Who says you have to be a pro to win a Grammy? Not the folks responsible for the nominations.
Indian New Yorker Chandrika Krishnamurthy Tandon earned a nod -- but she spends her working hours crunching numbers for the Park Avenue financial advisory firm she founded, Tandon Capital Associates. She also serves as an executive in residence for NYU's Stern School of Business.
Tandon, 56, explains without hesitation: "That's work; the music is love." That love and devotion resulted in "Soul Call," her classical Indian work nominated for Best Contemporary World Music Album.
She's also clearly not in it for the money. "It sells for $2 a copy," Tandon says. "If left to me, I would just give the CDs away, but 100 percent of the money we do get goes to [charitable] causes because this isn't a profit venture. I just want to reach people with the music."
The music that Tandon sings is spiritual, written around the traditional Indian meditation mantra "om na mo na ra ya na ya." But even if you're not a yoga student seeking inner peace, her vocals and melodies have a celebratory quality that move your hips with the same ease as they soothe your head.
That's why fans have embraced this record, as well as people in the Recording Academy who nominated her for a Grammy. Tandon took that honor in stride. "I was working in the studio, singing . . . when I heard I was nominated. I was excited, but nothing has really changed." After a pause, Tandon adds in her musical voice, "There is a saying: 'Before enlightenment you chop wood, and after enlightenment, you chop wood.' "
While Tandon is at work on another album that will be released this spring, she's getting ready for the awards ceremony she'll attend on Feb. 13 in Los Angeles. And she's up against world music heavyweights -- multiple Grammy-winning composer and banjo player Béla Fleck, Brazilian singer Bebel Gilberto, singer-songwriter Angelique Kidjo and pianist Sergio Mendes.
Sizing up the competition, Tandon says, "I'm not a star, they are stars, I'm just someone who was lucky enough to have made an album. This is not about me at all; I'm just an instrument. The music came to me, and what is surprising is it is also moving a lot of people who hear it."
dan.aquilante@nypost.com
01/06/11 >> 
