Shakti

UMA MOHAN – Born in Chennai on 31st October 1966, into a family of musicians, was trained from her childhood by her mother and Guru Smt.P.L.Saraswathy Ram in classical carnatic music. Initially, after having had several experiential revelations, she began writing songs in Tamil, which she released. Then, she did a series of Devotional albums with songs from all languages including Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, and foreign languages like Singhalese and English. She also cut a solo CD in English-for Divine healing, called “Ocean Of Love” which was well received in Russia, Sweden, and India. At this point, her interest in the Vedas took over and she started coaching a group of youths to chant the Vedas, which on popular demand materialized as the Sacred Chants Series of 3 volumes released by Kosmic Music.

John McLaughlin brought his revived Indo-jazz project Shakti to Bombay (Mumbai) in late 2000, and the result is this live disc, which features only four compositions but runs over an hour in length. (The title is a deliberate play on 1980's Friday Night in San Francisco.) McLaughlin's electric guitar and Zakir Hussain's tabla remain at the core of the group's sound. U. Shrinivas (on mandolin) and V. Selvaganesh (on kanjira, ghatam, and mridangam, all Indian percussion instruments) remain from the previous album, but there are also a number of Indian guest musicians, giving the music many added dimensions. The most remarkable guests are Debashish Bhattacharya on Hindustani slide guitar, Shankar Mahadevan on vocals, and Shiv Kumar Sharma on santur, an Indian hammered dulcimer…