Festival Report: Day 3, NCPA International Jazz Festival, Mumbai

A ‘Swinging Affair’ is how this band was subtitled and it was indeed one such swinging performance from the Thilo Wolf Quartet on the third and concluding day of the NCPA International Jazz Festival at the Tata Theatre in Mumbai on November 27th, 2022.

It was more accurately a quintet with the fifth member, vocalist Johanna Iser, being a prominent member of the evening’s performance.

The swing era in jazz was brought about by the contribution of the big bands that were popular in the 1930s, mainly in the United States. The Thilo Wolf band played music mainly associated with this period of jazz.

Following a piano trio opening, the introduction of Norbert Nagel playing the clarinet (later also the tenor saxophone and flute) – with a lot of style and class – was with the old chestnut “Stomping at the Savoy.” It was reminiscent of the great clarinetist Benny Goodman’s version of this tune. Savoy, of course, refers to the famous ballroom where many of the popular bands played in the 1930s.

One had previously heard recordings of Thilo Wolf’s brilliant piano playing with the unusual backing of a saxophone section and at the NCPA, he played the piano with precision throughout his performance. His clarity of thought and interpretation of standards gave ample evidence of his musical background and training.

Johanna Iser entered the stage and at once assumed command of the proceedings with a robust version of “This Can’t be Love,” followed by “The Man I love” and “There is No Greater Love.” Iser kept the audience involved and amused and ensured the continuity of the show with her comments.

Not many jazz concerts are complete without the music from the Duke Ellington song book; the ever popular “It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t got That Swing” was played with a vocal part and kept alive the tradition.

Another long-forgotten but once very popular number from the heyday of Benny Goodman, “Sing, Sing, Sing,” which rocketed drummer Gene Krupa to fame, was also played by Thilo Wolf’s band. It naturally featured their drummer, Jean Paul Hochststadter. This extroverted piece had Wolf leave the piano and sit alongside Hochststadter to show us his percussion skills with a drum Battle Royale of sorts. It was a perfect crowd-pleaser.

“Summertime” is another track that was pleasing to the ears. The clarinet introduction by Nagel was poignant and made one wonder why we did not have much more of Nagel on clarinet through the evening. The rest of the band expressed themselves well on this rendition. A well-known song succeeds in reaching most of the audience and “Summertime” did just that.

In fact, the use of popular jazz tunes throughout added to the charm of the Thilo Wolf Quintet’s performance.

We had three days of a contrasting variety of jazz performances at the NCPA International Jazz Festival 2022. It played to packed houses and there was something for everyone to enjoy and identify with. What more could anyone ask for?