‘Masters of Music’ brings the original ‘Shakti’ violinist L. Shankar back to India

Violinist L. Shankar and ghatam maestro Vikku Vinayakram reunite for a Mumbai concert after decades of musical collaboration.

Although violinist L. Shankar and ghatam maestro Vikku Vinayakram were associated with the 1970s Indo-jazz band Shakti, their partnership goes back many decades, when they used to perform Carnatic concerts. “In 1973, when I was in New York I launched the band ‘Turiyananda Sangeet’ featuring legendary jazz guitarist John McLaughin. Initially, Ramnad Raghavan played the mridangam, but since he was not quite comfortable with the band’s music, Vikku Vinayakram, who had played a lot with me, stepped in. The combination of Zakir Hussain’s tabla and Vikkus’ ghatam was perfect,” says Shankar, who also uses the stage name ‘Shenkar’.

After more than five decades, 74-year-old Shankar has formed a collective featuring Vikku Vinayakram, his son Selvaganesh on the kanjira, grandson Swaminathan Selvaganesh on assorted percussion, and Fazal Qureshi on the tabla.

On June 16, 8 p.m., the quintet will perform for the ‘Aditya Birla Masters of Music show’, to be held at NCPA in Mumbai.

Says Shankar, who now shuttles between south Goa and Los Angeles, “We shall be doing a mix of Shakti songs, covering all three albums we released in the 1970s, besides Carnatic kritis and a ragam-tanam-pallavi.”

The collective has played in Chennai and Goa under different banners. The shows come a year after the new Shakti line-up comprising McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, Selvaganesh, singer Shankar Mahadevan and violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan did an extensive golden jubilee tour of India, Europe and the US. With the group also winning a Grammy this year for the album ‘This Moment’, did Shankar feel left out?

Shankar says he was never asked to be part of the 50-year celebration. He adds, “It’s their decision. The truth is that Shakti means as much to me as it does to anybody else in the group.”

The son of violin maestro V. Lakshminarayana, and brother of renowned musicians L. Vaidyanathan and L. Subramaniam, Shankar was trained in Carnatic music from an early age. He recalls, “My father was open-minded and exposed us to different genres. So besides Hindustani music, we also followed western classical and jazz.”