It appeared to Bellevue violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan an act of destiny or future was enjoying out when tabla participant Zakir Hussain invited him to affix Shakti in 2019. The Indian music-jazz fusion group was reforming after a decades-long hiatus to play two exhibits in early 2020 and wanted a violinist to step in for former member Lakshminarayana “L.” Shankar.
“At that time, I used to be simply elated,” stated Rajagopalan, 59, a grasp of Carnatic (South Indian classical) music who got here to the Pacific Northwest to ascertain Carnatic music faculties in Portland and Seattle. Rajagopalan, who moved to Bellevue in 2015, runs the eSwara Faculty of Arts in Sammamish.
It was a full-circle second for Rajagopalan, who’s recognized of the band since childhood, via former Shakti percussionist Vikku Vinayakram. Shakti is nominated for a 2024 Grammy Award for Finest World Music Album for “This Second,” the group’s first studio album in additional than 45 years.
“Once I was very younger, [Vinayakram] used to play with me,” stated Rajagopalan, who first rose to fame as a baby prodigy in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh in Northern India, enjoying along with his youthful brother, Kumaresh. “He used to speak about Shakti quite a bit, and the way the group is and the whole lot. So I’ve been understanding Shakti as a younger child. It was simply superb I used to be capable of be part of the group at a later level of time and be a part of it, all that music, and play with them. It’s unreal.”
Rajagopalan’s two preliminary exhibits with the band in January 2020, one in Kolkata, India and one in Singapore, proved Shakti — which first acquired collectively in 1973 and launched its then-last album in 1977 — nonetheless had one thing to say musically. British guitarist and band chief John McLaughlin additionally shaped the band Bear in mind Shakti, which launched studio albums in 1999, 2000 and 2001, that included a number of of the identical members.
Impressed to maintain creating however dealing with restrictive journey because of the pandemic, the present iteration of Shakti — McLaughlin, Rajagopalan, Hussain, percussionist V. Selvaganesh (son of Vinayakram) and singer Shankar Mahadevan — began placing collectively an album the best way many musicians have been pressured to in the course of the lockdown: piecemeal over the web.
“I acquired a brand new perspective about music after enjoying with Shakti,” Rajagopalan stated. “As a musician, I do a variety of collaborations and fusion music, however this was a real eye opener as a result of the best way the music got here, how the composition happened, and the way a lot everyone was contributing and everyone was [stuck] in several areas. We have been in 5 completely different locations and coordinated the despatched music to one another.”
For the members of Shakti, it was a brand new type of recording from what the longtime business veterans have been used to, however the outcomes exceeded expectations because the album, “This Second,” was launched to crucial acclaim in June 2023.
To get a way of the electrical chemistry between the 5 band members, take a look at Shakti’s joyous look on NPR’s Tiny Desk collection from October. Sitting cramped in a circle, the group’s communication and creativity is on full show as they construct a layered sound that actually appears to fuse Japanese and Western traditions.
“It was superb the way it all got here collectively, however enjoying onstage was so completely different than the file as a result of it was all spontaneous and a variety of issues modified,” Rajagopalan stated. “Once you hear ‘Shrini’s Dream’ that got here out within the album after which to listen to it within the live performance, it’s so completely different. The composition is identical, however how we performed with the composition was fully completely different.”
The optimistic response to their album, reside performances and Tiny Desk look was validation sufficient that the group was on to one thing, however Rajagopalan stated he by no means dreamed that they’d snag a Grammy nod.
“It’s an excessive amount of,” he stated. “The second it was introduced, I didn’t imagine so many individuals right here in India could be so delighted that we’d be nominated for the Grammys. The reception that we acquired, the emails, the cellphone calls, the messages, have been unimaginable.”
Broadly revered on this planet of Carnatic music for his enjoying and composing, Rajagopalan and his brother gained the 2018 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Carnatic instrumental music, the Indian equal of successful a Grammy Award. Rajagopalan has additionally branched out as a solo artist.
Whereas ready for the Feb. 4 Grammys ceremony, Rajagopalan has saved busy touring India in January. He’s additionally labored on a brand new music with the jazz pianist Marina Albero that’s but to be launched, aptly known as “Rain, Rain in Seattle.”
“It was a fantastic mixture of me and her and a saxophone participant, jazz musician, who really is aware of quite a bit about Indian music, Mr. George Brooks,” Rajagopalan stated. “I cherished doing it.”
And are available Grammy night time, if Shakti wins? Rajagopalan broke right into a mischievous snigger.
“Oh, it could be large,” he stated. “I feel 50 years of Shakti, it has by no means gained the Grammy, so it could be an enormous feather within the cap for John and Zakir, they’re the glue. Many different individuals have come and gone, however this can be a tribute to them. That might be an ideal factor.”
