Opinion Express View on the Grammys: Music to the ears
Golden Gramophones for Shakti and As We Speak are a triumph for world music and its possibilities
Shakti was an experiment that took time to make its mark. It slowly opened up a unique world of possibilities in an attempt to invite people to understand cross-cultural music. 
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When Shakti, the free-spirited Indo-jazz supergroup, came to life over 50 years ago, keeping the concept of improvisation at its heart, many jazz purists were perplexed. Mainly because they didn’t know what to make of the diverse East-meets-West sounds that were the brainchild of tabla exponent Ustad Zakir Hussain and British bassist John McLaughlin.
The two had joined forces with violinist L Shankar and ghatam legend Vikku Vinayakram to find a common ground to create world music when the term hadn’t been coined and many would loosely and somewhat disdainfully call it “fusion”.
Shakti was an experiment that took time to make its mark. It slowly opened up a unique world of possibilities in an attempt to invite people to understand cross-cultural music. The music was an expression of each musician’s experience, but with restraint; they always had to accommodate the other. This was more than just music. It was a life lesson.
For something to be accepted, it has to stand the test of time. And Shakti has, for more than five decades. On Monday morning, the endeavour got the prestigious Grammy stamp for its Covid album — This Moment – an eight-track album, which is only the band’s second in 50 years.
With founders Hussain and McLaughlin and new members of the band — vocalist Shankar Mahadevan, kanjira player V Selvaganesh and Vinayakram’s son and violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan, Shakti walked away with the Best Global Music Album for their dazzling interplay of sounds. This year, Hussain was at the helm of another world music album — As We Speak — with flautist Rakesh Chaurasia, American banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck and noted bassist Edgar Meyer — which won the Best Global Music Performance for the song Pashto.
The quartet also won the award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. Hussain’s words on stage, just after Chaurasia touched his feet as a mark of respect, summed it up: “Without love, without music, without harmony, we are nothing.”
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