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JAZZ by Ramu Ramanathan is a brilliant play in concept and content. It was first staged in 2007 at Prithvi theatre's annual festival. After a few shows in Mumbai, the play travelled to Amsterdam. It then lay dormant for over five years. Its revival this year by Apurva Agarwal and Denam Hariya comes as a pleasant surprise. In March this year it was staged at the NCPA and veteran actor Denzil Smith whose group Stagesmith has produced the play, says that there will be two more shows at Prithvi Theatre on May 13 and 14.
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JAZZ |
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Remarkably, the same duo of performers, Bugs Bhargava and the young saxophonist Rhys Sebastian can be seen on the stage again. Right off the bat let me say that you don't have to be a jazz music fan to enjoy this play. It is a warm, sensitive story of an ageing musician looking back at his life and his interaction with a young student who has come to learn the intricacies of playing jazz on his saxophone. The story is an intricate combination of the classic Indian tradition of the guru- shishya relationship and the process of looking back by the cantankerous old man. The dialogues are so smooth that you could well be sitting in your living room listening to these two having their conversations.
The play brings into focus the 'jazz era' in Bombay. In recent times much has been written about this period and has created nostalgia for this precious phase. In the West, particularly in the US, in the decade preceding World War II, it was the era of Jazz. The Jazz bands of the time were essentially big bands, having fifteen or more musicians on stage. This phenomenon reached Bombay in the mid thirties with Terry Weatherford's band playing at the Taj Mahal Hotel ballroom, night after night. This, and similar popular jazz (dance) big bands regaled local audiences in our city. Gradually, local Indian musicians were inducted into these bands. This gradually lead to a small community of Indian musicians playing and singing jazz covers as they had heard them played through recordings or from American or European musicians from the big bands. A number of bands were formed with the likes of Mickey Corea, Chic Chocolate, Dizzy Sal, and other fine virtuoso players. However, the music was essentially dance music, with a mandatory singer in place, playing familiar and popular music from America.
The erstwhile venues in Bombay, some of them standing today, are now just hotels and restaurants. Veteran jazz drummer Benoni Soans, a product of the 60s, talks about the vibrant jazz scene of the times. 'Johnny Baptist was a fine saxophonist and he gave me my first job. Of course Braz Gonzalves has been the finest sax player from India....and I played with him as well.' Asked about other talent from this bygone era, Soans was most impressed with pianist 'Baby' Menezes who came from Calcutta, Tony Pinto, Chris Perry and Louis Banks. Soans is still playing jazz in Mumbai.
Recalling the bygone times in the play, the protagonist speaks of the American musicians who visited Bombay. The Dave Brubeck Quartet was here in the late 50s and in an informal session with local musicians interacted with local drummer Leslie Goudinho. The intriguing claim is that it was Goudinho who demonstrated a complex drum beat that inspired the creation of the jazz masterpiece, 'Take Five'. This is quite a theory. It has been documented elsewhere that Paul Desmond, who was Dave Brubeck's saxophonist and in fact wrote 'Take Five' was in a stamping factory in Pittsburgh at one time and he heard this peculiar rhythm emanating from a stamping machine. This repeated beat from the machine was the basis for the rhythm pattern of 'Take Five'. Somehow the idea of Goudinho's involvement sounds more romantic and less plausible.
We have never heard any compositions from Leslie Goudinho, nor sadly from other Bombay jazz musicians. We also wonder why there is hardly any recorded music created by the Indian jazz community as a whole from that time. This was at a time when international music was not being published in India; the market must have been perfect for our local musicians to fill the void. Jazz aficionados often sit and enjoy long sessions of recorded music. It is a pity that very little of the work of the Indian jazz musicians from those times has survived.
For drama and jazz enthusiasts alike, the play is good news. The Theatre Dream Team (TDT) is promoting the play's revival. Says Apurva Agarwal from TDT, 'Dream also means imagination on which theatre is based. This is just the beginning. We plan to have a long association with theatre in the city.''
Here's hoping both theatre and jazz have a good future in Mumbai.
*Sunil Sampat is the contributing editor (Jazz) for Rolling Stone magazine. He is a co-founder of Jazz Addicts, who bring in quality international jazz to India. Above all, he has been a jazz aficionado for many decades.
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