About the Artists:

Shakti, the blazing and ecstatic transcontinental collaboration of virtuoso guitarist John McLaughlin and visionary tabla player Zakir Hussain, forged some of the first and greatest fusions of music from East and West. Having rewired jazz and rock alongside Miles Davis and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, McLaughlin felt the call of music that reflected his evolving spiritual practice and fed an insatiable hunger to explore—and recalled a Greenwich Village connection, what Hussain today calls “a reunion of long-lost brothers.” Hussain had accompanied legendary Hindustani musicians his whole life, and invited in Carnatic violinist Shankar and percussionist Vikku Vinayakram to complete another layer of fusion across Indian music. After three groundbreaking recordings, the group is back—joined by vocalist/composer Shankar Mahadevan, percussionist V. Selvaganesh (Vikku’s son), and violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan—with an album of new compositions and a world tour marking Shakti’s 50th anniversary.

Winning 16 Grammy Awards along the way, Béla Fleck has explored the banjo’s complex global history—tracing its African origins in the 2009 doc Throw Down Your Heart—and become the premier virtuoso on the instrument, unlocking the breadth of its possibilities. For over 30 years, he has led the pioneering Flecktones in jazz, funk, bluegrass, and beyond, with further collaborators including Abigail Washburn, the Brooklyn Rider string quartet, Chris Thile, the Blind Boys of Alabama, McCoy Tyner, Zakir Hussain, Rakesh Churasia, and Edgar Meyer.