Indian album up for Grammy

Louiz Banks, co-producer of Miles from India, is optimistic of winning

Hitchhiking on Miles Davis, Miles from India gets a Grammy Award nomination in the Best Contemporary Jazz Album category. Miles Davis, one of the greatest innovators of jazz, died nearly 20 years ago. Since then, there have been many releases and re-releases of his classic albums. Complete compilations of his studio work have filled record shelves the world over.

However, Miles from India is an original recreation of music associated with the jazz legend Miles Davis and is  co-produced by Bob Belden and Louiz Banks. The project involved two dozen musicians from two separate continents recording in studios around the world. Miles from India is also a cross-cultural summit meeting of sorts that puts a pan-global spin on such Miles classics as All Blues, Spanish Key, So What, It’s About That Time and Jean Pierre.

The Indian musicians included keyboardist Louiz Banks, drummer Gino Banks, American-born alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, sitarist Ravi Chari, Vikku Vinayakram on ghatam, V. Selvaganesh on khanjira, U Shrinivas on electric mandolin, Brij Narain on sarod, Dilshad Khan on sarangi, Sridhar Parthasarathy on mridangam, Ranjit Barot on drums, Taufiq Qureshi and A Sivamani on percussion, Kala Ramnath on Carnatic violin, Rakesh Chaurasia on flute and Shankar  Mahadevan and Sikkil Gurucharan.

Louiz Banks is hopeful of winning the Grammy. “The album is a collaboration of American and Indian artistes in a fusion interpretation of legendary jazz artiste Miles Davis. It is the first time ever that something like this has happened.”

h_rashmi@dnaindia.net