Ustad Zakir Hussain’s tabla racing along with jazz-guitar god John McLaughlin’s notes will mesmerise listeners once more as Mind Explosion: 50th Anniversary Tour Live, the new – and last – album from the iconic Indo-jazz fusion group Shakti, releases August 1.
The album was to be released last year with a different name but Hussain’s death “changed everything,” says Souvik Dutta, the Kolkata-born, US-based techie-turned-music entrepreneur whose label and management company, Abstract Logix, is releasing the live album after producing the Shakti world tour and their Grammy-winning studio album, This Moment.
The team behind Mind Explosion is the same as the one behind This Moment, which was the first studio album in 46 years by the supergroup that began when Hussain and McLaughlin jammed in the living room of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan in California in the 1970s.
There is a strong Kolkata connection to the team of what will be the last Shakti albums. Besides Dutta, the artists who designed the covers of both This Moment and Mind Explosion are the same: Orko Basu and Urmi Bhanja. Both are from Kolkata. Basu, a much-awarded advertising professional who now lives in Bangalore, founded Togetherly. Bhanja co-wrote Crocodile in Water, Tiger in Land, a book that was originally a series of cartoons drawn for social media.
Mind Explosion, mixed by George Murphy and mastered by keyboard virtuoso Scott Kinsey, was to be released along with the final three shows of Shakti. Two of the gigs were to be held at the Ambanis’ cultural centre in Mumbai and one at Dubai’s Coca-Cola Arena.
It was a “personal invite from Nita Ambani to play,” Dutta tells The Telegraph Online. “They really made it known they wanted the music. Zakir bhai had not performed at the new venue, so we were all very excited to perform at the NMACC.”
Soon, a friend called from Dubai and said Shakti must perform at the Coca-Cola Arena. “So things were accelerating,” Dutta explains.
Then came the call from Hussain. “I remember the date,” Dutta says. “November 23, 2024.”
Hussain, who kept a crazy schedule performing – McLaughlin used to say “I don’t know how he does it” – did not sound his usual self. He had just cancelled his tour with Dave Holland and Chris Potter.
“He was speaking slowly, coughing a lot. He said he was exhausted and that he wanted to take some time off,” Dutta says. “He thought that the talcum powder [that tabla players use] had not been good for his health. But he said he would be fine in a couple of months.”
The next day, McLaughlin spoke to Hussain and called Dutta back to say that Hussain had agreed to do the final Shakti shows. Hussain’s wife, Antonia Minnecola, was also convinced he would be fine.
The day after, Hussain fell seriously ill. Dutta did not know that would be his last conversation with the man who made the tabla a global word.
“He would still be giving emojis on our Whatsapp group, looking at the working album cover, and other music related stuff,” Dutta remembers.
On December 15, 2024, Ustad Zakir Hussain passed into the ages.
“We always knew we were going to do a live album,” Dutta says. “We had recorded all the 29 concerts the band played across the world. Sven Hoffman was the recording engineer. The band had been listening to the recordings and had narrowed down the tracks they wanted. Six tracks, 58 minutes.”
But everything changed with Hussain’s passing. “The cover, the vibe,” Dutta says. “John ji said this must now be about joy. In a way, he turned grief into joy.”
The cover design went through at least seven iterations. But when McLaughlin saw the final work he told the team not to work on anything else. He was convinced they had found the right one.
Dutta, who has a treasure trove of stories about music stalwarts – like how Jackson Browne waited for six hours with him in a Spanish city to meet McLaughlin and how the members of up and coming jazz-rock stars Snarky Puppy would sleep on floors of friends’ houses to tour – and who still buys LPs from Free School Street when he visits Kolkata, points out that the album closes with Srini’s Dream.
The track has Zakir Hussain talking about U. Srinivas, the late mandolin virtuoso and Shakti alum, an “angel from heaven”.
Dutta is about to start working with another musicians' musician, guitarist Jimmy Herring, on his new album. He also tried to get rising guitar star Oz Noy and drum superstar Dave Weckl to play in Kolkata, but it did not materialise so they will be playing in Bangalore.
“It is unfortunate that Oz and Weckl could not perform in Kolkata in spite of being in India. I wish there was support and infrastructure like Bangalore or Mumbai,” he says.
He is quick to acknowledge his debt to Calcutta musicians like Amyt Datta, Lew Hilt, Nondon Bagchi and the late Monojit Datta, Gyan and Jayshree Singh. “They made me what I am,” he says.
Will Shakti continue, now that Zakir Hussain is gone? “I have been asked that question a million times,” Dutta says. ”And I asked John ji, but he is convinced it’s over. There is no Shakti without Zakir.”
