Sunday evening ended on a sweet note for India as five brilliant Indian musicians created history after winning multiple top honours at the 66th annual Grammy Awards 2024 held in Los Angeles, California. Four of them are associated with the Indian fusion band Shakti, which was adjudged the Best Global Music Album this year for the album “This Moment”, and one received the honours for “Pashto”, which bagged the Best Global Music Performance award.
Zakir Hussain Creates History at Grammy Awards 2024
The world renowned Indian table player, Ustad Zakir Hussain, achieved a remarkable feat, clinching three wins at the awards: the Best Global Music Album award for “This Moment” (Shakti), which he shared with renowned singer/musician Shankar Mahadevan, flautist Rakesh Chaurasia, Selvaganesh Vinayakram and Ganesh Rajagopalan; the Best Global Music Performance award for “Pashto”, together with American musician and film director Bela Fleck and American bassist and composer Edgar Meyer, featuring flautist Rakesh Chaurasia; and the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for “As We Speak”, for which he collaborated with Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Rakesh Chaurasia. This marked the biggest haul at the Grammys for the 72 year old maestro.
History of Shakti
Shakti was the result of a collaboration between Eastern and Western musicians that created a cross-cultural template for world music that has served as an inspiration for many generations of artists and musicians the world over. Founded in 1973, the four-member band included English guitarist John McLaughlin, percussionist Ustad Zakir Hussain (on tabla), Indian violin player L. Shankar and T.H. Vikku Vinayakram (on ghatam).
The band was initially named Turiyananda Sangeet. It played acoustic fusion music, which was a combination of Indian classical music and Western Jazz. However, in 1978, the members disbanded, and for the next almost two decades, each member pursued his own illustrious career until, in the late 1990s, it was reformed by the lead members, John and Zakir, along with singer/composer Shankar Mahadevan on vocals, U. Srinivas on mandolin and Selvaganesh Vinayakram, who replaced his father Vikku.
Tragedy struck the band once again when, after the sad demise of U. Shrinivas in 2014, Shakti once again ceased to perform. But, just like the Phoenix, it rose once again from the ashes, joined by violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan, in early 2020, and has been performing around the world ever since.
Talking about his double Grammy win, Rakesh Chaurasia, told the Press Trust of India,
Happy and honoured to bring two Grammys home to India for “As We Speak” with my inspiration, the maestros Ustad Zakir Hussain, Bela Fleck and Edger Meyer. A surreal and overwhelming feeling. More than the joy I felt for myself, the pride of winning it as an Indian musician ranks higher.
Bela Fleck is an acclaimed banjo player. Highly innovative and technically proficient, he is considered the ambassador of the banjo and has won 15 Grammy Awards till date. Sixty-four year old bassist Edger Meyer has five Grammy Awards to his credit and his styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass and jazz.
India at the Grammys
India has a rich cultural heritage, of which music is an integral part. Still, Indian music has largely been overlooked at the Western award functions. It is only in the last couple of decades, that Indian music, classical as well as folk, has started gaining international recognition. This is especially true of the Indian instrumental music.
In the past two to three decades, eleven Indian artists have received this prestigious awards, including sitar maestro, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Ustad Zakir Hussain, T.H. Vinayakram, and A.R. Rehman. In 2010, Tanvi Shah became the first Indian woman singer to receive the Grammy award for the Best Song Written for Visual Media for Jai Ho in Spanish. This talented performer can sing in six different languages including Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic and Portuguese.
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