Jazz guitarist John McLaughlin brings acoustic "global fusion" group Shakti to SF

SAN FRANCISCO -- British six-string wizard John McLaughlin brings the latest version of his "global fusion" band Shakti with tabla maestro Zakir Hussain to Davies Symphony Hall for this SFJAZZ concert Saturday.

Born to a musical family, McLaughlin would play with a number of early London R&B and blues groups including Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames and the Graham Bond Organisation (also the proving ground for future Cream members Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker). Prior to moving to the U.S. to pursue his career, the guitarist recorded his first more post-bop oriented effort Extrapolation with drummer Tony Oxley and saxophonist John Surman.

He first rose to fame as a contributor to the seminal electric jazz albums of Miles Davis. Starting with the trumpet player's formative fusion efforts In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew (which included a song named after the guitarist) and continuing through such '70s landmarks as On the Corner and A Tribute to Jack Johnson, McLaughlin would become one of Davis' most important supporting players and disciples.    

While McLaughlin would not become a regular member of Davis' electric group despite his frequent studio and live appearances (the guitarist was already playing in drummer Tony Williams' band Lifetime when the trumpeter extended an invitation), he became a first-call session player who collaborated with such important figures as Miroslav Vitous, Larry Coryell, Joe Farrell, Wayne Shorter and Carla Bley, 

Like many of his fellow musicians who played with Davis during the era, McLaughlin would found one of the leading lights of the burgeoning fusion movement with his group, Mahavishnu Orchestra. Filled out by powerhouse drummer Billy Cobham (who also played on the Jack Johnson album), keyboard phenom Jan Hammer, the Flock violinist Jerry Goodman and bass player Rick Laird, the quintet mixed blazing guitar pyrotechnics and fiery jazz interplay with eastern musical influences ("Mahavishnu" was a name he had been given by his spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy) during its brief initial burst of creativity that produced three influential albums before the band split up.

McLaughlin would revive the group with a variety of line-ups through the decade while also embarking on collaborations with such notables as Carlos Santana -- a fellow Sri Chinmoy devotee -- he followed the groundwork laid by his Indian-influenced 1971 acoustic guitar album My Goals Beyond  with his "global fusion" Indian classical group Shakti that featured violinist L. Shankar, percussionist T. H. Vinayakram and tabla maestro Zakir Hussain.

Built on McLaughlin's extensive study of Indian music, the group explored Hindustani and Carnatic styles, including the percussive South Indian vocal technique konnakol while introducing ragas and Indian percussion to many jazz aficionados starting with their live debut album Shakti with John McLaughlin. The guitarist played a custom-made steel-string acoustic guitar with the group that had seven additional "sympathetic strings" similar to those on a sitar or veena as well as a specially crafted scalloped fretboard. 

Appearances at notable festivals like the Montreux Jazz Fest and celebrated tours featuring the band were met with ecstatic reviews, leading to two more studio recording in the next few years. McLaughlin would move on, but continued to focus on acoustic music with his legendary unplugged guitar trios featuring fellow virtuosos Paco De Lucia, Larry Coryell and Al DiMeola in addition to a variety of settings well into the 1990s. He first revisited the music of the group with the revival ensemble Remembering Shakti that found the guitarist again joining forces with Vinayakram and Hussain, but without Shankar on a pair of live recordings from 1999 and 2000 that included contributions from bansuri player Hariprasad Chaurasia and electric mandolinist U. Srinivas, respectively. A third recording in 2001 would introduce Vinayakram's son Selvaganesh on percussion.

More recently, McLaughlin returned to electric jazz with his explosive group 4th Dimension featuring keyboard player/drummer Gary Husband, Cameroonian bassist Etienne M'Bappé and Indian drummer Ranjit Barot. That band played on his 2017 Meeting of the Spirits Tour with fellow guitar great Jimmy Herring that found McLaughlin playing multiple Mahavishnu songs for the first time in decades to glowing reviews and at the time was billed as his last U.S tour. Happily, the guitarist and Hussain have again teamed up under the moniker Shakti to celebrate five decades of music with their highly anticipated new album That Moment. This San Francisco show presented by SFJAZZ and sponsored by Guitar Player magazine is part of the group's first U.S. tour in sixteen years. The current ensemble includes the two founding members with percussionist Selvaganesh, vocalist Shankar Mahadevan and violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan.  

Shakti 50th Anniversary Tour
Saturday, Sept. 9, 8 p.m. Sold Out
Davies Symphony Hall