Obituary: JAZZY JOE, WHOSE CAREER SPANNED THE GROWTH OF JAZZ By Victor Hugo Gomes victor.h.go...@hotmail.com
On a rainy June morning a call came through from Christopher Pereira giving me the sad news of the demise of his father, the legendary King of Jazz in our part of the globe, Joe Pereira known fondly to all as Jazzy Joe -- the man who changed the face of Jazz in India. My connections with Joe began in the 1990s when I first invited him over to perform at The Great Music Revival opening concert, called 'The tribute to Great Goan Musicians', at the Kala Academy. It was here that I witnessed firsthand his virtuosity. It was Jazzy Joe's first ever concert in Goa. It was a time when lots of great Goan musicians who had made it big outside Goa, were reluctant to play in Goa because of non-recognition from the land of their birth. It was Jazzy Joe who helped break the ice and I managed to convince many musicians of Goan origin from across India to come and perform for the first time ever in Goa on one single stage. It was Joe who did all the arrangements and compositions. Joe managed to have on the same stage, musicians who never worked together and musicians who had never spoken to each other for a long time or simply hated each other. Jazzy Joe was then also, for the first time, performing for an audience in Goa with his big band. The concert was a huge success and a memorable event that had brought thousands of music lovers to Panjim to pay tribute to Goa’s unsung heroes. It was a concert which received a standing ovation with wild call for encore long after the musicians finished playing their last song. Most guests requested us not to tear the tickets at the entrance because they wanted to keep them as a souvenir. The concert deserved the publicity it received with front page reviews and titles like, "They came, they played, and they conquered", "Soul stirring performance", "A dash of Goan genius" and many more. The concert inspired cartoonists like the legendary Mario Miranda and Alexyz to draw cartoons on the spot and gift them to me as a gesture of their appreciation. Since the first concert, the Jazzy Joe Ensemble was a regular feature for the annual Great Music revival and every year he would showcase new Goan faces. Joe's musical career spans the evolution of Jazz from Chicago-style hot and early Dixieland to present day modern jazz. He was the pioneer of fast tempo, instrumental virtuosity, and improvisation-based bebop in India, having played with American jazz saxophonist and composer Charlie "Yardbird" Parker and American jazz trumpeter, band-leader, composer and occasional singer John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie. Years of continuous training was reflected in each of his performance. Joe is one of India's jazz legends whose career spanned over seven decades, actually making him 'the' history of Jazz in India. He was indeed well known for his showmanship with the saxophone and clarinet. Joe Pereira was born in Calangute, Goa in 1927. By the age of eight he had learned the violin and by 15 he was a genius on the clarinet -- that woodwind instrument with a single-reed mouthpiece and his forte till date. His earlier music career was shaped by his cousin Sebastian D'Souza under whom Joe learnt the saxophone, playing nothing less than four hours everyday. At 19, Joe began his career by leading a sextet in Lahore. After Partition, and the separation of India and Pakistan, he returned back home to Goa where opportunity knocked on his door and he found himself in Bombay playing with the saxophonist Johnny Baptist and later with the Rudy Cotton in Delhi, a Parsi in an Indian Jazz scene otherwise dominated by Anglo-Indians and Goans. He than moved to Calcutta and joined the Calcutta Symphonic Orchestra. He also simultaneously continued his education in music. He then joined the Russian saxophonist Walter Yeshin Quintet. He also played with pianist Baby Menezes and Tony Menezes. It was here that he gained reputation as a composer and music arranger. In 1957 he formed his own band which played at the Blue Fox in Calcutta, a famous Park Street haunt of earlier times. At the 1984 Jazz Yatra he formed 'the foot tappers big band' with whom he composed the famous 'Flight Of The Raag' based on the Raag Yaman Kalyan for the occasion. He dropped in at my house every time he came to Goa. On one of his visits to Goa about eight years ago, I saw that despite age catching up on him, Jazzy Joe still rocked. He never gave up his training, rehearsal or his professionalism. He was jamming with a local set of musicians at my venue "Hugo's Hungry Hill", Nuvem, and Jazzy Joe took on a note and was having fun playing an impromptu solo on his saxophone, the crowd went wild while the rest of the band members could not take the attention he was getting. They took a break and stepped down the stage while Jazzy Joe continued alone mesmerizing the audience for another thirty minutes. Despite his world tours in Singapore, Colombia, Bahrain, Lahore and the most memorable was one in New Orleans night clubs, he was simple and a humble person who enjoyed his music. He would say, "The more I play jazz the harder I can blow." It was a weekend in November 2010. Jazzy Joe had heard of the Goa Chitra museum that I had just started and my struggle to raise funds to keep the museum going. Joe in his late 80s, felt that a project like Goa Chitra needs encouragement. Not letting his age come in the way, he made a commitment to perform live in concert at Goa Chitra despite all hurdles. Yes, he gave me his final gift and performed at my fund raising event completely free of cost; he refused to take any money even for his travel. He got emotional and announced to the audience, "After all victor has done for us musicians this is the least I can do for a person who has done so much for Goan musicians and promoting live music." Such was his sensibility. Paying this tribute to my dear hero, Jazzy Joe, this is the least I can do while biding him good-bye.The finale is always depressing when the notes are somber; the tune... a sad whisper of good bye especially when the opening act was so strong that it still vibrates and lingers. -- Victor Hugo Gomes is an artist and founder of the Goa Chitra museum in Goa Visit it online at http://www.goachitra.com Goanet Reader is compiled and edited by Frederick Noronha. Another version of this article was carried earlier in Gomantak Times.