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A Bangalore-based musicians and an Indian-American activist and author from New York put India on the music map by winning laurels at the recently concluded Grammy Awards. Bangalore-based Ricky Kej’s collaborated album “Winds of Samsara” won the Best New Age Album award, while Neela Vaswani won the award in the Best Children’s Album category for her narration of the book “I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up For Education And Changed The World,” by Malala Yousafzai.
Kej teamed up with South African musician Wouter Kellerman for the album, which symbolizes peace and harmony. The website of the album describes the project as a “truly global effort,” which draws inspiration from two cultures. The music of the album blends in the creative influences of the cultures to generate a sound of calmness and positivity.
Speaking from Los Angeles, California after receiving the award Feb. 8, Kej told the Press Trust of India that getting the award is an unattainable dream. “I still can’t believe it,” he said. Kej said he believed he got the award for music that was “from the heart.” While music composers must create music for money, it is important for composers to create music where he can express himself.
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Other albums nominated in the category were “Bhakti” by Paul Avgerinos, “Ritual” by Peter Kater and R. Carlos Nakai, “Symphony Live In Istanbul” by Kitaro and” In Love And Longing” by Silvia Nakkach and David Darling.
However, Anoushka Shankar, sitarist and daughter of the late sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, who was nominated for her album “Traces of You” in the Best World Music Album category lost out to Angelique Kidjo’s album “Ev.”
The 33-year-old Kej was born in North Carolina moved to India when he was eight. A dentist by education, he is not a trained musician. Winds of Samsara, his 14th studio album, had made a debut at number one on the US Billboard’s New Age Albums Chart in August 2014, a first for a person of Indian origin. Kej has composed the soundtrack for several Kannada films including “Accident”, “Venkata in Sankata”, “Crazy Kutumba” and “Ondu Rupayalli Eradu Preethi.”
He has worked on more than 3,000 placements for radio and television jingles, and has also composed music for the 2011 Cricket World Cup opening ceremony, held in Dhakka in 2011.He has also created an official remix of the Oscar-winning “Slumdog Millionaire” song “Jai Ho,” which was featured on a dance music album compilation for the U.S markets.
While accepting her award at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Vaswani said Malala is very busy going to school and saving the children of the world. The Grammy is the latest award that Malala has received after she survived a horrific attack in which she was shot in the head by the Taliban on her way to school for standing up for her beliefs that all children have the right to an education. “I hope Malala is happy,” said Vaswani. “I’m thrilled to be a part of spreading her message further.”
Other nominations in the Best Children’s Album category include “Appetite For Construction” by The Pop Ups, “Just Say Hi!” by Brady Rymer And The Little Band That Could, “The Perfect Quirk” by Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, and “Through The Woods” by The Okee Dokee Brothers.
Vaswani is the author of the short story collection “Where the Long Grass Bends,” and a memoir “You Have Given Me a Country.” She is the recipient of the American Book Award, an O. Henry Prize, the Fore Word Book of the Year gold medal, the Nautilus Book Award gold medal, as well as an Audie award.
She is also the co-author of the Middle Grade novel-in-letters, “Same Sun Here.” Her fiction and non-fiction works have been widely anthologized and published in various journals.
A visiting writer-in residence at several colleges, Vaswani has a Ph.D in Cultural Studies, and teaches at Manhattanville College’s MFA in Writing Program and Spalding University’s brief residency MFA in Writing Program. An education activist, Vaswani is the founder of the Storylines Project with the New York Public Library.
Other Indians who was won the prestigious awards in the past include A.R. Rahman, Zakir Hussain and Pandit Ravi Shankar. Sitar legend Shankar has been honored with four Grammy’s including a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, a few days after he passed away. A 1967 performance at Monterey Film Festival named “West Meets East” brought Shankar a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance; while the album of a charity concert called “Concert for Bangladesh” held in August 1971 won the ace musician his second Grammy. His third Grammy came in 2000 for his album “Full Circle: Carnegie Hall 2000.”
Rahman won two Grammy’s in 2010 for “Slumdog Millionaire” – Best Compilation Soundtrack Album (shared with sound engineers H. Sridhar and P.A. Deepak) and the other one for “Jai Ho,” in the Best Song Written for Motion Picture category (shared with singers Sukhwinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, Mahalakshmi Iyer and Vijay Prakash and songwriter Gulzaar). Hussain won the award in 2009 for the Contemporary World Music Album “Global Drum Project,” on which he collaborated with Mickey Hart, Sikiru Adepoju and Giovanni Hidalgo.
T.H. Vinayakram became the first ever South Indian to win a Grammy when the same was awarded to him for his participation in Mickey Hart’s “Planet Drum.” Reportedly, the musician went on to donate all the proceedings from the award to a charity group. Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, recognized for his fusion and pan-cultural collaborations with many western artists, won the award in 1993 for his album “A Meeting by the River” with Ry Cooder.