Magical Notes Filling The Air & A Chiller Vibe: The 7th Intl. Jazz Fest Was A Riot Of Melody

An extension of West African folk music, jazz found its roots in the African American slave community during the early 20th century. From there, it has traversed the world taking up distinct flavours of new nations and new cultures to boot.

7th Delhi International Jazz Festival, the largest ever jazz festival in the country, witnessed a convergence of the top jazz artists from all over the world with multiple performances spanning across three days. To quote Smt. Riva Ganguly Das, ”Organized since 2011 by Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), this Festival is a treat for Jazz lovers in India.". We could not agree more! It surely was an invigorating event which afforded an opportunity to hear popular band groups from different countries such as France, Israel, Korea, Mexico, Spain, Taiwan, South Africa and India. The first day was inaugurated by the Lorenzo Naccarato Trio jazz group from France, and 4 On A Swing from Kolkata! 

Without further ado, here’s the highlights from our jaunt!

Rousing Performance By The Lorenzo Naccarato Trio

The clock showed 7.05 PM when we heard a guy’s voice in a typical French accent, welcoming the audience with a subtle “Namaste”. It was Lorenzo Naccarato from the Lorenzo Naccarato Trio group, who were ready to start their gig at the jazz fest! The Trio elaborated on the concept of kinematic jazz, in that the notion of movement lies at the heart of its musical exploration. They then started with their first piece, ‘Komet’, reserved by them especially for this festival. 

Piece by piece, they ended up serving six different art works to us over the span of an hour. Jazz, being a soothing genre of music, had each and every atom of our body relaxed to the core. We loved their last ‘Heavy Rotation’ where they took us to a new high with their symphonic music and ended their performance with a sudden drop of the beat, leaving us mesmerized and waiting for more! ‘Encore’ was the only word we could hear! Needless to say, the fun had just begun.

Stellar Gig By 4 On A Swing

The freedom and improvisational space a musical genre like jazz creates manages to inspire or trigger a musical melody like no other, hence intoxicating jazz lovers with those familiar melodies. With no filler required and before we could ask for more, the jazz group from Kolkata ‘4 On A Swing’ was already in position and ready for action. One of India's freshest jazz/Latin-jazz bands; its members are some of India's finest jazzmen and veterans of the Indian jazz scene. 

With a charming voice, we had Megan Powers from New York on vocals with pianist Pradyumna Manot, William Walters on bass guitar, Aniruddh Saha on drums and Emmanuel Simon from France on percussions. Megan’s exotic timber, powerful voice and soulful interpretation of jazz enthralled the audience! With extremely captivating numbers performed by the band, the gathering just got bigger by the minute.

Swaying from one corner to another, Day 1 came to an end on a happy note with a sense of jazziness in the air and every soul submerged in music. The excitement for the remaining days could be easily felt among those present. 

Today is the last day you can catch all the action live right here at Nehru Park, head on over y’all!
 
On Till | Today, 25th September
Where | Nehru Park, Chanakyapuri
Entry | Free
Timings | 6 PM Onwards 
FB Event Deets | https://www.facebook.com/events/251098695401594