Bolero Beats

Every Sunday at the Orange Hara restaurant in Gurgaon,the smoky sounds of Latin jazz merge into the soulful strains of Hindustani classical music. Frequently,the music gains a swinging,peppy tempo,inviting listeners to dance. This fusion of bolero music — a romantic Latin sound from Cuba and Spain—and Hindustani classical music is now set to find its way into an album called Bolero Namaskaar. The 14-track album is entirely in Spanish and will be released in August.

The album marks a fusion in other ways,too. Vocalist Wanayran Angerer is from Honduras,pianist Svetlana Radashkevich is Russian and on the drums is Delhi-based percussionist Suchet Malhotra. Together they form the Wanny Angerer Latin-Jazz Trio. “Svetlana and I are familiar with Indian classical sounds and Suchet has had a long exposure to music from all over the world,” says Angerer. For the album,the trio has collaborated with Rajesh Prasanna on the flute,Mohit Lal on the tabla and vocalist Sandeep Srivastav. “A bolero song is a Latin American way of saying I love you,” says Angerer,42.

Radashkevich adds,“The tune is so powerful that it would make sense even to people who don’t know Spanish.” She came to India five years ago to learn Indian classical music and later married city-based vocalist Manjeet Singh. The album has traditional bolero numbers that were popular in the 1940s and 1950s. It includes the famous Besame mucho,believed to have been written in 1941 by a 15-year-old Mexican girl. “Wanny renders this in her romantic style,Mohit matches with a rhythmic structure and I add different drumbeats,” says Malhotra. The album has been self-funded as the trio “didn’t care about record labels”.