Teamwork Arts’ Jazz India Circuit 2018-19 Season Kicks Off On A High Note

New Delhi: The 2018-19 season of Jazz India Circuit (JIC), curated and organized by Teamwork Arts, kicked off on Friday with a dazzling JIC Launch Concert held at One horizon Plaza, DLF5, Gurugram. The concert that marked the beginning of the 2018-19 season had Teamwork Arts come together with DLF5 and Hines to present a spectacular line-up of artistes and their music.

With a blend of the upcoming and talented The Revisit Project, the sublime skills of the JassB’stards and the assured elegance of the Louiz Banks Quartet, the launch had just the right mix to give attendees a taste of what the Jazz India Circuit is brewing up in the next few months: powerful music, sophisticated and appreciative listeners, ambience and bonhomie.

The evening started with Jass B’stards Projectile, who are essentially an expanded version of The Jass B’stards, who themselves are the rhythm section and music writers of popular Indian dance band The SkaVengers. The band played an eclectic mix of jazz and brought various influences in their performance ranging from traditional to funky. The band projected live visual mixes throughout their performance with Ritika Singh at the controls, who also doubled up as the guest singer.Commenting on their experience of performing here at JIC Launch, one of the band members said, “Jazz can mean what you want it to mean. And, it’s just fun to play and what makes it more interesting is that no one gig is the same.”

Next wasThe Revisit Project which started out in 2014 as a tribute band, rediscovering some of the lost treasures of Hindi film music and giving a contemporary Funk-Jazz fusion touch to their renditions.With Abhay Sharma on the saxophone, Abhijit Sood on drums, Birraj Singh Taneja on keyboards, Varun Rajasekharan on percussion, Kanu Gangahar on the guitar and Karan Wadhwa on bass, their performance built up the tempo on a memorable evening.Sharing their excitement of being a part of the JIC Launch, they said, “It’s a great opportunity to perform with such amazing artistes tonight. We’ve grown up watching Louiz Banks and now to be in the same line-up and sharing the stage is amazing. It’s great to see Teamwork Arts promoting this genre. We’d like to thank DLF and Hines for such a wonderful venue.”

The last performance of the evening was by Louiz Banks Quartet. Louiz Banks has been spearheading the jazz movement in India for the past three decades. For over an hour, audiences were treated to original compositions of Louiz which he performed with jazz drummer extraordinaire Aron Nyiro, Mumbai-based guitar-player and composer Sanjay Divecha and Indian bass player Sheldon D’Silva. The quartet played original compositions of Louiz Banks which included ‘Head on’, ‘Chasing Shadows’, ‘Jimmy comes to India’.They did a tribute to Kolkata and performeda punked-up versionof ‘Howrah Bridge’, and then went on to perform a tune which was a tribute to the great jazz pianist Chick Corea.

Talking about the importance of this initiative by Teamwork Arts and about his experience of performing at the Launch, Louiz Banks said, “I am so happy for this great initiativethat will take jazz to another level, in terms of its popularity andin bringing this genre to people. Specially jazz in various forms. Like today’s evening was an example of bands that played jazz in very different forms. So, there is so much to this genre and Jazz India Circuit is really doing some amazing work.”

Having received a thunderous applause, the performance was extended on demand and ended with the Louiz Banks Quartet performing an all-time favourite – ‘Summer time’

Speaking about their collaboration with the Circuit, Mr. Aakash Ohri, Senior Executive Director, DLF5 said, “DLF, in order to engage its ever growing and vibrant community, curates distinguished events. Jazz is a mature form of music, universally known to have a distinct coterie. This is an incredible opportunity for all jazz-lovers and music-aficionados to experience mesmerizing performances, by internationally admired musicians. DLF5 is delighted to host the Jazz India Circuit Launch with this phenomenal line-up of artistes.”

Talking about the 2018-19 season, Sanjoy K. Roy, M.D, Teamwork Arts said, ‘The Jazz India Circuit has been creating new avenues to bring jazz to discerning and diverse listeners. The excitement of experimentation has helped grow this genre of music and we have been delighted to be able to present some of the best musicians of our time over the past few years.”

The Jazz India Circuit (JIC) is like a modern-day speakeasy, giving music-lovers and jazz aficionados the freedom to dream and ‘live’ their music the way they want to. The 2018-19 season will feature the Jazz India Circuit Tour presented by the US mission in India, which will be a four-city concert seriesfrom 27th Nov to 8th Dec with US-based group House of Waters; the Jazz India Circuit International Festival on 1st and 2nd Dec in Goa; and the Jazz India Circuit International Festival in Delhi in March 2019.