Grammy calling for Ricky
His voice, much like his music, is a sea of calmness. But that does very little to hide Bengaluru-based musician Ricky Kej’s excitement over his first Grammy nomination. The first album by an Indian artiste to be nominated for a Grammy under the Best New Age Album category, is in collaboration with South African flautist, Wouter Kellerman. Called Winds of Samsara, it is a 14-piece flute compilation.
Sharing his excitement over the nomination, Ricky says, “I’m nominated along with Japanese musician Kitaro. It’s a dream come true for me since he is the reason why I got into music. I’m honoured by the nomination and even though the chances of me winning the Grammy are quite slim, I’m hopeful.”
With more than 120 musicians involved from all over the world, the album has for long been Ricky’s dream. About his specific collaboration with Wouter Kellerman, Ricky says, “We met in Los Angeles and noticed that we have a mutual admiration for music. We did not have anything concrete in place, we simply went with the flow.”
Having been born and partly raised in the West, what pulled Ricky back to his roots, according to himself, are the contributions of Indian musicians to world music. “Artistes such as Pandit Ravi Shankar are the reason why independent musicians like me get recognised now. He brought Indian music to the Western market. He transcended borders and left a mark on his audience. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was another maestro who had an enticing voice and the capability to experiment with his music,” says Ricky.
While he straddles music from the East and West with ease, Bollywood is not an area he wants to venture into. The composer says, “The music scenario in India is dominated by the Hindi film industry and artistes like me without industry backing are easily sidelined because of this. I can’t make music within specific boundaries. Though there is some amazing work being made in B’wood by artistes like Vishal-Shekhar and A.R. Rahman to name a few, I would be more interested in knowing what’s going on in their lives through their words and their tunes as it happens in the West… My album hasn’t achieved much success here but was on the number one position on the Billboard charts soon after its release. The reason I think is because platforms such as radio and TV here are more inclined towards B’wood music,” he adds. Even as he gears up for the upcoming Grammy Awards, Ricky is already contemplating a second collaboration with Wouter. “Winds of Samsara turned out to be bigger than what we had expected. Right now we are concentrating only on this album but a future collaboration with Wouter for the next rendition is surely on the cards,” he concludes.