Zakir Hussain’s Shakti band members Shankar Mahadevan & V Selvaganesh on 66th Grammy win for Best Global Album

Tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain has created history and made India proud. He picked up three Grammy Awards this year: for Best Global Music Performance category for Pashto, won the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, and his group Shakti won the best Global Music Album award for its latest album This Moment.

Talking about the wins, Hussain says, "Representing India's art and culture, to carry the flag of our beloved country at the Grammys is an honour beyond description. To do that and to win a handful of Grammys is indeed a landmark that is a testament to the teachings of my father/guru, the upbringing of my mother and most importantly to the resilience and love of my dear wife who carried me for decades with ironclad belief on her shoulders to this moment. I along with brothers Shankar Mahadevan, Ganesh Rajagopalan, Rakesh Chaurasia, Selva Ganesh Vinayakram, John Mclaughlin, Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer thank the Academy, congratulate our fellow winners and bow in respect to those whose incredible music did not get the nod this year. Jai Bharat."

Last year, when in the 65th Grammy Awards, Shankar Mahadevan featured in the jugalbandi piece 5 Peace Band on the Berklee Indian Ensemble’s album Shuruaat, which was nominated for the Best Global Music Album, the singer was celebrating half a century of his legendary band, Shakti, with a 50th Anniversary world tour. A new album was in the making. This year, at the 66th Grammy Awards, at the The Peacock Theatre and the Crypto Arena, Los Angeles, on February 5, that album — This Moment — has won the band the prestigious Global Music Album award, beating Burna Boy, among others.

Shakti's This Moment win at 66th Grammys.

Mahadevan has been part of the iconic fusion band for 24 years. The band, which comprises him, John McLaughlin, Ustad Zakir Hussain, V Selvaganesh and Ganesh Rajagopalan, was originally formed in 1973 by English guitarist John McLaughlin, Indian violin player L Shankar, and Grammy-winning percussionists Zakir Hussain and Vikku Vinayakram under the stage name Turiyananda Sangit. The band’s sound is a mix of acoustic fusion, Indian classical and elements of jazz.

Talking to Moneycontrol after Shakti's win this year, Mahadevan says, “It was a magnificent, world-class stage, one of the most premium, sought-after, and talked about musical experiences for a human being. To be able to climb up on that stage and get a feeling of THE GRAMMYS was a very big thing.” “It was amazing to be on this stage,” echoes V Selvaganesh, who won his “first Grammy, and I am so happy and proud to say that in South India, in one single family, there are two Grammy winners, my father (TH Vikku Vinayakram) and I.”

‘Shakti is a 50-year-old band and it has come a long way’

Shakti band comprises (from left) V Selvaganesh, Shankar Mahadevan, John McLaughlin, G Rajagopalan and Zakir Hussain.

Speaking last year to Moneycontrol, Mahadevan had said, “Shakti was a band which was a part of my music learning process in my life. When I was in college and school I used to listen to their cassettes; especially their studio album Natural Elements and many others and I literally learnt from those cassettes. And in those days, I had a huge wish in my life to just meet the legendary Shakti band and to take a picture with them because they revolutionised the concept of world music with so much energy and precision and musicality. And as luck would have it and by God’s grace, I was sitting with them on stage sitting with Ustad Zakir Hussain and John McLaughlin ji and performing. What more can a musician ask for in his lifetime and career?”

“Shakti is a 50-year-old band and it has come a long way,” says Mahadevan, after his Grammy win this year, adding, “The maestros who play in it like John Ji, Zakir Hussain are people who have performed with every single musician in the world. Just being in the shadows of these great maestros will really help you learn and help you perform and help you as a person and a musician.”

‘Shakti introduced the fusion genre in the 1970s’ 

V Selvaganesh at the 66th Grammy Awards.

“In 1997, when McLaughlin wanted to re-group (Shakti disbanded at one point), my dad (Vinayakram) was busy, and they found U Srinivas and me and then we travelled for two or three years. Later, we found Shankar Mahadevan,” says Selvaganesh, whom Mahadevan calls “my brother. I don't think I know of any other percussionist who has that calibre, that level.”

Mahadevan was initially, “the guest vocalist of our band,” says Selvaganesh, “then McLaughlin said let’s have a singer too in the band. The four-piece band originally was only instrumental. In 2002, he joined us and we did many tours. We lost U Srinivas and again stopped playing. Later, we found violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan. Shakti is the first band to have played and introduced a genre called fusion in the 1970s. In the era when there were the Beatles, Pandit Ravi Shankar and others, they created this kind of music. This is the 50th year of celebration for the band. My dad was there for 25 years, and I joined later, and I have travelled with this band for 25 years. This is the moment, and it is amazing. The whole world has considered this music as global music with this Grammy.”

‘We worked on the album during the pandemic’

Shakti wins 66th Grammy Awards for Best Global Music Album.

When asked about the Grammy-winning album This Moment, Selvaganesh says, “When the pandemic began, John ji and Zakir bhai spoke to each other, and they wanted to do an album to mark the 50th year of Shakti. They brainstormed. This was our first studio album after so many years for Shakti and then we all began working on it. Once the pandemic was over, we started recording it. Then we came up with the album and we decided to do a tour for the 50th year. Our agents said, ‘Why don’t we apply for the Grammy’ and we did and won it! We never expect any award, we always just give our 100 per cent and just concentrate on the music. Only music stays, awards come and go. This is the first fusion music group that began fusion as a genre. This group is the inspiration for many. Before us there was no concept like this, no genre. This year, so many Indian musicians were nominated, Shakti, Rakesh Chaurasia, and especially Indian classical music is up there in the front now and I think it will only grow more.”

Shankar Mahadevan with the Grammy Award. (Photo courtesy the artist).

Mahadevan, a Hindi film music composer-singer, says, “I happen to be the rare breed where I am also into mainstream commercial Bollywood cinema and at the same time also into some of other fields of non-film, innovative and experimental music. And to be able to recognise and to get recognised in a non-film environment, I think I am the only person who has achieved that.”