It’s riches to raga story for financial guru at Grammys

A hit with family and friends,it attracted a cult following. Her second CD of meditative chants was something else. Released in 2009,Soul Call received a Grammy Award nomination in December for best contemporary world music recording. Recently Tandon mingled with other nominees such as Jay-Z,Herbie Hancock and Wynton Marsalis at the 53rd Grammy Awards at Los Angeles Staples Center.

Tandon,the chairman of Tandon Capital Associates in New York,said itll be nice to beat the well-known nominees in her category,who include Brazilian music legends Sergio Mendes and Bebel Gilberto,Benin native Angelique Kidjo and banjo master Bela Fleck.

But there is no success or failure in this, said Tandon,56,over phone. Im not trying to see if I can sell a number of albums. This CD is about what I want to share,and thats my motivation.

If she takes home the trophy,she will join the small club of India-born musicians,who have won Grammys,such as sitar maestro Ravi Shankar,tabla master Zakir Hussain and Indian classical musician Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

Shes already one of the few Wall Street executives who can hang a Grammy nomination certificate on her office wall next to her MBA degree,which she earned from the Indian Institute of Management in 1975. This has changed my interaction with all my straight-faced colleagues, said Tandon,whose sister is PepsiCo chief executive officer Indra Nooyi. Its opened up a new dimension.

Soul Call features Tandon performing songs that incorporate an eight-syllable chant,Om Na Mo Na Ra Ya Na Ya,thats more than 6,000 years old. The inspiration to compose came early one morning in bed,and she began writing drafts of songs. She hired sarod player Tejendra Narayan Majumdar to arrange the compositions,using more than 30 Western,Indian and folk instruments.

I could have been a classical performer, she said. But I wanted to touch the heart and sing music that makes me feel happy and where I can lose myself.

Tandon is funneling proceeds from the sales of Soul Call into her Krishnamurthy Tandon Foundation that supports nonprofits and causes focused on the economic empowerment of women,education,spirituality and the arts. I thought to myself: If you had one life to live,what is it that you want to do? she said. It was like creating a business plan for myself.

Indian Notes:

Last year,music director A.R. Rahman got two Grammies for his sound-track in Slumdog Millionaire. This year it seems the selection committee of the prestigious Grammy music awards is smitten by Indian music.

* Two New York-based Indian-Americans, Chandrika Krishnamurthy Tandon and Vijay Iyer,are short-listed.

* In addition,a Delhi-based tabla player,Sandeep Das,has been nominated in the Classical Crossover category.

* The Recording Academy presents Grammies annually to honour excellence in the music industry. The 53rd awards will be announced on February 13 .

* Both Tandon,a Sanskrit chant vocalist,and Iyer, a jazz pianist and composer, use Indian music prominently in their works.

* Tandon has been nominated in the Best Contemporary World Music Album category,for her latest album Soul Call,a collection of ancient Sanskrit chants.

* Iyers album Historicity is nominated in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category. It features Marcus Gilmore on drums and Stephan Crump on bass.

* At the Grammies,Vijay Iyer is up against musicians like international Hall of Famer James Moody and the Clayton Brothers. Moody died a few days after the nominations were announced in December.

* Chandrika Tandon will compete in her category with four others,including composer Bela Fleck.

* Vijay Iyer,whose Historicity topped the US charts in 2009,released his first jazz album 15 years ago. Iyer joined a piano group at high school in Rochester,New York and took jazz lessons.

* Chandrika Tandon lives in New York these days but is originally from Chennai. She is classically-trained in both Carnatic and Hindustani styles.

n Her album Soul Call draws on the ancient Vedic tradition while trying to connect with the present world.

* Tandons vocals with chants in eight classical Indian ragas are combined with Western and Eastern musical arrangements,put together by Tejendra Narayan Majumdar.

* For the album Majumdar combined sarod,sitar & esraj with Western instruments such as the piano,electric bass and classical guitar.