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Bank on him for jazz

Louis `Bank's on his energies to promote jazz `n' fusion music

His fingers caress the keys to produce the most delightful, soul-stirring music. They have been doing it for over three decades now. Since the eighties he has been blending the Indian bansuri (flute) together with the high notes of a bass guitar and a tabla in sync with the drums, using his own keyboards — be it the Yamaha Grand, Roland RD 600 or Hammond B 3.

All those who think jazz is too jazzy and Western Classical music is too complicated, here's what Louis Banks has done. Let your senses rewind to play all those jingles and intro music for Doordarshan Regional News and the anthems for Delhi and Bombay Police.

Got it? And then his latest albums - Love is in the air and Fusion Yatra. The former is a refreshingly different set of compositions, romantic in nature and the latter with Ronu Majumdar is exactly what it is titled, a journey of fusion music.

And the latest in Louis Banks musical odyssey is Atma, which he says will truly reflect the soul of Jazz and fusion music in India. Putting their souls with him in this are his youngest son Gino providing the percussion, Sheldon Shaun D'Silva on the bass, Satyajit Talwarkar on the tabla and Rakesh Chaurasia on the `bansuri'.

Ask him his age and he will only say that is 60-plus. And then people start wondering how good he looks and maintains his health. "I have had my bouts of ill-health. My secret now is 90 per cent vegetarian and when it comes to the occasional non-veg stuff, I like steamed chicken". The `grandfather' of fusion music in India feels classical Western jazz has got a raw deal here and says every up-and-coming artiste talks and plays "fusion music".

SURESH KRISHNAMOORTHY

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