Larry Coryell et al. Music Without Boundaries

Music Without Boundaries

Larry Coryell

Hariprasad Chaurasia

George Brooks

T.H. 'Vikku' Vinayakam

Swapan Chaudhuri

John Wubbenhorst

This is what Shakti fans where probably hoping for when Remember Shakti's self-titled double CD (the first album) was released in 1997. In fact what we got was John McLaughlin's mediated synthetic tones, no L.Shankar and the calming influence of a classical flautist instead. Here, there's still no Shankar, but this lineup of in all, Larry Coryell (guitar), Hariprasad Chaurasia (flute), George Brooks (saxophone), T.H. 'Vikku' Vinayakam (ghatam), Swapan Chaudhuri (tabla) and John Wubbenhorst (keyboard), is more fiery and Coryell does play steel strung acoustic to provide that original Shakti twang (although it isn't a Shakti guitar with scalloped fretboard and sympathetic strings. In fact it sounds like his usual Ovation).

As a western jazz guitarist, Larry Coryell is not renowned for his mastery of Indian classical forms, that is John McLaughlin's speciality, but here he does display great skill in conjouring the right atmosphere from his playing which is embellished with sufficient string bends and Srivinas-like slides to sound convincing. Is this how Coryell played when he stepped in for the injured JM in Madras during the 1982 Shakti tour? A recording exists.

The lineup for Music Without Boundaries seems not to be set in stone. In another incarnation that played Portland in Sep 2000 Egberto Gismonti (guitar/piano), Sivamani (percussion) and Vijay Ghate (tabla) were the players with only Hariprasad Chaurasia surviving from before. Interestingly, there also exists a rather similar recording, also called Music Without Boundaries which has the same musicians as on the first Remember Shakti album with the addition of Norwegian saxophonist Bendik Hoffseth. The name had been coined for the series of concerts with Hariprasad, but why would Shakti take on that mantle? I fear the answer may be tied up in the way that concerts are financed, but it is still surprising how these coincidences can happen in such a close-knit musical community. What about the "The Free Spirits"? Formed by Coryell in 1965, but rejuvinated by McLaughlin as a band name in 1993. Was that really a coincidence?

However, the concert on this CD is from San Francisco in 1998 and must have been slotted into a busy schedule for Hariprasad, fresh from Remember Shakti's 1997 U.K. tour, it is therefore no surprise that quite a few familiar phrases work their way into these five live tracks. Possibly, Lotus Feet, Chandrakauns and even Zakir get quoted.

Not much is heard from George Brooks' saxophone and what he does play is well balanced and sympathetic to the other instruments. His role is not therefore that of Garbarek on Zakir Hussain's Making Music, and is not as complimentary as John Handy's playing in this context, but works more as a foil for Hariprasad's bansuri and Coryell's strumming.

Hariprasad is superb as always. A maestro. But the show stealers are T.H. 'Vikku' Vinayakam spellbinding with his ghatam solos and Swapan Chaudhuri on tabla, with whom he has great rapport.

There is much amusement and mirth throughout the concert, and the crowd often squeals with delight because of the brilliance on show.

This album gives us a range of Shaktiesque music that reaches all the way back to its birth and brings it full tilt right up to the present incarnation, and no Shakti fan should be without a copy.