JOHN McLAUGHLAN 'Vasantotsav 2019 - Awardee'

It was an eclectic Tuesday, February 26th evening at Acharya Jialal Vasant Sangeet Niketan's Vasantotsav 2019 in the company of Anup Jalota, Indian Ocean, Pankaj Udhas, Ranjit Barot, Roop Kumar Rathod, Shivkumar Sharma, Sonu Nigam, Talat Aziz, a.o. with a set by classical vocalist Vidushi Alamelu Mani and scintillating fusion from John McLaughlin (guitar), with Zakir Hussain (tabla), Ganesh Rajagopalan (violin), Selva Ganesh (kanzira) and Rajesh Chaurasia (flute) among an array of talented performances from prodigies across the country on classical violin, vocals & flute.


Grammy winner John McLaughlin, the prestigous Jialal Vasant Awardee 2019, was reminiscent of his relationship with Indian music over five decades through his pioneering fusion bands Mahavishnu Orchestra and Shakti which included Zakir Hussain.








 




John McLaughlin very gracefully found time after his performance to autograph my copies of his legendary path-breaking LP's, The Mahavishnu Orchestra’s debut albums ‘The Inner Mounting Flame’ (August 1971) and ‘Birds of Fire’ (January 1973) and his solo effort ‘Belo Horizonte’ (1981) which featured Katia Labèque on keys, his soon to be wife.




with Rajesh Chaurasia
John played with Selva Ganesh's father Vikku and Rajesh Chaurasia's uncle Hariprasad
... when I got these autographs all those years ago

 Imaging | Denzil Rego
Imaging 1, 4, 6, 9 to 14, 18 | Verus Ferreira (musicunplugged.in)

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