Delhi spends Jazz filled Sunday evening

Far from noisy honking and blood-rushed-up-to-head situations in the streets, Delhi's music lovers witnessed a nice music-filled Sunday evening at the city's Nehru Park on the last day of the second edition of the 3-day Jazz festival, Jonathan Vikram Pradhan reports.

Far from noisy honking and blood-rushed-up-to-head situations in the streets, Delhi's music lovers witnessed a nice music-filled Sunday evening at the city's Nehru Park on the last day of the second edition of the 3-day Jazz festival.

Basque-Mikel-Azpiroz-of-the-Elkano-Browning-Cream-trio

People in thousands gathered at the sprawling Nehru Park with their own picnic-like arrangements, complete with mats and baskets of goodies and drinks.
They basked in the brilliant atmosphere of the venue while the final threebands of the festival performed their music. Thanks to the organizations ICCR and Seher who managed to come up with such commendable arrangements.

The first up was the Bica-Daerr-Stick Trio from Germany. Carlos Bica (double bass/cello) and Carsten Daerr (Piano) have been playing together for many years and their musical camaraderie was felt immediately. Their music was simple yet rich and made for good easy listening. Their 'Red Roses For You' had a nice mix of Tango flavour which was enjoyed thoroughly by the crowd as some of them were seen swaying to their groove. Hanno Stick (drums) was an amazing act by himself and surely stood good to his name, displaying polished skill with the sticks on the drums.



Next up was Magos Herrera (from Mexico), who's music came as a nice change in all of the festival's events in that Herrera is considered one of the most beautiful voices in contemporary Latin American jazz scene and much of the music played at the festival was sans the human voice.Her rich and powerful voice complemented the breezy evening's atmosphere. Herrera's music drew inspiration from the Mexican and Cuban musical roots.

The last act of the day was Elkano Browning Cream From Spain led by Mikel Azpiroz (organ/Rhodes piano) with Matt Harding (guitar/ vocals, who has garnered the praises of Blues masters such as John Lee Hooker and Taj Mahal) and Franck Mantegari (drumas, percussion). Their music stems from life itself and goes into a mix of blues, jazz , bossa (Brazilian music style) and eastern (European) melodies and that's why Azpiroz likes to call it as 'very open and eclectic'.
When asked about what would be on their minds while playing for the audience in foreign countries, Azpiroz says, "We try to set bridges between the gaps and try to use the universality of the language of music to touch souls."

The chairman of the ICCR, Mr Suresh Goel has promised a similar festival next year and well, let's just hope it gets bigger and better.

The Delhi Jazz Festival was started in 2011 by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations in collaboration with Seher in an attempt to bring together Jazz musicians from different countries on one platform.