A spellbinding performance of Samba and Jazz Published on: December 20, 2010 - 23:40 More in: iWATCH
It was a home coming concert for Canadian jazz pianist and singer of Goan origin, Jacinta Luis. Jacinta teaches piano and voice at the prestigious Dawson College of music in Montreal, Canada. She also travels the world with her quartet comprising accomplished Canadian jazz artistes. At a concert at Goa Chitra in Benaulim, Jacinta performed along with saxophonist, Ashton Colaco, bassist Colin D'Cruz and drummer Lester Godinho. Goa seems to bring out the best in artistes from all over the world and for one with roots in this beautiful state, it was truly an ethereal experience as Jacinta gushed to a spellbound packed audience made up of connoisseurs from the field of music from across Goa. The concert began with Jacinta’s singing ‘Night and day’ which was deftly punctuated with brilliant contributions by each member of the band. Jacinta then featured her bass player Colin’s composition ‘Simple Samba’ in which she proved to be on par with the best of soloists in the world, with flying fingers that coaxed some complex piano lines out of Colin’s composition. Then came the song of the evening ‘Goa’, a lovely original by Jacinta set to an infectious samba beat again. The song spoke about beautiful Goa in English and then in Konkani. The rendition thrilled the crowd to bits. The first set ended with a jazz interpretation of ‘The last post’ dedicated to Goans in the armed forces. Back after a short break as promised, Jacinta launched into her act with renewed energy this time with ‘Malaika’ and ‘Pata Pata’ showcasing the Zambian phase of her life. She then performed two of her originals, a funky ‘Procrastination’ and a spunky ‘Feeling Good’ which actually made the audience feel good. Few more interesting interpretations of popular jazz standards like ‘Summertime’ and ‘Autumn leaves’ and then it was a jazzy Christmas time with some swinging interpretations of Christmas carols. The concert ended with Jacinta pulling off a surprise by inviting her dad Jerry Luis onstage. Jerry, an accomplished band leader in his days, harmonised with his talented daughter in an encore call for ‘Malaika’.