What's All That Jazz About?

International Jazz Day happened to be on the 30th of last month and to celebrate its influence on many forms of modern music as well as to celebrate traditional jazz itself, a group of enthusiastic young musicians from the high-flying band, 42, along with the Imran Ahmed Quartet and Groove Gen, organised a jazz show at Shilpakala Academy in Dhaka on May 1, 2015. 

Activation Partners included GrooveGen, GrooveDesign Interactive, Bengal Music Company, black N Orange, Sonali's and iCreation. Media partner was, yours truly, SHOUT.

The atmosphere was rather pleasant and homely owing to the fact that most of the musicians and even the audience knew each other. The venue was an excellent choice for a concert such as this, as the environment made for quite an enjoyable night to listen to some good music. The sound quality was great and the lighting made for some apt ambiance. Proceeds from ticket sales were to be donated to the Nepal earthquake relief fund. 

The show started at around 6:30 PM. Imran Ahmed and Yameen Khan (42) gave a brief introduction in which they talked about jazz, the purpose of the event as well as expressed their condolences to the earthquake victims and families in Nepal.

The show kicked off with Kaarthik, Kirtana Krishna and Towfiq Arifin Turjo. They had a complicated and musically challenging set list consisting of covers of Robert Glasper Experiment and Hiatus Kaiyote. 

Next up was a traditional Indian classical group with Nishit Dey (sitar) and Dipankar Aich (tabla). Although this was not a jazz group, their inclusion in the line-up was warmly appreciated as they performed a full-fledged Indian classical set featuring Raga Charukeshi – on taal rupak (7 beats), and later on tin taal (16 beats). The group paid their respect to the victims in Nepal as well.

The Imran Ahmed Quartet – consisting of, obviously, Imran Ahmed (guitars), Rahin Haider (saxophone), Mohaimin Karim (bass) and Towfiq Arifin Turjo (drums) – came up next. And if the environment had gone a little mellow after Nishit Dey and Dipankar Aich's soulful performance, Imran Ahmed Quartet got everyone's blood pumping again. The group performed some of their originals and crowd favourites  like "City", "Splash", "P.T.O to 35" and a rendition of the famous jazz standard "My Favourite Things". 

Next, it was 42's turn to turn up the groove with Yameen Khan (guitar), Rahin Haider (saxophone), Xahid Ahmed (bass), Towfiq Arifin Turjo (drums) and Shaveena Anam (vocals). The band played a complete set consisting of their renditions of jazz hits like "So What", "Take Five" and a few cover songs by modern day jazz and funk artists. 

Lastly, The Tango Trio came on stage with Saad Chowdhury (bass), Robert Russel (keyboard) and Nafeez Al Amin (drums). The group covered jazz classics like "Spain" and also a cover of Esbjorn Svensson's "Elevation of Love".

It was the sort of concert that has been generally lacking in recent years. The young musicians are some of the most talented in the country. All in all, it was an evening well spent.