[JPL] Jazz in Mumbi

[Dr. Jazz]

Jazz you like it
The international greats aim to please
<http://www.expressindia.com/about/feedback.html?mailto=samar@expressindia.com>Purva 
Mehra

Mumbai, December 1: While people in riot-torn Mumbai bolted for the 
quickest way home, four jazz legends assembled, undeterred, perhaps 
uninformed, to spread the message of music in the sparse Starters & More on 
Thursday.

Fifty-something bassist Bunny Brunel, guitarist Frank Gambale, keyboard 
player Mitch Forman and drummer Virgil Donati are in Mumbai for Sandeep 
Chowta and Pulz's initiative and will perform for the first time as Bunny 
Brunel and The Jazz All Stars at NCPA today.

The artistes strolled into the restaurant dressed in hoodies, set to 
enthrall the crowd. While two-time Grammy nominee and one-time winner 
Gambale confesses his apprehensions about an Indian audience, Brunel is 
certain people won't be disappointed. "We play the music we love, and 99 
per cent of the time people love it," says the Grammy nominee, whose claim 
to fame was being picked from a London jazz club by legendary fusionist 
Chick Corea.

Although the men have never played together, their camaraderie is 
infectious. "Bunny is the common thread," jokes Gambale, addressing the 
fact that each of the artistes plays with Brunel back in Los Angeles but in 
different bands.

It's Forman's second trip to India, the first was with legendary 
guitarist/composer John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. "John was 
totally into Indian music. I remember sitting at the back of a bus and he 
would keep drilling into our heads, 'tak-a-demi tak-a-demi' and we'd try 
and get used to that scale. It was great," he says.

"I love what comes out of here, it's deep, mystical and artful. But 
door-to-door it took us 28 hours to get here," exclaims Donati, often 
called the 'technical virtuoso'. The Australian is the only one with a 
full-time rock band and a jazz quartet. "I grew up rehearsing five to seven 
nights a week out of which one or two sessions were dedicated to jazz. It's 
a careful balance, but now I'm used to playing jazz and rock concerts back 
to back," says the Zakir Hussain fan.

Gambale has watched Bollywood movies and finds them formulaic. As for the 
music scene, "I've heard some great sitar and tabla. I love harmonic 
changes and in that sense Indian music is quite Western in its approach," 
says the man who has written a book on his unique spin picking technique 
and has his own signature guitar model with Yamaha.

Brunel has jammed with violinist L Subramaniam in LA and with tabla and 
sitar players in Paris. He's also a fan of sarod player Ali Akbar Khan. 
"Fusion is the natural continuation of jazz. I've worked with the original 
fusion players from the '70s, but it's time to reinvent. The purpose of 
jazz is to create. That's why I love musicians like Allah Rakha and Ravi 
Shankar," gushes the artiste.

"I hate it that Indians have such a mental block with jazz. They don't 
realise that jazz is hybrid now," says Chowta. "These artists are as good 
as they get."
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