Half-century of world fusion phenoms Shakti, John McLaughlin move Ravinia, Béla Fleck bonus

Few jazz fusion acts of the 1970s were as influential and marvelously mind-boggling as the Mahavishnu Orchestra, which meant leader John McLaughlin could literally do anything he wanted when the initial line-up dissolved.

Instead of resting on his laurels, the English guitar god experimented even further in the fellow trailblazing band Shakti, who alongside prodigious Indian players L. Shankar (violin), Zakir Hussain (tabla) and T. H. “Vikku” Vinayakram (ghatam), became one of the earliest proponents of world music.

Despite only recording three official albums together and touring quite sporadically with various line-ups, esteem for the group has only grown, especially after announcing its first album in 46 years, “This Moment,” followed by “The 50th Anniversary” Tour touching down at Ravinia.

It was indeed one of the most important and significant shows of the entire season, not only due to its infrequency, but the caliber of performers, who for two highly intricate hours, sat crosslegged on a riser and fed off each other’s flawless flow.

The latest line-up of McLaughlin, Hussain, violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan and percussionist/kanjira player Selvaganesh Vinayakram began on the purely instrumental note of “5 In The Morning, 5 In The Afternoon,” followed by vocalist Shankar Mahadevan joining them for “Giriraj Sudha.”

His signature chants would continue to carry “Shrini’s Dream,” “Sakhi,” “Kiki,” “Ma No Pa” and “Lotus Feet” as the rest of Shakti dazzled and delighted with a steady stream of solos and improvisations, building up to the pair of pinnacles “Bending The Rules” and “Finding The Way.”

Throughout them all, everyone tapped into the theme of the current collection, which as Hussain simply but profoundly stated is “to live life to the fullest with the ones you love,” an ethos particularly evident during the encore of “Sono Mama” when the cross-continental collaborators beamed as they unfurled a cyclone of supernatural sounds and Ravinia raced to its feet.

As a bonus, an entirely solo version of Béla Fleck, fresh off the boundary-shattering “As We Speak” project featuring Hussain, Edgar Meyer, and Rakesh Chaurasia, blazed through a bunch of medleys, mash-ups and extemporaneous expressions, dropping in bits of The Beatles’ “Blackbird,” Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog” and even “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

“How about some more esoteric banjo music?” he offered at one point with a wink, awing across additional moments of lighting fast finger picking, such as George Gershwin’s jazzy classical composition “Rhapsody In Blue” channeled through the spirit of bluegrass great Earl Scruggs, yet another example of Fleck’s ability to blur genres while sounding unmistakably like himself.

For additional information on Shakti and Béla Fleck, visit Shakti50.com and BelaFleck.com.

For upcoming Ravinia announcements, visit Ravinia.org.