Jatayu Dive Into Hues of Carnatic Jazz on New EP ‘Moodswings’
The Chennai-based band talk about working on the record in the midst of quarantine, experimenting and future material
Chennai-based jazz fusion band Jatayu. Photo: Deborah Philip
After charting out a character-based concept that guided their 2019 debut EP Chango Tales, Chennai jazz-fusion act Jatayu take the free range route with their new record Moodswings, compiling existing material to showcase Carnatic jazz fusion that is aptly temperamental.
According to bassist Kashyap Jaishankar, the pandemic limited their ability to tour, but once major restrictions were lifted, they got together to record the four-track Moodswings, whose title track was being performed as early as 2017. Jaishankar says, “We’d meet at one of our houses, and there would be some great home food, we’d relax and jam out ideas for new parts to these old songs, and then immediately track said ideas. The energy was never really missing.”
Carnatic guitarist Shylu Ravindran says older tracks like “Moodswings” and “69” were created at a time when the band would often sit down and figure out “mathematics, arrangements and raga/harmony discussions.” He adds, “It would always end up in arguments.” Ravindran and Sahib Singh’s guitar melodies work on a nimble, yet poignant level throughout Moodswings; They’re complementary on “Dual Raga” and flittering wildly on “69,” while offering each other space on “Salad Days,” which also brings in rumbling drum work from Manu Krishnan.
While they’ve toured across the country a few times so far, Singh, who is also the manager of the band, says they’ve always taken a trial and error approach towards promoting their “very experimental” music. “We mostly just end up fooling around and being ourselves, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t but at least we have our fun with it,” Singh says. Part of the trials included an audio-visual show at Alliance Francaise in Chennai last month. Krishnan says it gave them license to extend their experimentation into stage production as well. He adds, “Gigs are on pause for the moment as I am getting married next month and have to go back to my family for a bit in Kerala.”
Jatayu does have more in the works through 2021, including their debut full-length album. “We have already tracked a single with vocalist Harini Iyer, this song is very different from our usual stuff and we can’t wait for people to check it out, watch out for this track. It’s set to release in May,” Singh says.
Stream ‘Moodswings’ EP below. Listen on more platforms here.
