India at the Grammys

The decadeold Berklee India Ensemble has bagged Berklee its first Grammy nomination for Shuruaat a collection of 10 of the grouprsquos most memorable performances to create a cohesive musical journey that establishes their accomplishments By bagging a spot among the nominees of the Best Global Music Album the ensemble comprising 98 artistes from 13 countries has evidently made its markldquoThe album was a combination of original songs tributes and reinterpretations which is what we are known for We have four originals written by our former students One belongs to Lucknow another comes from Delhi one from Hyderabad and one from SwitzerlandAlso ReadGrammy Awards 2023 Heres the complete list of NomineeslsquoEverything started with a wishrsquoNominated for Best Global Music Album ShuruaatSince we have been fans of the band Shakti we knew that the opportunity to work with Ustad Zakir Hussain and Shankar Mahadevan would be great Featuring them is a humble tribute to our heroes Then it includes reinterpretations of our existing Indian piecesrdquo says Annette Philip the founder of the ensembleWhile their collaborators are mavericks Philip says the revisited pieces are always composed by the ensemble ldquoIt always stems from us We deconstruct a piece and see what instrumentation we havenrsquot used so far and work with that For Sundari pennae with Shreya Ghoshalwe used the megaphone We ask our collaborators what they think of our interpretation and are glad that so far everyone has liked our approach She was so passionate while working on that collaboration We usually spend several hours to bring the reinterpretation to life So to see how she respected our ideas and honoured what we created made us feel grateful We loved her interpretation of our interpretationrdquoPhilip admits that everything that the band has achieved began with a wish In consistently asking two questions mdash what if and why not mdash theyrsquove brought the ensemble to the Academyrsquos stage And even as they gear up for the music industryrsquos biggest night her future plans for the ensemble are also defined ldquoI want us to be a touring ensemble and want our music be commercially available Wersquore also completing our second album which will include originals We also head on our world tour in 2023rdquoAlso ReadShreya Ghoshal to embark on global tour to celebrate 20 years in music industrylsquoEvery nomination is specialrsquoNominated for Best Global Music Performance Udhero na Best Global Music Album Between UsBetween Us includes songs from those clusters of Anoushka Shankarrsquos previous albums that ldquoexist in a crosscultural crossgenre ancientmodern spacerdquo ldquoThe album began as a commission from an orchestra to have my work rearranged for orchestra I was a fan of Jules Buckleyrsquos work in arranging a staggering array of artistesrsquo music and therefore turned to him Manu Delago is a central figure in this show as a key collaborator and cowriter of mine across several of these albums The pieces we play together are at the heart of the albumrdquo the musician tells midday If pressed to name an important offering from the compilation she says Jannah holds a special place in her life ldquoIrsquove been performing it live for a decade but have not released it Irsquom happy that it is finally out for people to listen to on recordrdquolsquoA Grammy win is truly lifechangingrsquoNominated for Best Immersive Audio Album Divine TidesWhile growing up Ricky Kej would frequent the USA and attend concerts of Indian artistes He admits that while the shows were always sold out the attendees were almost always Indian music aficionados ldquoBut at the age of 19 I attended a Ravi Shankarconcert in San Francisco and noticed that the demographics of the audience was a replica of the demographics of the residents of that area So if there were 80 per cent Caucasians in an area there would be 80 per cent Caucasians in the audience And that was a revelation for me This man had truly broken cultural barriers by playing Indian music alone and not commercial music It wasnrsquot even fusionrdquo says Kej lamenting that today most Indian musicians attempt to gain attention in western countries by playing English musicKej aims to make his mark by finding an audience for his music instead of ldquositting and crying claiming that no one is listening to itrdquo With two Grammy nominations and two wins behind him he obviously need not worry about lacking an audience Being a Grammy winner he admits has indeed changed the trajectory of his journey ldquoAll of my music has a strong message usually it is about the environment but it can also be about other issues of social impact like those on refugees or childrenrsquos rights I look at the Grammys as the platform that will help me create more collaborations and enable me to spread the message In the past when I would approach people sometimes I would be taken seriously sometimes I would not Now more people take me seriously I feel awards are essential because they give you a direction that is importantrdquoAt this yearrsquos gala Kej will compete for the immersive version of Divine Tides his collaborative album with Stewart Copeland that also earned him the Grammy Award last year ldquoStewart and I always knew that we wanted this album to be immersive so that a listener could be transported to another world while consuming it It took us longer to create that version which is why we were nominated this year This is going to be a tough win because we compete against mainstream artistes like Christina Aguilera and The Chainsmokers But simply having an album with Indian music pitted against music thatrsquos traditionally mainstream in western countries is specialrdquoWhile he has been on a touring spree since the past few months visiting 13 countries and performing 50 shows Kej will soon return to the studio After 18 years he gears up to work for films There are two in the pipeline ldquoOne of them is a Hollywood film with Frank Grillo It is a spy film which sees a south Asian actor play the lead For me it was interesting to be part of it because a south Asian guy was the hero and the western actors were villains It was cool to see that the Asian actor wasnrsquot represented as a sidekick or the villain The other movie that I am working on is the Malayalam film Adrishya Jalakangal with Tovino Thomasrdquo