Lithuania’s Vladimir Tarasov Returns to Mumbai for a Spectacular Jazz Celebration

The veteran Lithuanian jazz drummer Vladimir Tarasov was performing with multi-saxophone artist Liudas Mockūnas in a duo performance this past week at the Mumbai venue the Quorum.

The occasion was the celebration of “700 years of Vilnius,” the capital city of Lithuania; the band had played in New Delhi before their trip to Mumbai. Historically, Lithuania has a fairly active jazz scene and has produced several jazz musicians of international class.

Tarasov had played in Mumbai as far back as 1985 when he had appeared with a jazz band performing at the iconic Rang Bhavan, Mumbai for the famous Jazz Yatra series. This writer remembers interacting then with the outstanding Tarasov and being pleased to find such fine jazz talent from Lithuania. His jazz drumming was very subtle, in the manner of the great Max Roach.

Several decades later, Tarasov sounded as sophisticated in his play, perhaps even wiser and more mature in his approach. His extensive use of the mallets, much like Chico Hamilton, gave balance to the short jazz duo performance.

Mockūnas played three different saxophones, the tenor, soprano and what appeared to be a piccolo saxophone. He is clearly influenced by the American avant-garde saxophonist, Ornette Coleman, who experimented with free sound expression, breaking away from rhythm, melody and chord structure.

Liudas displayed fine chops, energy and excellent ‘circular’ breathing technique in his vigorous expression of free-form sounds.

Tarasov contributed to any sense of melody with his understated drumming. The absence of chordal instruments such as a piano, bass or guitar was felt during the concert performed by the two talented Lithuanian jazz musicians.

The event was clearly a high-profile one. It was attended by personnel from the Lithuanian embassy in New Delhi, including the Ambassador to India from Lithuania.

Sunil Sampat is a jazz critic and Contributing Editor of Rolling Stone India. Write to Sunil at jazzwala@gmail.com