As jazz-rock fusion pioneer
John McLaughlin delved deeper into Eastern spirituality and mysticism, he developed a corresponding interest in the music of South India. Following the collapse of the second version of
the Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1975,
McLaughlin put together
Shakti, an outfit dedicated to fusing high-energy jazz and Indian music. In addition to
McLaughlin (who played acoustic guitar instead of his customary electric),
Shakti featured violinist
Lakshminarayana Shankar, tabla player
Zakir Hussain, and mridangam players
T.H. "Vikku" Vinayakram and Ramnad V. Raghavan. The group's innovative self-titled debut was released in the summer of 1975, after which Raghavan departed, leaving them a quartet. Two further
Shakti albums -- 1976's A Handful of Beauty and 1977's Natural Elements -- appeared before
McLaughlin elected to move on to other projects. In 1999,
McLaughlin reunited with Hussain and Vinayakram for a new double-disc album, Remember Shakti, which also featured bansuri master
Hariprasad Chaurasia. ~ Steve Huey