India’s Entertaining Jazz Utsav Festival

Jazz has always been a music genre that only comes to life when people who are truly passionate about it perform. In India a love for jazz spans decades. The first jazz festival was held here in the year 1978. Back in the day, the festival was known as the Jazz Yatra, but its rhythms and hypnotic melodies spilled over into the Jazz Utsav Festival. The name might have changed, but the emotional ties to the jazz genre did not, and it is still as vital to all jazz enthusiasts in India, as it was when the festival started.

In the past the event has attracted both local and international artists and musicians, and legendary names such as Zakir Hussain, Woody Shaw, Stephane Grappelli, Sadao Watanabe, Freddie Hubbard, Kevin Eubanks, Kenny Barron and Larry Coryill have all been associated with the Jazz Utsav Festival. This year, the exploration of various forms of jazz will continue, bringing together the very best of jazz talents and everyone, no matter what their religion or nationality, who has a love for jazz and a passion for music, uniting them in the grooves and beats.

The Jazz Utsav Festival 2007, will take place in two venues namely the FICCI Auditorium in Tansen, New Delhi and in the Amphitheatre at Bandra Bandstand in Mumbai. It will kick off on the 23rd of November and end on Sunday, the 25th of November. The line up for the festival includes Shuffle Demons, Jake Fryer & the London Bebop Collective, the Chet Baker Tribute, Paula Jeanine, Sasha Ley, Café Du Sport, Krsystof Herdzin, Amit Heri, Madhav Chari Trio and Martin Dahanukar and Louis Banks. Each artist and group brings their own unique style and talent to the festival, such as Krsystof Herdzin, who is a composer, as well as a pianist and arranges his own music. Madhav Chari, of the Madhav Chari Trio, originated from India, but is currently based in New York. Chari is an accomplished pianist and performs with band members Ben Perowsky (Drums) and Santi Debriano (Bass), as the trio. Tribute To Chet Baker consists of Terje Venaas (Bass), Kjersti Stub (Vocals), Ole Jrn Myklebust (Vocals and Trumpet) and Per Husby (Piano). Another group to look forward to is Bruno Mller, Christian von Kaphengst, Jan von Klewitz and Guido May, who perform as Café Du Sport.

Both Mumbai and New Delhi will come alive in November to the lively jazz numbers that will be performed by talented artists. It is a festival that educates, entertains and excites, and will definitely get every foot in the audience tapping. In Mumbai, the festival will form part of the Bandra Festival, and is guaranteed to be an event of enormous proportions.