Mind Explosion - 50th Anniversary Tour Live

In 2023, Indo-jazz fusion ensemble Shakti released This Moment, their first studio recording together in 45 years, celebrating their 50th anniversary. They followed it with a sold out world tour and won the Grammy Award for Best Global Music Album. At the end of November 2024, tabla master Ustad Zakir Hussain was hospitalized with idiomatic pulmonary fibrosis, a condition that causes severe scarring of the lungs. He died on December 12 at age 73. When Shaktis website revealed his passing, they also announced the end of Shakti. The six tracks on This Moment are drawn from various concerts on that tour. They are offered here as both a closing chapter for the greatest global jazz ensemble, and as a tribute to Hussain, McLaughlins friend and collaborator for 55 years from thier time as young men working in the East Village. Set opener "Kiki" begins quite unusually: With McLaughlin playing a very electric blues rock I-IV-V progression. Percussionists Hussain and Selvaganesh Vinayakram begin percolating behind them before violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan and vocalist Shankar Mahadevan enter the fray; the groups collective adrenaline rush becomes so intense its immeasurable. The percussionists stretch the poles between bubbling grooves and driving friction. The vocal/violin/guitar interplay is breathtaking. After a slowed bridge, McLaughlin takes a gritty, blues-rock solo. The 15-minute "Giriraj Sudhaj," is drawn from This Moment. The guitarist lays down fingerpicked jazz chords framing a ballad melody that Mahadevan delivers sublimely. It remains before the band joins at 4:33. Rajagopalan enters followed by the drummers as McLaughlin inserts a drone and Mahadevan takes off, improvising in unison with the guitarist and violinist. Halfway, it changes shape again and becomes a cooking improvisation with Mahadevan directing the musics flow. Its followed by "Lotus Feet," a gloriously slow modal version of the tune from Shaktis debut album with McLaughlin playing synth guitar. "5 In The Morning, 6 In The Afternoon," originally appeared as the 18-minute opening cut on Remember Shaktis The Believer. Its only half as long here, but more intense. The careening interplay between Rajagopalans virtuosic violin, Hussains tablas and McLaughlins scorching, electric blue fusion playing is at once dazzling and soulful. "Sakhi," is a tender ballad that showcases Mahadevan at his most probing; he feeds the lyrics directly at the guitarist and violinist as the percussionists flow around the trio. The set closer is a 12-minute reading of "Shrinis Dream," (composed in memory of Shakti mandolinist U. Srinivas who passed in 2014). It is every bit the rhythm and harmony collision as its earlier versions with Carnatic modes and scales crisscrossing with jazz and blues. McLaughlins electric solo is funky, bluesy and loose with the percussionists going at him and one another while Mahadevan and Rajagopalan wind around one another and eventually the band. Mind Explosion is a fitting, bittersweet, send off the greatest world jazz fusion ensemble, and a wonderful memorial for Hussain. ~ Thom Jurek