What you gonna call this tune?" asked Alvin Atkinson Jr, the drummer for the Rhythm Road Jazz All Stars band that performed in Mumbai on Monday, after announcing that double bass player Ari Roland would 'compose' a song on the spot. Roland scratched his head in mock concentration.
"You gonna call it Bombay Suede or Mumbai Blues?" asked Atkinson, a performer to the core, in his southern drawl. Eventually, they decided to call it both.
There were many such moments of music laced liberally with humour in an evening of old school jazz -- from Duke Ellington to Thelonius Monk -- brought to Mumbai by the American Center in association with the Shri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeetha Sabha.
The four-man band kicked off with a tune composed by seminal jazz pianist McCoy Tyner, and signed off with a rousing encore of When the Saints Go Marching In, with the crowd joining in for good measure. The turning point in the evening was an extended version of Caravan, a tune made famous by jazz legend Duke Ellington. With the humour sprinkled, improvisation-fuelled version, the band seemed to shift gears, and eventually brought the house down.
Before the concert, Rediff.com caught up with Atkinson, Roland, pianist Eli Yamin and trumpet player Charlie Porter.
Click on to see the videos.
Text: Sumit Bhattacharya | Photograph and videos: Reuben N V.
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