IT was a rare moment of joy. Saxophonist Jay Beckenstein who founded Spyro Gyra in 1974 confides that the pinnacle of his career was not when the mind-blowing Morning Dance was born. It was when his father finally embraced his profession. Beckenstein would have been holding a steth instead of an alto sax, if he had hung onto his father’s white-coat dreams. ‘‘He hated it when I dropped out of medical school,’’ recalls Beckenstein. Whipping out a leather wallet he proudly shows off a snapshot of his three daughters Claire (16), Alexandra (14) and Isabel (10). The 14-year-old with a wide-tooth grin bears an uncanny resemblance to proud papa and is learning to play the guitar. ‘‘Claire is a fine singer and Isabel plays the cello,’’ he beams adding in the same breath, ‘‘But I don’t want them to be musicians—there’s too much failure.’’ This time he’s blowing irony. ‘‘I hate it when I play where all they want to hear is Madonna. There is a general feeling of disappointment around American culture.’’ Indian jazz too has swung low finding no takers from the record companies. Yet it has also managed to find international acclaim in names like Louis Banks, Karl Peters and jazz drummer Adrian Ace of bass, Karl Peters gave his son his first drum set—a Gladnick that his friend and Rock Machine drummer Bobby Duggal decided to part with. ‘‘He also gave me my second and third drum kit,’’ says 25-year-old Kurt Peters who thinks that gigging around family is the best thing that can happen as ‘‘there’s so much more trust.’’ He once cherished dreams of becoming a pilot. ‘‘We let him do his thing, but made sure he completed college,’’ says the father. Leaping onto his father’s cycle to accompany him to a local guitar manufacturer in Chennai are among his fondest memories. ‘‘I got my first bass guitar made there.’’ Saxophonist Braz Gonsalves heard the first notes of gospel from his father, a choir master in Goa’s St Anne’s church. He’s passed on the legacy to his daughter Laura, a pianist and vocalist who’s now settled in Canada. Though Gonsalves does the odd gig at the Yatra, he’s now returned to spiritual music. Long-haired rockers and loud music is Shefali Alvares’ music flashback. ‘‘I don’t like rock, but remember my dad doing a lot of it when I was a kid,’’ says the 19-year-old student of Mass Communications and budding jazz vocalist. Her father Joe Alvares, who’s known for his Thursday jazz nights at Mumbai’s high brow haunt Indigo, admits that he’s moved onto finer jazz with age. Having introduced his daughter to noted vocalist Celia Lobo who trained her for three years, he maintains that discipline and direction have to come from within. ‘‘I can only nurture her interest,’’ he says. Of course, he created a platform for her by gigging with her since she turned 14. As Karl Peters says, ‘‘When I play with Kurt, he gains my experience and I seek his strength.’’ And what do you know? Beckenstein’s mother was an opera singer. It’s all in the family.
