Interview with jazz bass player Colin D'Cruz from Goa, India.

1) What is your opinion regarding the present jazz scene in Goa?
CD: If there is a jazz scene in India it has to be right here in Goa. No where else in India will you find hundreds of venues that feature live music, many of which host a jazz night at least once a week. Calcutta used to be a jazz hub in the 60's and it shifted to Mumbai in the 80's from where it moved to it's rightful home in Goa, considering the amount of Goan's who have made their mark in this great form of improvised music.
2) Goa has often been called the Jazz capital of India. Would you agree or disagree with this and why?
CD: Absolutely and I would go even further to call it an international jazz hub. Some of the world's greatest jazz artistes have found a home in Goa, returning every year to enjoy the inspiring environment that our beautiful state offers to just about any creative artist. I have recorded some phenomenal visiting artistes at my studio in Sangolda. And each one of them has helped raise the bar for my band as well as for my studio. Many of these visiting artistes also realise that it is easier for them to get a booking in Goa than back home where live performance opportunities keep getting rarer by the day.
3) Do you receive a lot of Goan audience or is it mostly tourists at your concerts?
CD: One more reason why Goa is an international jazz hub is the fact that local bands often feature international artistes and perform to international audiiences. Why go out to the rest of the world when the rest of the world comes to Goa? Goans are generally music loving people and they enjoy any music that sounds like music and if it gets them to dance you've nailed it. Jazz is more of a musicians music and is enjoyed best when you understand the nuances of improvisation, for those who don't, it's the sheer virtuosity of a good performer that blows them away. Very often people meet me after a gig with 'what was that?' and then they answer themselves wit!
 h 'that
was great!'
4) What do you think is the attitude of the youth towards Jazz music?
CD: The youth today are tuned in to DJ's more than into jazz or music performed by band's in general. It's just another phase in the evolution of music and i'll go with the flow without wanting to debate about it. To me music has to be made by a musical instrument, to many it could be made with machines and to each their own! Technology has made things a lot simpler both in case of performance as well as production. The trick is to harness technology to hone your skills on a musical instrument or vocal chords if you are a singer. I often tell youngsters who ask for my advice to learn a musical instrument before they learn a machine.
5) What is the future of Jazz in Goa?
CD:The future of jazz in Goa like in the rest of the world is wide open. Jazz is the only form of music that embraces all other sounds of music. So there's rock-jazz, pop-jazz, funk-jazz, fusion-jazz, blues-jazz and there will be a -jazz attached to every form of music that comes along. If DJ music is popular today, well there's DJ-jazz! The most exciting thing about jazz is what comes next with due respect to what happened in the past. Onstage, it is often anticipating your fellow musicians next improvised notes and nailing it in one spontaneous unison phrase. The future is always uncertain but there's one thing for sure, you'll find a new form of jazz sneaking up on you any time and all the time. You can keep yourself updated with the current jazz scene in Goa at www.jazzgoa.com

Interview with Tony Adamo @CriticalJazz/

Wednesday, June 12, 2013 @CriticalJazz/ The whole interview
 Catching Up With Tony Adamo The Miles Of Blu Interview! Part 1&2
 http://www.criticaljazz.com/2013/06/catching-up-with-tony-adamo-miles-of.html
 http://www.criticaljazz.com/2013/06/catching-up-with-tony-adamo-part-2.html

CANADA: Steve Koven interview

Returning from other countries and seeing the thirst for jazz music in foreign cultures helps inspire Koven musically. 
He frequently composes based on his experiences in other countries. 
“ ‘Bogotá’ for example, it’s a full-of-life song but it also has a sorrow to it too,” he said. “Because many people there are extremely poor, but they’re also smiling and embracing life, so there’s this kind of oxymoron.” (Read full interview)

Steve Koven website

Arun Ghosh - Primal Odyssey( Camoci 2011)

Ghosh's music instantly commands attention and however much you hear of this album, you want to hear more. That is something special. **** four stars --Jazzwise
Primal Odyssey is the highly anticipated 2nd album from one of the UK's most unique and hard-working talents, Arun Ghosh. Produced by Arun Ghosh & Tony Platt, and recorded at Vale Studios in Worcestershire, inspirations and influences for Primal Odyssey range from Greek mythology, Bengali baul music, Don Cherry, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, the late Pete Postlethwaite and The Bible. Primal Odyssey is a narrative-driven album representing the culmination of the many musical journeys that Ghosh has undertaken throughout his career as a performer, composer, music educator and recording artist. Harnessing the power of the live sound, Primal Odyssey marks a back-to-basics approach to recording. Five musicians in a room, playing together, interacting a classic jazz set up beautifully capturing the sound of the room, the blend of the horns; giving the quieter, contemplative moments a heightened intimacy and vulnerability whilst magnifying the explosive drive of the rhythm section. Primal Odyssey is the sound of Arun Ghosh s Horn E Bass Quintet, featuring Idris Rahman, Shabaka Hutchings, Liran Donin and Pat Illingworth, who made their debut appearance in 2010 at London Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho. Described by The Daily Telegraph as ...an evening of music-making, at once no-nonsense, thrilling and beautiful , this was the catalyst for a radical re-working of Ghosh s unique Indo-Jazz style, as was premiered on his debut album Northern Namaste.(amazon.com)

The fusion of Jazz with raags and taals of Indian music is the inspiring formula for the sound of Indo-Jazz musician, Arun Ghosh. Music with surges of energetic drums laced with the melodic sounds of the clarinet supported by bass clarinet, saxophone and upright bass, form the sound of his unique quintet. DESIblitz met up with Arun Ghosh to find out more his amazing sound.


The concert performed by Arun Ghosh at The MAC featured some of the most delightful and zesty pieces of music heard in this form. The band had the audience completely mesmerised by its sound as it witnessed the dynamic of sounds played by the musicians as individual solos, harmonies and in unison. The set featured tunes from Arun’s latest album Primal Odyssey and from his previous release Northern Namaste. (desiblitz)

Arun Ghosh  website

INDIA: Zakir Hussain brings back the magic

Zakir Hussain and John McLaughlin bring back the memories of Shakti, the fusion band of 70s with Remembering Shakti tour again

West and South India is being treated to the sounds of Shakti again after a gap of six years.Zakir Hussain and John McLaughlin are touring five cities with their fellow musicians in February with 'Remember Shakti'. The tour kickedoff yesterday in Pune and concludes in Chennai on 11th. In Goa on the 9th, Zakir Hussain said, "Performing with John is like playing with an Indian musician. John has taken the time to study Indian classical music and figure out how we work, how we think and what our improvising techniques are. I, too have had the good fortune to study and understand the Western ways of musical thinking be it jazz, pop or rock.  (Times of India)

John McLaughlin loves Bollywood music

I listen to Bollywood music and I absolutely love it, says John McLaughlin, a renowned English guitarist and composer from the band, Remember Shakti 

You founded the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Shakti and Remember Shakti... what drew you to Indian music?

I learned yoga and when I moved to New York, I started doing the exercises with greater concentration. I began to feel the need to improve myself through meditation and that's when I was introduced to Sri Chinmoy. 


I asked him about the relationship between music and spiritual consciousness and he told me that what a person does isn't important. What matters is the person's state of consciousness. Whether one was a street cleaner or a musician was less important. If one was a musician seeking enlightenment, one's music would "automatically be a part of it". (Continues...)

USA: In the 1960s Trilok Gurtu was refused admission at Berkeley

Gurtu himself recounts the story behind it. "As a young musician, I had applied to the Berkeley College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, but was 'refused admission' because they wanted me to play the American way and world music, and the exotic rhythms of India were not yet accepted on the jazz music scene in the United States in the 1960s. So I refused to bend to their wish and was rejected," he says. (Full interview)

INDIA: JLF: The Journey of Jazz - How Jazz came to Bollywood

"After the partition, swing musicians ended up in parts of Pakistani Punjab. Prohibition in Bombay led to hotels losing business. That's when Bollywood steps in," he said at his session, the last of the evening on Sunday evening at the Jaipur Literature Festival. And soon, in the 50s, it was one of the most defining sounds of Hindi film music, prime example being the film Albela - with songs like Shola Jo Bhadke. 

Jazz had a special place in the Hindustani Classical-influenced, heavy on melody Bollywood music of the 50s. Many of these jazz and swing musicians, Fernandes pointed out, worked primarily as assistants to the bigger music directors. Once the music director was done drafting the melody, they would arrange the bridge and the interludes. That car chase sequence that had you on the edge of your seat? That probably came from someone who once played at the Taj rooftop too. "Indian music is melodic. Western music is harmonic. For effective screen music, it had to be harmonic, group music," said Fernandes. (Read more)

INTERVIEW: For jazz pianist Joey Calderazzo, improvisation is the thrill of the hunt

In describing Songs of Mirth and Melancholy, the recent album of piano and saxophone duets he recorded with longtime bandmate Branford Marsalis, pianist Joey Calderazzo seemed almost dismissive.

Like most of the recordings he has been associated with — be they solo projects or the numerous works undertaken during the past 12 years with Marsalis' extraordinary jazz quartet — Calderazzo views Mirth almost exclusively in the past tense. The jazz process for him involves immersing himself in the music, seeking something applicable from it that can benefit his playing, then moving on.

By Walter Tunis — Contributing Music Writer

INDONESIA: My Jakarta: Indra Dauna, Jazz Musician

Who inspires your jazz music? 

It all started with Chris Botti, which is funny because jazz musicians consider him pop. As time passed, I grew to like Chet Baker. He was an amazing American jazz trumpeter. Some people say that he did not know the theories of jazz music, but he possessed a special talent and many people said he had a golden ear. I also like some musicians who I failed to appreciate when I first heard their music, such as Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard. 

How would you describe your musical style? 

I cannot say that I am a specialist in one thing, but the genres I like are swing, mainstream jazz, bebop and similar styles, but let’s not forget funk music. 
(Read more)

INTERVIEW: Vijay Iyer on Abandoning the Word "Jazz"

NBC New York (blog)
VI: "I said the other day, if we’re going to use what’s now being called “the J word” -- there’s kind of a movement to jettison that word in fact -- but if we’re going to use it, we have to understand it not as a style of music but as basically a strategy of transformation. Because it’s about transforming yourself and your surroundings and people around you, working with materials you have at hand, what you have at your disposal. When we talk about improvised music, it’s improvised not just in the sense that I’m choosing what notes to play, but I’m also choosing everything about it and putting it together because it’s what we have. If you were stranded in the forest overnight, you might improvise a tent out of some branches and a blanket. And when you think about it that way, that’s kind of what this music is. It’s a strategy for survival, a strategy for transformation and connection, and a strategy for creative becoming, I think is the best way to put it.

USA: Interview with Paul Carr

PC: Our motto of “Standing up for real jazz” acknowledges the fact that there’s something wrong with that brand or word “jazz.” Jazz can mean anything these days, and it seems every country has its “own” jazz. So I agree with a lot of what Nick is saying about the term jazz, but he not the first person to bring this issue to the forefront. [Charles] Mingus, [Duke] Ellington and Max [Roach] all raised this issue. Also, I think some of Nick’s concerns are separate conversations aside the term “jazz” issue. Nicholas Payton is a brilliant and gifted musician; people should come out and hear him play the trumpet, he is truly one the great players of our time.
Paul Carr dishes on music education, ‘real jazz’ & next month’s Mid-Atlantic Jazz Fest

CZECH REPUBLIC: Preview: Mary Stallings An undercover American jazz great

Jazz singer Mary Stallings isn't nearly as well-known as she should be.

Despite being a stunningly talented female vocalist with nearly a dozen widely acclaimed albums over a career spanning more than 60 years, Stallings, who makes her Prague debut Dec. 23 at the National Theater, has managed to stay one of jazz's best-kept secrets.

The singer has built her career by impressing some of jazz's defining figures, from Cannonball Adderley to Dizzy Gillepsie, but hers is a household name for only the most dedicated jazz fans. That doesn't seem to bother Stallings, who at the age of 72 is singing more than ever, touring almost constantly and has released two albums in the last five years.

FRANCE TOM: Une batteuse à l’affût des surprises de l’improvisation

HÉLOÏSE DIVILLY. L’événement jazzistique de cette fin d’année est à coup sûr la venue, pour quelques concerts exceptionnels, de cette musicienne à découvrir de toute urgence. Entretien à distance.

Vous venez jouer à La Réunion, où vous avez vécu, où vous avez appris la batterie et le jazz. Pouvez-vous retracer votre parcours musical ?

J’ai commencé la batterie au CNR de Saint-Paul avec Bernard Filo. Il m’a initiée à des styles musicaux variés avec une grande ouverture d’esprit. Avec lui j’ai découvert le jazz, dont j’ai pu suivre un enseignement au CNR pendant cinq ans avec Luc Joly et Kawa (alias Philippe Chavriacouty). J’ai parallèlement appris le violon classique et joué de la musique traditionnelle irlandaise. Après le bac, je me suis consacrée à la musique pendant deux ans. Puis, sur les conseils de certains enseignants, j’ai pris la direction de la métropole, où j’ai atterri dans l’école de musique de Didier Lockwood. Un an plus tard, en 2008, j’ai intégré la classe de Jazz et Musiques Improvisées du Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. J’y poursuis actuellement ma quatrième année. Lorsque j’étais sur l’île, j’ai eu l’occasion de jouer régulièrement du jazz, notamment avec Luc Joly, Jacky Boyer, David Félix, Nicolas Beaulieu, Eric Juan, Christophe Chabirand… La diversité des formations avec cet esprit toujours ouvert et détendu m’a beaucoup formée à la Réunion. Il y a eu aussi Celtik Soubik, un groupe de musique irlandaise avec lequel j’ai vécu d’intenses soirées à faire danser les gens aux pas celtiques. Arrivée à Paris je jouais du jazz avec les musiciens que je rencontrais dans les écoles, avant de trouver ceux avec qui je partage le plus d’affinités aujourd’hui, dont le pianiste du duo Fonnzié avec qui je viens jouer cet été, Noé Macary.(Lire la suite)

CZECH REPUBLIC: Rudy Linka – a guitar virtuoso bringing world renowned musicians to Czech cities and towns with Bohemia Jazz Fest

The world-renowned jazz guitar player Rudy Linka was born in Prague but moved to Sweden at a young age. After half a decade there he left for the US, and has been living in New York for nearly a quarter of a century. In recent years, however, Rudy has been home in the Czech Republic every summer, organising the Bohemia Jazz Fest, a great free event which brings world class jazz musicians to a number of Czech towns and cities. We met at Café Slavia, one of the haunts of his teenage years.
Read the interview at the radio.cz

www.rudylinka.com
www.bohemiajazzfest.cz 

INDIA: Get to know bass guitarist Mainak Nag Chowdhury

Mainak Nag Chowdhury the bass guitarist of Kolkata-based music band Kendraka speaks to Tithi Sarkar about the band, the music and their upcoming documentary Kendraka: Inside the Nucleus.

Q. Tell us about your music and band members.
A. Our music is a confluence of various cultural influences: rural folk of Bengal, jazz, rock, blues, Afro-Brazilian though the predominant inspiration right now is Hindustani and Carnatic music. The band has five members- Bodhisattwa Ghosh and Nishad Pandey on guitar, Jivraj Satya Singh on drum, Soumyajyot Ghosh as flautist and me on bass.
Q. Tell us about your upcoming documentary.
A. The documentary is an honest story about what and why we are the way we are, both individually and collectively. Directed by Shantanu Bhattacharya and Poulami Mukherjee, it is an hourlong presentation about everything from the inception of the band to the confirmation of our first Europe tour in 2011.
Q. Any future plans?
A. Our second album is due for release in February 2012. Also coming up is a tour of Europe and South East Asia in 2012.
Source:
LIFESTYLE.IN
http://www.indiatoday.in
Website

INDIA: Hindustani classical vocalist Sonam Kalra talks to Team Viva about her recent jazz performance in the Capital and her love for different genres of music

Talking about the selection of songs, Kalra said, “I love jazz so I sang mostly up-tempo songs. I had selected them from Great American Songbook as basically all these are standard jazz numbers. I performed a ballad too.” Talking about her all-time favourite jazz idols, she said, “I adore Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Anaida. For jazz, I mostly like women singers and I like music that speaks the truth of your life. For example, Begum Akhtar, every song of hers has a meaning, her music tells about her life and that’s what the most important part of music is.”dailypioneer.com

BOOK REVIEW: CONVERSATIONS/ William Parker by Steve Dalachinsky

CONVERSATIONS/ William Parker / Rogueart / 2011 / 247 pages with a CD

Review by Steve Dalachinsky

Not since John Zorn’s Arcana project and Art Taylor’s Notes and Tones, a comparison many will make, and which Parker says in his brief intro, is the book that inspired him to do this project, has there been a book of interviews so vital, so down to earth and so personal. What we have here are 34 interviews conducted by Parker over approximately the last decade, 30 of which are with so called free jazz/improvisers, two with new music composers, one with Patricia Nicholson Parker, his wife, a dancer and an organizer of such events as the ongoing Vision Festival and photographer Jacques Bisceglia who also contributed a beautiful black and white and color centerfold (27 photos) of most of the artists being interviewed and with whom I had the privilege of collaborating with on another Rogueart project Reaching Into the Unknown (2009). Though primarily known as an independent cd label out of Paris, France, Rogueart has thus far published three books, the two just mentioned and another, Logos and Language, a collaboration by pianist Matthew Shipp and me.  

As Parker points out, these talks represent “oral histories” by artists who have dealt in / with the creative process and all its joys, hardships, knowledge and discoveries. He states that one necessity for this collection is to bring these artists more out of the realms of myth and more into the realms of reality. Their range runs the gamut of the known to the lesser known to the almost obscure and hopefully one thing this book will do is familiarize people with their lives and make them want to go out and hear their ART.

We are also fortunate enough to have interviews with musicians who only just recently left us like Billy Bang and Fred Anderson and those like Frank Lowe who departed a few years back and whom Parker got to interview at his hospital bed while he was dying.  Lowe quoting Don Cherry says, “You got to be in tune no matter whether it’s going outside, inside, crossways or down.” He then goes on to say when you are “doing a solo you’re the only one … but at the same time there’s power in numbers … a group situation helps to sustain you”  and that if “you felt it, you played what you felt. You don’t ask about the feelings you just play [them.]” Lowe again… “We are always copying someone …when you see that you have to change up fast.” This is so true for all arts.

The book encompasses many of the first wave of the avante garde players like, Dave Burrell, Sonny Murray, Alan Silva and Milford Graves who states that it’s about what we smell, taste and hear…the sound spectrum…frequency spectrum. Not to recall the same note…to adjust to the vibration and that a musician’s job is to be the receptor of the vibrations of the planet. What we continually learn from these masters and sometimes quite poignantly is their intense struggles, their complete devotion to their art and why they do what they do.  Cooper Moore puts it this way. “Music gives people great relief…that’s why I do it.” What we constantly see is how these artists grew up thrived, learned about and got into their crafts, their fundamental ideas about the music and how they came to play it and/or arrived at their process or as with the case of Patricia N. Parker and Bisceglia how they came to play an active role in the “scene”.

Billy Bang, a Vietnam veteran, talks about growing up in Harlem and how his time in Vietnamaffected both him and his music (later in life Billy made two cds based on his experiences there and used musicians who had also served there.) “Vietnam has been such a big influence on me …that’s why I dedicated myself to music.” Parker at one point says after hearing the horrific stuff  Bang went through, “Those people who sent anybody there should be locked up.” to which Billy readily agrees. When Bang talks about why/how he plays the violin he states that besides the human voice the violin is an early instrument and that rather than try to become a unique voice on it he decided to dedicate & commit himself to investigate this area and the instrument’s range and tradition.

Each interview is prefaced with a beautiful take by Parker on the musician he will speak to always asking the question why do you do this. One reply by Chinese composer  

Ge Gan-ru is simply,  “I don’t know... but this I do know I cannot live without the music.”

The interviews are of varying lengths as short as eight pages and as long 20 and  

as editor Ed Hazell points out “…were edited for clarity …but the goal was to maintain the character of the musicians’ voices.”

.

The accompanying cd contains 45 short tracks containing snippets of the interviewees interspersed with short solo bass pieces by Parker.

This is both a learning and survival manual or as Parker puts it “everyone has a story that is part of the continuum…a small piece of the puzzle that is creativity.” So if you want to educate yourself a bit more pick up this book, listen to these 34 songs from cover to cover then turn the pages and listen some more to the “sound, movement and color.” that comes deep out of the well of creativity. And each time you’ll hear (read) something fresh, different and new. Sound is a very personal thing and there is a wealth of knowledge to be absorbed, digested and learned, from all these unique individuals, their unrestrained voices and the candid music of their language, emotions and thought.  

RogueArt

INTERVIEW: Herbie Hancock returns to classical roots

 Hancock himself has been practicing “improvising in a classical way” himself, something he says takes a lot of work. “But if it’s not hard, then I’m not working hard enough,” he says. “I have to make it a challenge.” “So one of the things I’m interested in is sparking up a new interest in classical musicians for improvising. Not necessarily improvising in a swing way with jazz – yes, if that’s what they want – but also improvising in a classical way.”

Read More

Oct. 22 Herbie Hancock @ Massey Hall / Toronto with the Massey Hall Orchestra Nov. 9.
Herbie Hancock @ the Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra 

CANADA, BC: Gord Clements: Bass clarinet finally gets its due

"The bass clarinet is a strange instrument. It's capable of sounding like a barnyard animal run amuck," he said.
So he decided to commission his own pieces. Clements asked the composers to combine elements of jazz and classical music in a melodic manner. Piatigorsky's piece, Clemency, explores the composer's folkloric Russian roots. Roessingh's composition, Currents, is inspired by the tidal currents around Victoria (both Clements and Roessingh enjoy sailing).
Read more: 


Seven New Works (bass clarinet and string orchestra)
Alix Goolden Performance Hall, Victoria Conservatory of Music
When: Sunday, 23 oct 8 p.m.