Jazz Greats or Great Jazz ?

The weekend was a musical one. Wife and I went for the Bunny Brunel concert on Saturday.

What can I say? This is perhaps the most disappointing music performance that I have attended. Ever! Don’t get me wrong, I like my music loud every once in a while, I’m a big fan of Steve Morse, Shawn Lane, Jimmy Page, Frank Zappa, Jimmy Hendrix and every axe slinger who is has coaxed his guitar to sing, sigh and wail, but what happened at the Jamshed Bhabha auditorium on that Saturday, I’m afraid could only be categorized as ‘cacophony’.

Part of the problem was the venue which is really designed for acoustic, un-amplified performances and not loud amplified rock, the other part of course was the music which seemed to be all about technique and skill but not music. Having said that the young 'headbanging' crowd seemed to lap up every note

Sunday was a different story. Wife and I decided to take a chance and see if we could attend the last day of the Jazz Utsav. The venue this time around had shifted to the amphitheater behind Land’s End at Bandra.

The opening act of the evening was a quartet called Blood System fronted by Martin Dahanukar who plays the trumpet, the rest of the band comprised of Vinz Vonlathen on guitar and loops, Sam Joss on acoustic bass and Peter Horiberger on Drums. The music was a combination of complex, dense rhythms overlaid with the haunting melodies of the trumpet. I must say that I was also equally impressed by the guitar player. That axe was sure making some amazing sounds. Unfortunately the performance was marred by really awful sound.

The next act was a band from Poland featuring a tall blond 25 year old singer from Poland called Maria Sadowska. A true treat for both the eye and the ear, this band also featured Bartosz Szetela on electric bass, Mariusz on drums and Piotr Wrombel on drums. The band’s set included a number of compositions by the Polish Jazz composer Krzysztof Komeda, famous for his score for Roman Polanski’s movie, Rosemary’s Baby.

The piece de la résistance of the evening was without doubt the last act - The Wolfgang Haffner Group. Wolfgang played at the Utsav last year with the Charlie Mariano Trio. The rest of the band comprised of Sebastian Studnitzky on trumpet and keyboards, Frank Kuruc on guitar and Christian Diener on Bass. The group plays Nu Jazz ala the music of St Germain, a solid groove overlaid with the interaction between the live instruments. This act was a moment of epiphany for me. This is what great Jazz is all about - spontaneous, surprising, restless and ever evolving.

Sandip Chowta who was the brain behind the Bunny Brunel concert, in an interview with Time out made some really uncharitable remarks about the Utsav, saying that unless the festival featured some very famous names, it would be a complete flop.

I personally loved Prakash Thadani’s rejoinder to that, which was to say that the Utsav was not about Jazz Greats but indeed Great Jazz and the performances on Sunday were a true testimony to that.

Guys, I just have this to say in closing. If you truly love music of its own sake, I’d urge you to make the effort to attend such concerts. For one, the Utsav was for Free. Yes that’s right Free!Compare this to what it would cost you to attend a rock concert, the least expensive tics for the Bunny Brunel show were 500 bucks.

What you will be rewarded with, is some really top quality music.Moreover it may also just redifine what you think music is/can be all about.


K