Shakti
John McLaughlin- acoustic guitar
Lakshminarayanan (L) Shankar - Violin
Zakir Hussain- tabla
Thetakudi Harihara (T.H.) "Vikku" Vinayakaram - Ghatam
Cheryl and Lynette- sruti boxes
New York City, N.Y. U.S.A.
March 9, 1976
runtime: 67:35
performance quality (imho): A, very nice
recording quality: B+
source audience tape of unknown lineage
setlist:
1: la danse du bonheur (the dance of happiness) 15:38
2: talk and band introductions 4:06
3: Lady L (raga) 26:19
4: what need have I for this, what need have I for that,
I am sitting at the feet of my lord,
all is bliss, all is bliss (also a raga) 21:30
this last track cuts as it goes into a percussion duet.
comments:
I am somewhat in doubt of the date of this recording, because
there is nothing here heard on the current at this time Shakti
album Natural Elements,their 3rd and last with the 70's group.
there is heard here, the far too rarely heard Lady L, (released
in studio form on A Handful of Beauty.) which I think ends just
as the recording of it does, probably for a tape flip. The final
track easily grabs honors (?) for having the longest title in a
glasnostrd19 upload. It's a long song too, so long that the
recording runs out just as it goes into the T.H. and Zakir
percussion duet. So it's quite incomplete account of the show
but the recording sounds pretty nice and the music is that of
the greatest acoustic music band I've ever heard. It sounds
like earlier than 77 to me but I know it's not the live
released show from N.Y. because that's Shakti's 1st album,
recorded July 5, 1975 at Southampton College, on Long Island, N.Y.
and John introduces T4 here as being on their 1st smash album
(Shakti live- now that takes guts, a debut album from a band
recorded in concert! It's very nice. All 3 officially released
Shakti albums are excellent). This is just before the second
one came out (A Handful of Beauty, 1st studio Shakti album), but
there is no mention of the 3rd one that I noticed. It does sound
like a nice performance, and any Shakti recording is worth hearing
if not crummy sound. I don't know the lineage of this or who
recorded it (tape trade) but is sounds quite enjoyable to my ears.
This was introduced by John as Zakir Hussain's birthday, and Zakir
was born on March 9th (according to wikipedia). The recording I got
of this said it was from N.Y.C. Nov. 7, 77. That is obviously wrong.
Nov. 7th was Shakti's final show of the 70's era and it was in
Pennsylvania. by then handful of beauty was over a year old.
Here AHOB is mentioned as an album coming out soon. It sounds like
the band introductions are complete so I listed everyone who was
introduced. I did not see Shakti in 1977 (got sold out in Nov, and
cancelled out in March) so I don't know what the lineup was then, I think they added another player
in 77 at some time, and the sruti box players were different.
This sounds like the lineup I saw in April 76 in Boston opening
for Weather Report.
Do not sell this recording.
even a googol dollars couldn't buy 1 Shakti anyway.
Trade freely and losslessly.