Treat for jazz aficionados

Cancel all your other weekend plans as Delhi gets ready to host the biggest Jazz festival of the year. Organized by Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), the 7th Delhi Jazz International Festival at Nehru Park, Chanakyapuri from September 23-25 will witness the convergence of top music artists from countries such as France, Israel, Korea, Mexico, Spain, Taiwan, South Africa and India.

"The event will feature performances of seven international and three Indian Jazz groups, namely: Four on a swing (Kolkata); The Radha Thomas Ensemble (Bengaluru); and Rattle and Hum (Nagaland)," said Riva Ganguly Das, Director General ICCR.

"ICCR believes that music can play a key role in engaging in creative dialogue with other nations. Festivals like these help us in understanding cultures of other countries and also gives the opportunity to our own people to interact with world-class performers," she further added.

For the first time since 1992, the festival is going to take place in Aizawl and Varanasi in addition to Goa, Guwahati, Shillong, Bangaluru, Pune, Mumbai and Jaipur. Artists from across the globe will be attending the three-day event. Taking the stage will be Indian and international bands; some of the most famed musicians from the different part of the world will be participating in the festival.

On the question of promoting smaller jazz artists through this festival, the Director-General said, "We always try to encourage all the young and upcoming artists to travel and participate in other parts of the world through ICCR's robust free of cost programs of sending Indian musicians abroad."

India is being exposed to a lot of other genres of music with international artists coming here and Riva Ganguly believes that this is the way to move forward in music and other fields. "I think from each such event a lot of collaborations are built because they are interacting with each other, they listen to each other's music and they find common elements. Jazz is purely improvised music; you can play with each other and mix it up and in my diplomatic career I have always found that whenever people meet, they just listen to each other and say, 'Can I play with you.' This is how you will see a sitarist playing along with a saxophone player and a tabla maestro with a guitarist."

Jazz originated in the late 19th century in the African American communities. The Jazz genre had gained popularity across the boundaries and the music moved across regions and soon out to the world. ICCR played an important role in spreading the genera within Indian boundaries by holding International Jazz Festival for the past seven years.

This festival is for Jazz lovers in India. Performance of live Jazz music in the scenic Nehru Park is something that music lovers look forward to every year. So all jazz enthusiasts, gear up to groove to the melodious beats!