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Monday, 22 September 2003

Remember Shakti ::

I saw Remember Shakti at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga tonight. What a marvelously seamless fusion (in the best sense of the word) between jazz and Indian music. John McLaughlin moved effortlessly between his blues and jazz roots and later Indian influences, along with four stellar Indian musicians. I tried to follow Zakir Hussein and the other percussionist’s polyrhythmic excursions by tapping my fingers on my knees and felt liberated from the tyranny of the quarter note pulse that seems to lock things down too tightly as I try to build music one layer at a time. I had a fantasy of going to India and learning to play like that. At least my ears are a little more open.

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