Remember Shakti is a quintet which combines elements of traditional Indian music with elements of jazz. The band consists of English guitarist John McLaughlin, and Zakir Hussain, U. Srinivas , Shankar Mahadevan, and V. Selvaganesh, who are of Indian descent. The band's name is derived from John Mclaughlin's acoustic Indian fusion band Shakti which was active in the 1970s. This band consisted of John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, L. Shankar, T.H. "Vikku" Vinayakram, and R. Raghavan. The word Shakti translates in Sanskrit to "power" or "goddess of power".
Biography
After disbanding in the late 1970s, Shakti enjoyed a twenty-year hiatus before McLaughlin and Hussain decided to reform the band. In addition to John and Zakir, T.H. "Vikku" Vinayakram, returned for Remember Shakti's eponymous debut UK tour and album in 1997. However, McLaughlin could not locate Shakti's fourth member, violinist L. Shankar, and replaced him with bansuri player Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia for the live recording of this album. /Germany U. Srinivas, John McLaughlin, V. Selvaganesh For the band's next album, The Believer, recorded live and released in 1999, Chaurasia and Vinayakram were replaced by the late mandolin player U. Srinivas and Vinayakram's son V. Selvaganesh. The band's most recent live album, 2001's Saturday Night in Bombay, presents Remember Shakti augmented by an army of guests, notably Pt. Shivkumar Sharma, percussionist Taufiq Qureshi who is the brother of Zakir, and Shankar Mahadevan, who has now become Remember Shakti's full-time vocalist. The band has toured extensively all around the world.
This DVD features a 60 minute documentary on the band starting from the early seventies. John and Zakir speak about their beginnings, their era with L. Shankar and T.H. Vinayakram. The film was screened at the Durban International Film Festival 2007 from 20 June to 1 July 2007 in Durban, South Africa. The DVD also includes:
45 minutes of sound check footage of Remember Shakti before a Concert at the New Morning in Paris 2004
55 minutes of a historic concert called Saturday Night in Bombay in 2000.
Two Live Concerts of the band shot with the original band as well as Montreux Jazz 2004.
