Jazzing up the music

A special Jazz concert by Italian Consulate in Bengaluru

The Prestige Srihari Khoday Centre for Performing Arts had an unusual trio of internationally known musicians in an Italian-Indo evening of contemporary jazz music recently, hosted by the Italian Consulate in Bengaluru.

The music was elegant in its rendition and original in its composition. Conventionally speaking, contemporary jazz may not sit easy with the lay music lover, but the music by Paolo Fresu on the trumpet, Rita Marcotulli on the piano and Trilok Gurtu on a wide-ranging ensemble of unusual percussion instruments was unique.

Their jazz had tones of World music, with notes of Soul, Rock, even African beats, at times overtly Indian with Trilok on the tabla or other instruments. All of these were amalgamated into modern Jazz.

Paolo’s ‘O que tinha de ser’, might remind you of a lost love, with its tones of Blues and Soul (listen to him on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6diy4iNlQs) and yet its jazz is unmistakeable. Indeed, his ability on both the trumpet and the flugelhorn (he switches sometimes in the middle of a piece) was remarkable.

At one point, the drumming by Trilok, with Rita Marcotulli’s and Paolo’s rejoinders were long repartees, which were almost like listening to ‘shayaris’ that were longer than the usual Urdu couplets. Trilok sat on a Cajon, a stool-like percussion instrument, which a musician sits on and taps with his hands. For his composition ‘Water Song’, Trilok used, amongst a host of hybridised percussion items, an aluminium bucket with water into which he immersed what seemed, to me, like a steel frying pan being struck with a cymbal (Zildjian). Trilok’s percussion repertoire combines western drums, Indian tabla, African djembe and sometimes congas.

“All three musicians took just one day to practice and tune the instruments that were sourced by Prestige Srihari Centre ten days prior to the show,” said Manoj Singh, VP of the Centre.

Trilok Gurtu is the son of thumri exponent Shobha Gurtu. Unable to find appreciation in his unconventional percussion beats, Trilok moved to Europe, collaborating with infusing legendary artistes from the West like John McLaughlin.