Review: World Jazz Festival, Mumbai

The third edition of the World Jazz Festival (WJF) conceived and produced by Banyan Tree in conjunction with Alexander Beets from the Amersfoort Jazz Festival in the Netherlands, was held in Mumbai on April 29th and 30th, 2023 at the Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir in Bandra, Mumbai. This festival had also been held in Pune, Bengaluru and Dehradun prior to Mumbai.

It is an amazing truth that not too many jazz festivals, anywhere are performed without the music of Duke Ellington. Added to that, at least for the WJF was the name of the Brazilian maestro Antonio Carlos Jobim; ample tribute in song was paid to ‘Tom’ Jobim, particularly by the Lucas Santana Band, which won many hearts over the festival. Incidentally, the airport at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is called the Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport, demonstrating the high esteem in which Jobim is held.

A major surprise at the festival was Lucas Santana, a Brazilian soprano and alto saxophone player and band leader. Santana was perhaps the first sax player from Brazil to play in Mumbai, and possibly India. He displayed immense prowess, not merely with the Jobim standards but with a great understanding of the mainstream jazz idiom and the blues. The band version of “Heritage,” a blues original, where Santana played a beautiful alto sax demonstrated his understanding of the traditional blues sound in jazz. (He said to us later that he was embarrassed by praise, so we will leave it at that!).

In Santana’s band was also a high-caliber jazz pianist Timothy Banchet as well as Davor Stehlik (guitar), Matheus Nicolaiewsky (bass) and Tim Hennekes (drums). A very talented Anna Serierse was added on vocals; she performed several well-known Jobim classics such as “Corcovado,” “So Danso Samba,” “Girl from Ipanema” and “Chega de Saudade” (“No More Blues” when sung in English), all sung in the charming Portuguese accent from Brazil.

A remarkable moment in the festival was when Hindustani vocalist Shruti Vishwakarma sang a Bandish with the conventional accompaniment of harmonium and tabla. Lucas Santana joined in on his soprano saxophone in perfect harmony with the vocals; remarkable enough was the matching of moods of the two sounds; then we heard that they had never played together at all! It sounded as if they had rehearsed for several days. Timothy Banchet on piano was also brilliant here. It was not ‘fusion’ in the modern sense of the word. It sounded like two converging streams of sound, each easy and comfortable with the other, making for a very pleasant melange.

The second half of the opening night was a set of easy, light-hearted popular songs from the 1960s and 70s. Lizzy Ossevoort and Baer Traa swung and sang through Ramsey Lewis’ “The In Crowd,” “Where is the Love,” “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling” and songs from Al Jarreau, Les McCann, Mark Murphy and others. Ellister van der Molen (trumpet) and Rolf Delfos (alto sax) were a delight as the brass section complemented the vocalists. Program curator and tenor saxophonist Alexander Beets put in an all too brief appearance on this set. It was a perfect offset to the earlier part of the evening.

In a remarkable session the next afternoon, the Lucas Santana band conducted a workshop with a group of children, playing their music and inviting young students onto the stage while the music was being played. It was a wonderful gesture on the part of Banyan Tree and their outreach program called Tender Roots to organize this session. It is a good bet that a majority of the children in attendance will grow up liking music, particularly jazz, from this experience.

Day two of the festival started with a saxophone-led piece, “Bossa” from Lucas Santana. He continued to impress, this time playing his soprano sax.

A fusion experiment, “Monsoon Raga” featured a more classical Hindustani approach with Raga Megha. Sebastian van Bavel on piano (and making announcements in Hindi) made an impassioned attempt to be in sync with the mood of the monsoon with his jazz backing. While it was appreciated by the audience, one missed the perfect blend of the Western and Hindustani embrace heard just the previous evening – but It was a good demonstration of the oneness of music across cultures.

This festival certainly had ‘something for everyone.’ Diverging completely from the serious fusion, a lively pair of Susanne Alt on saxophone and vocalist Zosja entertained us with a tune, “Royalty for Real” followed by a brilliant rendition of vocalese exponent Annie Ross’ lyrics on Wardell Gray’s “Twisted.” It was followed by the standard “Cry me a River” sung by Zosja with warm accompaniment by Alexander Beets on his tenor saxophone. Ellister van der Molen and Rolf Delfos completed an impressive horn section.

Duke Ellington’s famous “It Don’t Mean a Thing” was the vehicle used for the jam session where everyone joined in, in perfect jazz festival style.

To add to the unpredictability of this festival, the finale was titled “An After Party.”

Party time it was when saxophonist Susanne Alt turned into a DJ – console and all, and led off a no holds barred dance party. Every soloist chipped in, there was dancing in the aisles with the musicians mingling with the audience. Full-time party time!

This is a festival everyone present is going to remember for its diversity and high level of performance. It was an impressive amount of variety packed into two days of entertainment with so many musicians performing.

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