Shakti was a group which played a novel acoustic fusion music which combined Indian music with elements of jazz. Members were the English guitar player John McLaughlin, the Indian violin player Shankar, Zakir Hussain (on tabla), and R. Raghavan (on the Mridangam) and T.H. Vinayakram (on Ghatam). In addition to fusing Western and Indian music, Shakti also represented a fusion of the Hindustani and Carnatic music traditions, since Hussain is from the North and the other Indian members are from the South. Shakti came together in the early 1970s, and toured fairly extensively during 1975-1977; the group made only sporadic appearances (with personnel changes) thereafter. Their eponymous first album, Shakti, has had a lasting following. McLaughlin later put together another band with the same concept, named Remember Shakti.
