The Bangalore School of Music (BSM) is all set to organise the sixth edition of International Jazz Day Bengaluru. The line up for this edition features seven to eight bands and ensembles. The event also features The Sunshine Orchestra Brass Ensemble from the AR Rahman Foundation in Chennai. We talk to Jagadeesh MR, founder of world fusion ensemble MoonArra and head of the Jazz and Contemporary Department, The Bangalore School of Music to know more about the upcoming performance, his future projects and more…
“We are organising as well as performing in the upcoming International Jazz Day celebrations. This is the sixth year that (BSM) has been conducting the festival. Jazz Day itself is just like 10 or 11 years old. Due to my interest in jazz and performing jazz in various places, we have been observing International Jazz Day to continuously work with the community here and spread the message of jazz,” Jagadeesh begins.
One of the performances to look forward to is by The Sunshine Orchestra Brass Ensemble. “The ensemble is headed by Lisa Sarasini from the UK. She is from the London Symphony Orchestra and has been working with socially disadvantaged children, getting them to perform. I was really blown away after seeing their performance and asked them to be part of the festival,” Jagadeesh adds.
Talking about how the sixth edition of the upcoming festival is different from the past editions, the founder of MoonArra says, “This is the first time that the event is taking place at Bangalore International Centre (BIC), which I believe is one of best-known cultural venues in Bengaluru. They have an excellent team who take care of everything. We have been working with them for almost a year now and I love the collaboration.”
The event features many ensembles from the city including Jazz Revival by Dr Thomas Chandy, BSM Contemporary Students’ Ensemble, MoonArra, Suvankar Ghosh Trio and more. Giving a sneak peak on what the audience can expect at the performance, Jagadeesh says, “The audience can expect great jazz. Most bands will be playing pieces that will be very familiar to people who follow jazz. No one performance will be the same.”
Being part of the organising team, it is important to decide who will perform and how many bands will perform. Jagadeesh lets us in on how he decided to go with seven bands. “Last year, we hosted the festival for two days and we were able to accommodate a lot of bands. This year, some bands were not available because they were playing somewhere else. So, we decided to narrow it down to seven bands. You can’t have more than that because each band needs about 30 to 40 minutes on the stage. So, if we had to start by 2 pm and comfortably end by 8.30pm or 9 pm, we had to set that limit.”
Moving the conversation to The Sunshine Orchestra Brass Ensemble being a part of the festival, the guitarist says, “I started following them recently. I had received an e-mail from Lisa some time ago where she was inquiring about doing something at The Bangalore School of Music. I asked her the timelines she was looking at, to which she replied as June. Then I told her about performing on International Jazz Day. She then gave her confirmation and started working on the performance.”
The idea of having the International Jazz Day celebrations in Bengaluru fruited when Jagadeesh, along with his ensemble MoonArra, performed in Goa in 2011 on the occasion of International Jazz Day. Then finally in 2018, the first edition of the festival took place in the city.
“In terms of (BSM), this will be the last event after which we close for holidays in May and reopen in June. June and July will be all about new students and admissions, then after all that dust settles, we will start working on events in October or November,” Jagadeesh concludes.
Entry free. April 29. At Bangalore International Centre, Domlur.
Email: alwin@newindianexpress.com
Twitter: @al_ben_so