Goa Chitra pays tribute to a legend
Legendary Jazzy Joe entrails a packed audience
By Victor Hugo Gomes
Photos: http://bit.ly/GoaChitra-6Nov2010
Jazzy Joe is probably the oldest jazz musician in India who still
performs at the age of 84! Paying tribute to this legendary Goan
musicians career that spans over six decades, Goa Chitra organised a
concert on the 6th of November that drew in full house with jazz
enthusiasts from all over Goa and even with the threat of unseasonal
showers looming over overcast skies.
The grand old man of Indian jazz arrived at the venue right on time
accompanied by his wife, son and a daughter Pamela who drove across from
Ahmedabad to sing with her all time favourite jazz artiste live in concert.
Curtain raiser for the evening was an Indo-Aussie jam between Australian
singer/songwriter Madeleine Chase along with Goa's Colin D'Cruz on a
singing fretless bass and Carlos Gonsalves on talking drums. This was a
tight act showcasing some of Madeleine's original songs along with jazz
standards and jazz tinged pop covers. Next was Goa's hot new teen talent
Minelli Pinto who took Madeleines place to deliver her first public
rendition of a new song she wrote called 'Just a boy'.
Sharp at 9.00 P.M it was show time with Jazzy Joe being escorted onto
the stage by Goa Chitra curator Victor Hugo Gomes to lead some of Goa's
most accomplished jazz artistes. The band accompanying Jazz Joe included
Xavier Peres on keyboards, Colin D'Cruz on bass and Allan Moraes on
drums. Even though age would not permit Jazzy Joe to stand and play, he
sat majestically on a chair and expressed his desire to fly onstage
opening his show with a soulful rendition of 'Fly me to the moon'
followed by a series of popular jazz standards that were punctuated
right through with his charismatic improvisational passages and
spontaneous tempo changes. Drummer Alan and bass player Colin have been
a part of Jazz Joe's band at several junctures of his chequered career
and were quick in hooking onto Jazz Joe's directional swings onstage.
Pianist Xavier is arguably one of the best jazz musicians that India has
produced in the past decade and although he took the stage with Jazzy
Joe for the first time he comfortably locked in with Alan and Colin to
offer the legend a strong platform for his improvisational flights. Dr.
Francis Colaco, joined in to pay a tribute to his most admired jazz
performer with an animated performance of “Bais ame mucho”, “All of
Me”, “Sway” etc.
The amphi theatre at Goa Chitra sprung to life with the soulful
interactions between the musicians onstage joined by Darryl Coelho and
Neil Gomes on violins and Pamela on Vocals led by an ageing yet flying
legend. Every tune ended with huge rounds of applause from an over
enthusiastic crowd who refused to let go of Jazzy Joe over the next two
hours. Another highlight of the concert was a his legendry jazz
rendition of a medley combining “Surea devon gelo” and “ Kai boro komblo
mozo” dedicated to Goa Chitra followed by an emotional impromptu
original of jazzy Joe dedicated to Victor Hugo and his wife Aldina Gomes
in gratitude for taking on such a humongous venture and made a donation
of his performance towards the corpus fund of Goa Chitra.
Finally it was time to give India's senior most jazz artiste a break and
in tribute to the legend, Goa's popular jazz band ‘The Jazz Ensemble'
took the stage to pay respect to Jazzy Joe with their renditions of jazz
standards. The Jazz Ensemble featured Darryl Coelho on violin, Xavier
Peres on Keyboards, Robin Abreo on Bass, Gillu D’Costa on Flute and
acoustic Guitar, Francis Pereira on drums and joining them was one of
India's youngest multi instrumentalist Neil Gomes on saxophone, flute,
violin, guitar and vocals! Neil showed off his virtuosity on every
instrument he played flawlessly and along with the band made enough of
an impression to encourage Jazzy Joe to stay on and continue playing
with them as well, bringing down the curtains on one of Goa's most
memorable jazz events to date. Neil’s commanding ‘Roxanne’ had the
packed audience begging an encore and the show went on for some more
time with Carlos joining on percussion and other musicians swapping
instruments. The magical evening lay a spell on its audience and their
spirits lifted, their appetite satisfied the contented spectators went
home with a memory of a lifetime.
The first of the “Great Music Revival” concert series was to celebrate
Goa Chitra’s first anniversary since its opening to the public last
November.
The Great Music Revival concert series is a well conceived concept to
bridge the gap between the past and the present with the musical
ingenuity of Goa’s own testimony to rich unforgettable musical past. Not
only will The Great Music Revival be a tribute to Goan musicians, but a
platform for musicians from across the world to create, express and love.
This creative endeavor is a pursuit of the curator to raise funds for
the corpus of Goa Chitra in an attempt to save a slice of the past for
posterity. These series of concerts will be held every weekend and shall
have an entree with a genre of talented musicians who shall come
together to observe and pay tribute to Goa’s rich ancestry.
Coming weekend 13th November 2010 Goa Chitra will feature another
International acoustic duo Marga Jee, a singer, Guitarist and songwriter
from Italy accompanied by a beautiful Italian singer, Laura Baietto. The
weekend concert will also feature another Great Goan Jazz Legend playing
for the first time in Goa with drummer Lester Godinho, Xavier Peres on
Keyboards, Colin D’Cruz on Bass and others. (ENDS)
Goanet A-C-E!
Arts ~ Culture ~ Entertainment
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