Adele may have swept the 59th Grammy Awards held in Los Angeles on 12 Feb, but there is also an Indian who made an appearance there. This man was none other than Jawaharlal Nehru. Surprised? Read On!
Jazz saxophonist and composer, Ted Nash, won the Grammy ‘Best Instrumental Composition’ for his composition ‘Spoken At Midnight’ inspired by the ‘Tryst with destiny’ speech delivered by India’s first prime minister.
Mr. Nehru’s speech made history when he gave it midnight, and it’s come back to revive history!
“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now that time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.”
The speech has inspired many in the last nearly 70 years and Nash decided to include it in his album, Ted Nash Big Band: Presidential Suite (Eight Variations On Freedom).
The album features great speeches in the last century from the likes of John F Kennedy (Ask not what your country can do for you), Franklin D Roosevelt (Four freedoms), Winston Churchill (This deliverance) and Nelson Mandela (The time for the healing of wounds) among others.