Much to cheer about the future of jazz in India

Young independent musicians and bands in India are shaping the future of jazz with unique sounds and arrangements

At the BlueBop Café in Mumbai, the Friday night crowd enjoys jazz standards. Shrea Suresh aka Shrae, vocalist of the band Jazzafools, sings old classics like ‘One Note Samba’ written by Antonio Carlos Jobim, and ‘Cheek To Cheek’ composed by Irving Berlin. Most musicians are in their early or mid-twenties, and saxophonist Harsh Bhavsar is the youngest, at 18.

Cut to jazz clubs in Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, and Bengaluru, and one wouldn’t be surprised to come across numerous jazz musicians aged below 30. Besides the older songs, they play modern jazz, electronic jazz and the 1970s jazz-rock fusion. Naturally, this is something that pleases India’s best known jazz exponent, keyboardist Louiz Banks. “Today’s youngsters are not frightened of jazz. Despite the challenges, the future of the genre is bright,” he beams.

With the concert scene having opened up after the pandemic, jazz promoters are optimistic, simply because of the presence of many young talents. Piano Man Jazz Club founder Arjun Sagar Gupta mentions 26 promising musicians from New Delhi. Besides vocalists, guitarists, bassists, pianists and drummers, his list also includes saxophonists Agneya Singh and Aniket Chaturvedi, and trumpeter Aman Gupta.

Some artistes are being hailed as the future of Indian jazz. Guitarists Rhythm Shaw and Kush Upadhyay, bassist Mohini Dey and saxophonist Jarryd Rodrigues are all in their mid-twenties, and pianist Rahul Wadhwani and bassist Avishek Dey are in their early-thirties, but immensely popular on the circuit. In fact, in 2016, Kush, Rhythm and Mohini became part of the jazz-rock band Louiz Banks Guitar Synergy along with drummer Gino Banks.

Talented teens

Some teenagers are highly rated. A few months ago, 17-year-old Chennai pianist Lydian Nadhaswaram released his album Chromatic Grammatic, featuring renowned international artistes such as drummer Dave Weckl, saxophonist Eric Marienthal and guitarist Frank Gambale. Besides being a composer, Lydian is a talented drummer too.

Chennai-based guitarist Amithav Gautam, who is also 17, first impressed audiences with his blues and blues-rock skills, before venturing into jazz. He’s recorded YouTube videos of songs by Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown and Larry Carlton with senior vocalist Radha Thomas and bassist Keith Peters.