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PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL

In sync Erik Truffaz, Indrani Mukherjee and tabla player Apurba Mukherjee performing at jazz concert

What was at the very outset deemed as a ‘musical experiment’, turned out to be after all, an evening to remember. The foursome of trumpeter Erik Truffaz, pianist Malcom Braff, tabla player Apurba Mukherjee and vocalist Indrani Mukherjee enthralled the audience gathered at the Taj Banjara. The evening of jazz music was part of the Krishnakriti art and culture festival organised by the Taj group as part of their Business Celebration Series.

Connoisseurs of both western and Indian genres of music would have expected this kind of an ‘experiment’ to result in cacophony. Quite surprisingly however, the genres of Jazz and Hindustani fused so well, that you would never have imagined that they were two distinct threads being woven into one fabric. While the elements of jazz and Hindustani both remained distinct, they did not conflict with one another. Though the concert was called primarily a jazz concert, in all fairness it was equally a Hindustani concert because neither genre out did the other and the result of their fusion was actually enjoyably music. There were eight pieces of music in all, each with a distinct expressive quality. The performers did brilliantly well to project the emotion belying the sometimes sober and sometimes ecstatic notes of music.

Fittingly set outdoors, amidst trees, intermittent wafts of air blew seemingly in response to the musicians.

The audience responded – sometimes in surprise, awe, appreciation and at times in laughter as well! For at times, there were those passages of music meant to tickle you and you just couldn’t help but laugh along. Listeners in the audience were as varied as the music itself. People of all ages, of divergent musical inclinations and from different places of the world - as the occasion would have it - watched and listened as piano, trumpet, tabla and voice united in concert.

The team of Eric, Malcolm, Apurba and Indrani proved with this jugalbandi, that music truly does transcend all borders. It is still that universal language that people from all over the globe speak. For the raagas of our Hindustani music are as much appreciated in London as the sonatas of western classical music are appreciated here in India. One needn’t be Asian to be an ustaad nor Caucasian to be a maestro. Any music that has meaning attached to it and is born of the soul, does its job of creating order out of chaos.

KENNETH DAMARA

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