SHANTI

The term SHANTI is Sanskrit for "inner peace" and a necessary ingredient in the meditative mantra "Om SHANTI Om," but in addition to that provided the perfect moniker for a short lived world music band from San Francisco that existed from 1970-72 and released this one self-titled album in 1971.

This band was a collaboration between the three classical Indian musicians Zakir Hussain (tabla, dholak, naal), Aashish Khan (sarod) and Pranesh Kahn (tabla, naal) along with the US based rock and jazz musicians Neil Seidel who played with Gary Lewis and The Playboys (lead guitar), Steve Haehl (lead vocals, guitar), Steve Leach (bass) and Frank Lupica aka Francisco who played with The Travel Agency (drums).

The raga rock craze was still in full swing with Ravi Shankar having played at Woodstock in 69 as well as the Monterey Pop festival. While most Western acts such as The Beatles or The Rolling Stones were using Indian tones and textures to accent their own style of music, SHANTI was the real deal as far as crafting a fusion that truly bridged the gap between East and West.

SHANTI crafted a very interesting album that stands out amongst its competition. The album features not only traditional Indian ragas such as on the second track "Innocence" but also features more rock oriented tracks like the opening "We Want To Be" and "Out Of Nowhere" which dish out rock vocals, bass and drums but happen to add a bunch of sitar soloing and other ethnic accents.

Like many Indian artists of the era crafting such crossover projects, Khan and Hussain used SHANTI as a vehicle to promote the ancient sounds of India to a world eager to expand beyond its own cultural limitations. While some similar artists from the 60s like Quintesscence, Gabor Szabo, Big Jim Sullivan or The Nirvana Sitar and String Group focused more on the Indian side of the equation, SHANTI seemed to be more interested in the rock side of things.

"Good Inside" for example seems to tamp down the raga aspects until they are practically missing whereas two part title track which weaves a near 15-minute enchanting spell focuses primarily on the raga components. Unfortunately the album feels a bit unbalanced as the rock and raga parts never really fully integrate and rather take turns rather than truly enshroud themselves in true fusion.

In other words the rock tunes only feature Indian accents and the raga parts feature obligatory rock accents such as a rock beat and bass groove. While a lot of the music presented here prognosticates the full fusion firepower of John McLaughlin's Shakti which would come to fruition a few years down the road after the initial success of his Mahavishnu Orchestra, these tracks aren't quite as proficiently melded together so well.

Overall nothing on SHANTI stands out as a waste of time. The ragas are truly enchanting and the rock aspects while generic in a mellow Bad Company sort of way are competent, nothing on here really sets your world on fire either with the possible exception of the excellent two part title track that seems to be firing on all pistons both in the raga department and a Santana-esque rock way as well. Probably not the best example of raga rock but certainly not the worst either. The musicianship though is excellent and worth the price of admission alone.

3.5 rounded down