A Love Supreme

Tracing the evolution and status of jazz culture in the city reveals that the young are developing a keen ear and enjoying the genre

Jazz is a religion,which most of the citys small group of followers and practitioners inherited from their parents. Born into it,they easily picked up its language,absorbing sermons either flowing out of John Coltranes tenor saxophone or scat sung by Ella Fitzgerald. While the old-timers are reminiscent of a time when the religion was popular,the young appreciate its beauty and seek to keep it thriving. Collectively,they seek to reach out to new ears that havent heard jazzs divine calling.

Ahmed Ibrahim is,arguably,Punes first jazz evangelist. He heard it first as a child at his fathers feet. I used to go to a school called St Pauls in Darjeeling. We had Western Classical lessons once a week. If we behaved ourselves during the class,wed get to hear Duke Ellington at the end of it, says Ibrahim. A devoted jazz lover,he explored the jazz scenes in Calcutta and Bombay,before settling in Pune,where he started The Pune Jazz Club in 2001. The club met at Max Mueller Bhavan once a month. Initially,there were a few core members,who were jazz devotees. Later we started taking in more people who were new to the form and the group grew to 750, says Ibrahim,adding that they also conducted jazz appreciation sessions and Pune Jazz Utsav.

Logistical difficulties,however,came in the way and the monthly meetings were stopped

in September last year. Well be meeting again later this year,

says Ibrahim.

Filling in the gap that the Pune Jazz Club left,Ashwin Panemangalore formed the Pune Jazz and Blues Club in February this year,with a few friends. They meet at Shisha Cafe,Punes premier jazz avenue,on the first Sunday of every month. It is a gathering of jazz lovers and is accompanied by a gig featuring local jazz artistes, says Panemangalore. He seeks to sensitize the city youth to this beautiful form of music and

the fact that 60 per cent of the

audience comprises youngsters

excites him.

Most of the artistes are young,too. Ashdin Barucha (35) is an emerging jazz guitarist,who has played the blues for several years. He,along with his band Impressions,will be playing at Shisha Cafe tonight at 8. Impressions has veteran jazz man David Mansey on the drums,who played regularly at the now-defunct Jazz Garden in ABC Farms with his band High Society. He had a band with Pune jazz biggie,trumpeter Roque Vaz.

Barucha says he plays jazz because it allows him room to improvise,owing much to the vastness and richness of the form. He wishes the younger audience could appreciate the music without perceiving it as music for oldies.

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But,as Panemangalore says,the city youth are doing an outstanding job catching up; embodied perhaps best in the young singer Simone Jehangir (18),who played a set at Shisha last week. Born and raised in the city,Jehangir inherited jazz from her trumpet-playing doctor father and her saxophonist mother. My parents played with Jazzy Joe and I started singing for them at gigs when I was 10, says Jehangir,who is now studying music in New York.

Lest anyone be fooled into believing that Pune is new to jazz,trumpeter Vaz says the genre of music has been a part of the city since the 60s when he used to blow his horn madly with saxophonists Anthony Pops Dehina and Sunil Roger at what Vaz fondly calls BluDi,the Taj Blue Diamond of today. For puritans who feel jazz is incomplete without horns,Vaz is making a comeback after decades in the next Pune Jazz and Blues Club get-together on August 4.

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