AlterNation Jazz Festival brings contemporary and original jazz to Chennai

Chennai’s jazz calendar gets a pulsating addition this weekend as the AlterNation Jazz Festival brings together contemporary, original, and improvised music for a full-day showcase. Curated by AlterNation, the festival continues its mission of creating space for artistes who rarely find a platform in traditional venues.

AlterNation Jazz Festival adds a pulsating new chapter to Chennai’s Jazz Calendar

Opening the day is The Tuesday Jazzers Collective, a group of emerging Chennai musicians reimagining classic American jazz with fresh energy. They are followed by Many Things, known for blending jazz, rock, classical, and funk, and Suman Sridhar & The Black Mamba, the award-winning Mumbai-based act fusing jazz, pop, Indian classical, opera and spoken word. Jatayu, Chennai’s genre-blurring quartet rooted in Carnatic music and modern improvisation, closes the festival.

So, what can audiences look forward to at this year’s festival? Cathy Ayer, co-founder of AlterNation, says, “The AlterNation Jazz Festival will showcase the best of original jazz and jazz-inspired music, with three incredibly diverse and original bands taking the stage. The festival will also spotlight new local jazz artistes who have been mentored and supported to develop their jazz chops and musical voices right here in Chennai.”

Harish, a band member from The Tuesday Jazzers Collective, which opens the festival, tells us, “Music at its core, be it jazz or otherwise, be it old or new, be it slow or fast, needs to be done right for it to feel fresh. Unlike classical music, jazz isn’t set in stone and allows each musician involved to express their individuality. We aspire to bring that quality to our performance, by taking these tunes and making them our own while retaining the core elements of the original tune.”

Maarten Visser, saxophonist and bandleader of Many Things, says, “Composition and improvisation carry equal weight and importance in our music. Improvisation is a consequence of composition, a collective process in search of sound, sound that emphasises, continues or opposes the ideas in composition.”

This interplay of influences is echoed by Suman Sridhar, who explains her genre-blending approach, “I bring various styles into my music as it reflects my origins of having grown up with Indian music and then studied Western music in the US.”

For Sahib Singh, guitarist and bandleader of Jatayu, the fusion of styles is all about authentic expression. “We don’t really think in terms of genres when we write; we focus on expressing what we genuinely feel. Carnatic music, jazz, funk, and rock are all languages we’ve grown up with, so they naturally flow into each other. The originality comes from that honesty; when the expression is real, the music finds its own voice.”

Finally, on what the festival hopes to leave audiences with, Vivek Ayer, co-founder of AlterNation, says, “We hope audiences leave the fest feeling just how fun, inclusive and accessible jazz can be, while also experiencing firsthand how the genre continues to evolve.”

`750 onwards, January 31,

3 pm to 11 pm,

At Zol Garden, The Palomar by Crossway, ECR.

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