New Delhi: The performances, glitz and glamour attached to the Grammy Awards apart, Indians will have much to cheer as three of the country's musicians will vie for a gramophone when the music world's Oscars are announced on Sunday night, in Los Angeles.
One of India's leading jazz musician Louis Banks has earned two Grammy nominations in the Best Contemporary Jazz Album category for his work in the albums Miles From India and Floating Point.
This category is for albums containing 51 per cent or more playing time of instrumental tracks.
Miles from India is a tribute to the founder of modern jazz Miles Davies.
According to Banks it is "an Indian tribute to the maestro who was simply in love with Indian music".
In Floating Point, Banks plays with legendary guitarist John McLaughlin.
In the Best Traditional World Music Album (Vocal or Instrumental) category, two Indians are in the race — Kolkata-based classical musician Debashish Bhattacharya and veteran Hindustani classical vocalist Lakshmi Shankar.
While Bhattacharya has been nominated for his album Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide Guitar Odyssey, Lakshmi has been shortlisted for her album Dancing In The Light.
Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide Guitar Odyssey is a musical journey through the centuries of guitar playing in India. Using three unique guitars that Bhattacharya designed himself, each raga explores influences ranging from gypsy to Sufi with deep sensitivity and free-flowing movement between past and present, tradition and innovation.
Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide-Guitar Odyssey is an album of Indian raga music, interpreted in a way that is accessible both to the Indian and western listener, touching on the blues, jazz, flamenco and Hawaiian music.
Dancing in the Light has a khyal (Raga Purya Dhanashree), two thumris (Raga Manj Khamaj and Sindbhairavi) and two Mira bhajans.
Sister-in-law of legendary sitar player Ravi Shankar, Lakshmi was at first a dancer but had to give up due to ill-health.
She worked on a historic adaptation of Jawaharlal Nehru's Discovery of India, a work that prompted Nehru to say, "The ballet's better than my book."
In the 1960s, she recorded an album called The Voice of Lakshmi Shankar for World Pacific.
Since then she has recorded widely in varying capacities and styles including Tamil folk songs, Hindu devotional songs of all sorts, film work (including the soundtrack to film Gandhi) and for television documentaries.
Says Ravi Shankar about Lakshmi's nomination: "I cannot think of anyone more worthy than her as she has been performing all over the world for over five decades now. It is unfortunate that we in India have not honoured her for her immense talent and dedication even at this ripe age of 82."
Only three Indians have won Grammys till date- Ravi Shankar, Zakir Hussain and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.
Shankar has won it on three occasions, the last time being in 2001 for his album Full Circle - Carnegie Hall 2000 in the Best World Music Album category. He was the first Indian to win a Grammy in 1967 for his performance West Meets East with violinist Yehudi Menuhin in the Best Chamber Music Performance category.
He went on to win another Grammy in 1972 when The Concert For Bangladesh featuring him, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Eric Clapton and Klaus Voormann was named Album Of The Year.
Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, creator of Mohan Veena, won the Grammy along with guitar guru Ry Cooder for A Meeting by the River in the World Music Album section.
Tabla wizard Zakir Hussain won a Best World Music Album Grammy in 1992 for Planet Drum, an album co-created and produced by with Mickey Hart.
In 2006, a little-known monk from Arunachal Pradesh grabbed the news headlines by getting himself nominated for a Grammy.
Lama Tashi was nominated in the Best Traditional Music Album category in 2006 but lost in the race.
On the big Sunday night, there will be performances from Lil Wayne, Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, Radiohead, Jonas Brothers, T.I. with Justin Timberlake, Kanye West, Jennifer Hudson, Coldplay, Paul McCartney with Dave Grohl, Katy Perry and many more artistes.
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