Two Indian Tabla Artists Among Grammy Winners

Two Indian tabla artists Sandeep Das and Abhiman Kaushal were featured in the list of final honours at the 59th Grammy Awards held in Los Angeles this year.

Winning a solo Grammy put Sandeep in the elite company of Indian Classical Maestros Zakir Hussain, Ravi Shankar, and Mohan veena virtuoso Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

Sandeep contributed in an album called “Sing Me Home” which won the Best World Music Album Award. Abhimaan Kaushal’s album “White Sun II” won the award for being the Best New Age Album.

Sandeep Das

Sandeep Das, 46, is an Indian Tabla player and composer. He has covered a long journey from playing the tabla on the school desk in Patna to walking up to the stage at Staples Center in Los Angeles to collect Grammy.

Das hails from Patna and at the age of 9, he would travel from his home in Patna to Benares (now Varanasi) on weekends to learn from his Guru. Later he shifted to Benaras. At the age of 15, he made his stage debut with Sitar Maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar.

He was nominated for the Grammy Awards in 2003 as well for his record “The Rain.”
Sandeep has performed and composed for Silk Road Ensemble which is a collaborative effort by Yo-Yo Ma, a Chinese-born American to bring performers and composers together from other countries.

Das is now settled in Boston, USA with his wife, Tripti, has passed his passion to his daughters Sakshi and Sonakshi.

Abhiman Kaushal

Abhiman Kaushal, originally from Hyderabad, currently works as the Associate Professor at the Department of Ethnomusicology, University of California, Los Angeles. He is a renowned tabla artist and is recognised for the rich tone and clarity of his work. Kaushal was trained under Pandit B Nandkumar and Ustad Sheikh Dawood.

He has performed with leading musicians like Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Ustad Zakir Hussain, and Pandit Jasraj. He has also toured the world including performances in Germany, England, Norway, Italy, United States.

He contributed to the album White Sun II, which has been called the Best New Age Album at the Grammy Awards. Abhiman has played tabled in this composition.

Other Indians who have won this award

Pandit Ravi Shankar (1967, 1973, 2002, 2013), Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (1993), T H Vinayakram (1996), Zakir Hussain (2009), A R Rahman along with P A Deepak and H Sridhar (2010), Ricky Kej (2015).

The Logical Indian congratulates Sandeep Das and Abhiman Kaushal for winning the award and hope that their work receives many more accolades. This will definitely inspire aspiring musicians of our country to pursue their music with a passion.