Customer Reviews

Remember Shakti: The Way of Beauty

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Clocking in at 3 hours, this dvd is packed with performance footage and interviews. It features a 60-minute documentary "Timeless" on the band, starting from the early 70's. John and Zakir speak about their beginnings, their era with L.Shankar and T.H. Vinayakram. Then you get 45 minutes of sound check footage with Remember Shakti from Paris 2004, as well as 55 minutes of the concert from Mumbai 2000. Also includes 2 Live Concerts--the original band from 1976 (Montreux Jazz Festival) as well as Montreux Jazz 2004. Plus, a huge bonus: clips from the Mahavishnu Orchestra at my alma mater -- just four years before I got there, bummer-- Syracuse University, NY, 1972 outside gig at Skytop (Very rare but you can find the entire 45 min. performance-- with Ravi Shankar warming up the MO-- on YouTube now). Highly recommended for all McLaughlin and MO fans.

I'll keep this review brief; there is simply not alot for me to say, as music like this speaks for itself. You will be hard-pressed to find another group of musicians who both look and sound so joyous in performance. Everyone in this group is as much a music-lover as they are a music-player. Smiles and laughs abound amongst the bandmates, and at times their improvisations sound more mirthful and giddy than the musicians themselves, and that's saying alot! If this performance doesn't bring a smile to your face, I fear you're beyond hope.
Add to this a wonderful feature-length interview with Messrs. McLaughlin & Hussain, documenting the history of this groundbreaking band, as well as classic clips of performances by the original Shakti (and even one of the 1st Mahavishnu Orchestra!) and you have a DVD package that's worth twice it's price. 5 stars +++

For example the Montreux one (the one in 1976) is absolutely great. They filmed just one song, "Joy", that features naturally John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain (the two founding members of Shakti) on Guitar and Tabla, and L. Sankar rocking the hell out of his violin, and T.H. "Vikku" Vinaykram on the gatham, a percussion similar to a giant jar. This performance is particularly powerful, all the musicans are in great form!
The same thing about two of the three songs on the more recent (John hair was white) "Live at Bombey" performance. The first one, for example, is great: it's called "Giriraj Sudha" and it features V. Selvaganesh on various percussions, Shankar Mahavadenon the voice (a very strong point on this song), A. K. Pallanivel on the tavil, another indian percussion, John, Zakir and the phenomenal mandolin player U. Shrinvas that wrote the song as well. The melody and the rhythm of this song is so frenetic, and even if John doesn't play a lot on it, the mandolin is still great
The weak point of this performance is of course the next song: "Shringar", featuring Shiv Kumar Sharma on the santur, a strange string instrument played with sticks. This song consist in a boring quarter-hour santur solo. Then percussions start to play, and it becomes more interesting. Only when John touches his strings the song touches the apex, but the rest of it is absolutely boring.
The best song on this performance is the last one: "Bell'alla", written by Zakir (the tabla player), that features also Bhattacharya, an incredible slide guitar player (the slide guitar is not the classic occidental one, but the indian one, that sounds like a sitar) and Sivamani, a drums player, probably with jazz influences.
Debashish's slide guitar and John's Gibson solos are incredible, so great and inventive. No one can beat them. The percussions solos are great too.
The next video is of another Montreux show, but this time dated 2004.
It featured John, Zakir, Shrinvas, Selvaganesh and Mahadaven, but it's quite boring: John guitar uses the same effect all the song long, and the singer says the same sentence during 10 minutes! So this performance is really poor.
So, as I said before, on this DVD there are good ones and bad ones: you just have to choose the right for you.
Anyway, the biggest difference between the old performances and the new ones, (in my opinion) is that while the olds were the "meeting point" between indian and jazz music, the new ones are like indian music with a jazz guitar player, like a stranger. Maybe they forgot what was Shakti about in 70's, or maybe it's just me...

As an ardent fan of Shakti, I have to give 5 stars to this DVD, just for the following reasons.

a) I finally know why L Shankar did not make it to the re-union tour. The interviews in the DVD are priceless. You get to know why and how Shakti was formed and how it was formed again.

b) The 1976 footage of Shakti playing at Montreux is priceless. It is fun watching a shirtless Vikku wearing only his 'veshti' and going bonkers whereas L Shankar appears to be 'cool' with this sun glasses and all. BTW, who are those two pretty girls in the troupe playing the 'sruthi' box? :)

c) I have seen Shakti live, but not this close. The DVD rules when you finally see the eye contact between John, Zakir and Selvaganesh. They communicate totally through facial expressions and eye gestures. The synchronization of music is classic, particularly when their mode of communication is through eye gestures :). Priceless. You finally get to see how they really enjoy playing with each other.

d) The 1 hour Bombay concert is also the strength and weakness of this DVD. Strength since I can finally tell apart the music from the instruments.

I can finally figure out that the string instrument in Bell'Alla is Debashish Battacharya's slide guitar and NOT John's electric guitar, which I never knew.

I can finally figure out that it was Shiv Kumar Sharma's Santur in Shringar.

It is also the weakest part of the DVD because of the way the show was produced in Shanmugananda Hall. I mean, who are all those random people who keep showing up in the background? And what is with all the cables?

As a photographer, it is a nightmare since only the head on shots work and you can't for instance just focus on Sivamani, since you see a zillion people in the frame if you do that.

As a result, we don't get to see as much of Sivamani and Selvaganesh play, which is a pity.

Having said that, after a while I realize that it was Vikku Vinayakram in the background going bonkers when the music was playing, sitting in the sidelines. Next time, I do hope that they give Vikku a premium seat and make him sit in the first row or something :).

e) The 2004 Montreux concert was beautifully staged and performed, but they limited to just one song, Sakhi, which was barely ok.

All said and done, this is a priceless DVD, if you are a Shakti fan. If you are not, buy the CDs first :).

John McLaughlin should be rewared by Indian government for the promotion of this Asian Power culture by "Shakti" and other projects which brought us closer to that music and became classic of the fusion of Western instruments and style of playing with Eastern expression of the music

I've been following McLaughlin since the mid 1970s, but I've never before gotten such an in-depth presentation about this underappreciated group.

Musically, you get both old Shakti and new Shakti; in my opinion, every iteration of this group has produced some of the most vital and inspiring music on the planet. The sound quality is surprisingly good, even on the 1970s material - it's almost as good as on the Columbia Shakti releases. The video quality's at best OK on the older material, but what can you expect?

The interviews section goes into great depth - and told me much I didn't know - about how Shakti originally came together, how it reformed, and how it came to so gracefully combine various aspects of Indian and Western music. I learned much about Indian music in the process. One of my favorite moments is a brief tabla solo by Hussain, which shows both his extraordinary skill and the incredible range of his seemingly simple percussion instrument.

I rented this off Netflix but I'm buying a copy.

While at first this may seem "out there" if you just let go of "your idea" of what music is, your mind/body will soak it up like a sponge. It is so amazing what talented musicians can do...and being able to see them perform plus being able to see all the different instruments makes this a truly enjoyable experience.