For those attending the 4th Delhi International Jazz Festival, it was all about the “feel” of music as they braved the drizzle on a wet Friday evening at Chanakyapuri’s Nehru Park.
The three-day festival, which will end on Sunday, has given Delhiites a taste of different forms of jazz - from traditional songs of the 1930s to modern interpretations of the same and also rendition of a jazz version of a Hindi song. The crowd, a mix of college students and retirees, enjoyed the show despite the rain playing a spoilsport.
“I like hearing live music as it makes you more involved and I love jazz,” said 18-year-old Labuni Roy, adding that her father’s taste for jazz had influenced her.
Another member of the audience, Dipita (18), said: “Jazz makes you connect. It has its own feel. Coming to a show like this is good because you’re surrounded by others who share the same tastes. No one will judge you and you can just enjoy yourself.”
And enjoy, they did. While the first band on stage, the Ari Roland Quartet, played its version of ‘Georgia On My Mind’ and Lata Mangeshkar’s ‘Dil-E-Naadan’, there were toes tapping and heads bobbing.
Ari Roland, the bass player for the New York-based band, said: “The audience in India is receptive as the culture here is saturated with music.”
Another musician who played at the festival, Anthony Braganza said: “If their parents like jazz, then the children tend to like it too. I grew up in Goa where this kind of music is everywhere. If someone dies, there is jazz, if someone is born, there is jazz.”
However, guitarist Edwin Fernandes, who played with Mr. Braganza’s band Black Slade, said the younger generation today did not have the opportunity to get into jazz. Fifty-one-year-old Vivek Bharadwaj, who attended the show with his wife, said: “We used to be into jazz when we were younger, but now we don’t get the time or opportunity to listen to it that much.”
