The NCPA Jazz Festival promptly rolled into Mumbai for its annual tryst with the city for the last weekend of November. This year it boasted of a varied mixed bag and seemed oriented towards the fast-increasing younger audiences. One big band, a trailblazing young pianist fast making his way to the top, a Cuban pianist exploring the infusion into the jazz of Latin influences from Puerto Rico, the Caribbean region and the local feel of salsa in Florida. And finally, an acclaimed vocalist who has been one of the higher profile jazz singers for a few years, completing a varied list of performers at the festival. The promise is of something for every jazz taste and a spectrum of approaches to the music encouraging audience presence for each day.
Day One:
The Thilo Wolf Big Band from Germany played the opening night of the NCPA Jazz Festival 2023. This band consists of 13 musicians which include three trumpets, three trombones, four saxophones, acoustic upright bass and drums, with the leader, Thilo Wolf playing acoustic piano and conducting the band. In addition, a vibraphone player, a female vocalist and a male vocalist who also doubled up on acoustic guitar were added to the ensemble.
The sheer scope and cost involved in ‘importing’ a seventeen-member band is staggering and the NCPA should be applauded for bringing this large group to perform in Mumbai.
The experience of listening to a jazz big band in an auditorium with superb acoustics is second to none.
They started with Billy Strayhorn’s legendary composition “Take the A Train,” a piece made an international favorite by Duke Ellington’s band. it got the audience involved in the proceedings. An original, “Captain Cook” was a lively vehicle with the versatile Norbert Nagel taking a sweet clarinet solo. Nagel has played in Mumbai on a previous occasion. He is a multi-wind instrumentalist, playing tenor saxophone and flute as well. To further demonstrate his talent, he played on a bamboo flute he picked up on the streets of Mumbai and played on it perfectly!
The band had two vocalists as well, one of each gender. Johanna Iser, who has also toured India on another tour, sings in the jazz idiom. She fronted the band on two standards, “When I Fail in Love” made famous by Nat King Cole and Duke Ellington’s ever-popular, “It Don’t Mean a Thing – If It Ain’t Got That Swing.”
The male vocalist with the band, Torsten Goods, who doubled up on guitar did a duet with Iser on “Sunny” and a couple of Van Morrison songs including, “Have I Told You Lately?” and a funky guitar/vocal version of “On Broadway” in the style of George Benson.
A vibraphone player, Florian Buhrich played a couple of tunes, including, “It Had to be You” with the big band to add variety to the performance. A nice evening of jazz, except one felt that the power of a big band was underutilized.
Day Two
The Emmet Cohen Trio with guest artist Benny Benack III.
When a leader as well as his band members are clearly enjoying themselves on stage, when these musicians are master technicians at their instruments and, most importantly when they work as a unit, a fine jazz concert is indicated. Such was the case when the Emmet Cohen trio performed on Saturday at the festival. This young band, comfortable and happy with their music conveyed this joy to an audience that just couldn’t have enough of them.
In conversation with us, Cohen had outlined his philosophy on jazz and the evening vindicated this claim. Cohen said that he reached out to the music of the great masters of jazz and also encouraged young players. He reached a young audience as a result. In Mumbai, his performance seemed to reach a cross-section of the audience, from the traditionalists to the young listeners. His band, comprised of Philip Norris on acoustic upright bass, Kyle Poole on drums and the dual-talented Benny Benack on trumpet and vocals. The set was a mixed bag of piano trio standards like “Surrey with the Fringe on Top”, “Tea for Two” which was led by bassist Norris and “What’s New” to a sensational original, “You Already Know”, an upbeat number where the musicians seemed to be connecting by sheer telepathy. The drummer, Kyle Poole was cool and understated. Post intermission, the band opened with a slow, Latin version of Charlie Parker’s “Barbados” with Benny on trumpet. It is surprisingly, a rarely played Parker composition and was brought to life by the Emmet Cohen quartet.
Benny Benack was an entertainer all the way, first with his clever improvised lyrics and later with his version of “Pennies from Heaven” which he sang as “Bennie’s from Heaven”, poking fun at his lineage and ancestry, all thoroughly enjoyed by the audience.
Day Three:
Two bands played on the concluding night of the festival, the Alfredo Rodriguez Trio followed by vocalist Jane Monheit’s Quintet.
We have noticed that musicians from the West are not entirely sure of what an audience in far away Mumbai would appreciate from their repertoire. As a result, they seem to want to start carefully, playing simpler melodies until they gauge audience reaction and then cater to their level.
Both bands on Day Three seemed to follow this principle.
Alfredo Rodriguez is a fine pianist but seemed to be testing the waters for the opening couple of numbers. Then the trio went into a “sing-along” version of Besame Mucho where Rodriguez, who sang on the set as well, encouraged the audience to sing the well-known lyrics while the trio played along.
However, he then changed gears and gave us glimpses of his tremendous potential.
Two originals from Rodriguez, “Coral Way” and “Yemaya”, the latter a Cuban homage to the Goddess of the Sea, were pensive and introspective with the pianist playing long, pretty solos.
The mood was changed completely when they played Michael Jackson’s famous “Thriller” in Cuban style to great effect. Having the listeners firmly in his corner, Rodriguez went on to play the ever-popular “The Peanut Vendor” associated with Cuban orchestra leader Xavier Cugat and finally the evergreen, “Guantanamera” with a willing audience chanting the popular lyrics.
The second band for the evening and also the concluding set for the festival featured veteran vocalist Jane Monheit with her quintet. Monheit sang songs from the American songbook, songs made famous by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, a hero of Jane’s. Her band comprised of an acoustic piano, upright bass, drums and a tenor saxophone played by Joel Frahm. This band has been together for a long time and their musical comfort in each other’s company was obvious. This was old-school, straight-ahead vocal jazz, a format that has stood the test of time. The songs were jazz standards like “Too Close For Comfort”, “In The Still Of The Night”, “Over The Rainbow”, “Cheek To Cheek”, “Never Let Me Go” and, as now seems mandatory, a couple of Brasilian tunes sung in Portuguese, “Meu Pais” “Comecar De Novo” and one sung in English, “The waters of March.”
For all the popular material and the solid support from the band, in particular, from Joel Frahm, Jane Monheit seemed to have had an off day at this otherwise very enjoyable and varied jazz festival.
Happily, it seems that the annual NCPA Jazz Festival has established itself and is here to stay.
Rejoice, jazz lovers!
Sunil Sampat is a jazz critic and Contributing Editor of Rolling Stone India. Write to Sunil at jazzwala@gmail.com
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