Shakti’s Selvaganesh Describes the Proud Moment He Received News of Grammy Nomination

Last week, jazz-fusion giants Shakti’s album This Moment was announced as a nominee in the Best Global Music Album category at the upcoming 66th Grammy Awards by the Recording Academy. The group’s percussionist and kanjira artist Selvaganesh Vinayakram was informed by his son, Swaminathan Selvaganesh the same night.

The percussionist tells Rolling Stone India over the phone from Kanchipuram, “My son said, ‘So did you watch it?’ I said, ‘What did I watch? No I haven’t.’ Then he said, ‘Shakti was nominated.’ I was freaking out.” Selvaganesh immediately called up his bandmates – John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan and Ganesh Rajagopalan. “I told Shankar that we were nominated. We were all so happy,” he adds.

A part of Shakti for more than 20 years, Selvaganesh was recruited by McLaughlin after the guitar great had played in the original lineup with ghatam legend Vikku Vinayakram, Selvaganesh’s father. In a way, Shakti’s Grammy nomination for Selvaganesh is following in a family tradition – Vinayakram was nominated Best World Music Album in 1996 at the Grammys, for his work on violinist L. Shankar and Hussain’s album Raga Aberi. Selvaganesh says, “It’s already like a celebration mood here.”

This Moment came out about 45 years after the previous Shakti album and also marked a renewed push from the band in their 50th year – one that originally started with concerts in India in 2020, before the pandemic. Some of the compositions from the album have been in the band’s repertoire for decades and it gave them a chance to record as well as perform to full houses across North America, Europe and India.

Selvaganesh also beams about how it’s an honor to be nominated for a Grammy as a co-producer on the album, in addition to being a composer for the track “Mohanam.” He adds, “The greatest thing we wanted to celebrate with this album was that it’s considered for Best Global Music Album and not any other category. That means this group has that global music value. John ji and I were talking about it three days ago. He said, ‘We know that this music is global, but getting recognition is the greatest thing. It shows Shakti.’ It’s definitely a shakti, a power.”

The artist says he’s definitely looking forward to attend the Grammy awards on February 4th, 2024 in Los Angeles. “It’s a great opportunity to be in that space and it would boost you to do a lot. I’m definitely planning to go,” he adds.