The Grammy Awards seem to have picked up the habit of playing up Pandit Ravi Shankar’s family life. While in 2003, the awards given to Geethali Norah Jones Shankar — alias Norah Jones — highlighted the tenuous, on-off relationship between Ravi Shankar and his daughter, this year, the 55th Grammy Awards have directly pitted Pandit Ravi Shankar against another daughter Anoushka Shankar in the World Music category.
The nominations were announced in Nashville on Wednesday. The awards ceremony would take place on February 10, 2013 at Staples Centre, Los Angeles.
Three-time winner Pandit Ravi Shankar has been nominated for his album The Living Room Sessions Part 1, the first of two releases he recorded with his long-time tabla accompanist Tanmoy Bose in the living room of his Encinitas, California, home. It has four tracks — Raga Malgunji, Raga Khamaj, Raga Kedara and Raga Satyajit. The last is dedicated to Satyajit Ray, for whose Apu trilogy Ravi Shankar composed music.
For Anoushka, it is the third nomination. Her album Traveller (2011) traces the links between Indian music and Spanish flamenco music.
“I’m so happy that both my daughter and my husband are nominated,” Sukanya Shankar, Ravi Shankar’s wife, told the San Diego Union-Tribune on Wednesday.
Ravi Shankar said: “It feels so strange to see both our names’ [on the nominees’ list] and I hope she wins.” And Anoushka said: “I’m not going to win with Bapi [her father] nominated!”
Ravi Shankar (92) became the first Indian to win a Grammy in 1967 for “West Meets East” with violinist Yehudi Menuhin in the Best Chamber Music Performance category.
