hellborg. His debut international solo album is due for release in 2005 featuring John McLaughlin and other stars. He has also formed a new group called dr JSM, with the UK-based Goan songwriter/producer dr.Joel and the young Carnatic singer Mahesh. Their Indo-Celtic album entitled Turn on the dreams was released in the UK in 2005.
V. Selvaganesh made his debut composing for films with the Tamil movie Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu(2008).
He is busy composing the music for the Tamil movie "Kola Kolaya Mundhirika" (2009) where he has composed a diverse album containing a Punjabi-style Bhangra song sung by his favorite singer Shankar Mahadevan, a south India folk song, a hip-hop number, and an exquisite, romantic ballad that brings together legendary singers S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and K. S. Chithra after a very long time.
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Ganesh Rajagopalan
Indian classical Violin maestro Ganesh Rajagopalan (of Ganesh Kumaresh duo brothers fame) is internationally renowned performer and composer for past five decades. As a child prodigy he has been performing since the young age of seven and rose to stardom.
He has toured all over the world.Ganesh completed his 100th stage appearance before he was ten years old. Having learnt the art form from his Guru, Sri T S Rajagopalan, he mastered the art form to be graded A Top for his Violin playing and graded A in the Vocal category by All India Radio, the only recognized grading agency in India.
In his four decades of experience in performing, teaching, collaborating, and composing he has carved a niche for himself with his impeccable,remarkable technique and incredible virtuosity. He has toured world wide including performances at prestigious venues like Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Festival Hall in London, Chicago Symphony Center, Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley,Walt Disney Center, LA, Festival of Violin - Barcelona, Symphony Space- NY, Summermela, Rome Italy etc
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