SoundRise Review: Rynosax and The Soul City Lead a Great Community Initiative

Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025, Bandra Land’s End Amphitheater, 9.30 am: What could be more idyllic than a Sunday picnic in a park by the sea with friends, family, kids and pet dogs in tow?

What could make it considerably better is a great band playing wonderful, happy music in an atmosphere of informality that comes from a community getting together. Actually, the music dominated the proceedings with a stellar nine-piece band — a mini-orchestra with a horn section and two brilliant vocalists — playing for a packed open-air venue.

It was a Perfect Ten musical experience with Ryan Sadri leading the group Ryanosax & The Soul City.

Sadri playing tenor saxophone was accompanied by Rhys Sebastian alternating between alto and baritone saxophones, James Miranda on trumpet, Clement Rooney on keyboards, Avishek De on electric bass, Saunak Saha on guitar and Jehangir Jehangir on drums. Rachel Varghese and Rohan Mazumdar were the two vocalists for the show.

While Mazumdar sang beautifully on a couple of the songs, it was the impressive Varghese who had the audience eating out of her hands for the entire duration of the show.

The music was from soul, Motown and R&B classics — although we dislike categorizing music into sub sections — and the audience could not get enough of it.

The music ranged from Chubby Checker’s “Let’s Twist Again,” Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary,” Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best,” James Brown’s “I Got You,” Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke” to The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” and more.

The concert was organized by SoundRise, a group dedicated to nourishing and sustaining live music; the only payment for the show was voluntary contributions from the audience. This initiative needs to be applauded. Keeping live music “going” is probably as vital as green spaces in an urban environment. Let’s have many more such concerts.