This is the end — the final recording from arguably the greatest of genre-busting bands. A celebration, not only of Shakti‘s 50th anniversary tour in 2023 but of an entire career — one that began in 1973, when John McLaughlin and Ustad Zakir Hussain first jammed in New York’s Greenwich Village. By embracing Indian Carnatic and Hindustani traditions — fused with McLaughlin’s jazz DNA — Shakti broke down musical boundaries, and by extension, cultural and social boundaries as well.
Cherry-picked from multiple shows, these six tracks are also a tribute to tabla maestro Hussain, who passed away in December 2024. Shakti had survived loss before, when ‘Mandolin’ U. Shrinivas died prematurely in 2014, but Hussain and McLaughlin were the heart and soul…