The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Spreading Jazz the contemporary way

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 12, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Spreading Jazz the contemporary way

Tina Suchanek

“My main aim is to provide sustainability for musicians,” says Tina Suchanek, MD of ‘Jazz Wave’ in a chat with Abhijit Dev Kumar

Jazz is slowly but steadily becoming a hit in cities of the South with fans of the genre swearing by it. Propagating jazz culture and new Indian fusion music, is Tina Suchanek, the Managing Director of ‘Jazz Wave’.

A native of Munich, Germany, and a vocalist, Tina settled at Auroville in 1991 and from 2004, she has been organizing tours, concerts and Jazz events in the country with musicians from India and abroad. Nevertheless like every initiative, the Jazz movement, though is picking up, is still slow.

“There are not enough musicians to support the Jazz movement because there is no adequate patronage for such musicians”, she says. “My main aim is to provide sustainability for musicians, make a platform for them and get audiences. In all, get jazz enthusiasts to look forward to something in the jazz world”, says Tina.

Similarities

The genre of music has a lot of similarities to Indian classical. “Jazz music in some ways is like Indian classical music and is experienced in the moment. Like the Indian classical music, jazz has scope for improvisation. Every jazz singer would sing a song in their own way and that is what makes it so interesting. There are so many ways that a song can be manipulated”, she says.

Gathering pace

With the jazz movement gathering pace, Tina plans to set the ball rolling in the city as well. “The movement is also about promoting and development of Indian Jazz and New Indian Fusion music in the modern way. Hyderabad with its diversified culture has got a lot of Jazz enthusiasts but the concept of live jazz is still in the beginning stages. Only a few places in the city hold live performances once in a while.

At present all the events that Jazz Wave is doing are being done with musicians from other cities like Mumbai, Kolkatha, Bangalore, Goa and Chennai”, says Tina.

As the movement takes its course Tina says, “I don’t want to make ripples, I want to create a Jazz wave. It’s Jazz after all!” For more information and registering your band with Jazz Wave, visit ‘ www.jazzwave.org’ or email ‘ tina@jazzwave.org’.

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