Shakti 50th Anniversary Tour Comes to Palace Theatre

Shakti, featuring founding members John McLaughlin on guitar and Zakir Hussain on tabla, plus renowned vocalist Shankar Mahadevan, will play the Palace Theatre, 34 W. Broad St., on Tuesday, August 29 at 7:30 pm. Banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck opens.

Tickets are $44-$129 and may be purchased at the CBUSArts Ticket Center at the Ohio Theatre (39 E. State St.), online at www.capa.com or www.CBUSArts.com, and by phone at (614) 469-0939.

Born in the mid-1970s out of the deep artistic and spiritual connection bonding British guitarist John McLaughlin and Indian tabla player Zakir Hussain, Shakti’s cross-cultural musical conversation dissolved boundaries with uncommon passion, grace, and dexterity, birthing, in many respects, the contemporary World Music movement.

Hussain, McLaughlin, and Mahadevan, with violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan and percussionist Selvaganesh Vinayakram (son of original Shakti ghatam player T.H. “Vikku” Vinayakram), have created a new recording, In This Moment, and are embarking on a world tour celebrating the 50th anniversary of the band’s founding, including the August 29 date in Columbus.

Banjo master Béla Fleck, himself a genre-bending artist, first with Sam Bush in New Grass Revival and, later, his own Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, will play a solo set to open the show. Fleck has often pointed to Shakti as among his most prominent early influences.