South Asians rule at Brampton Jazz Festival

7/31/2019 South Asians rule at Brampton Jazz Festival

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Don’t be a cynic and sug-gest that just because Bramp-ton has the largest concentra-tion o South Asians in Can-ada, the organizers o theBrampton Global Jazz and

Blues Festival booked severalace musicians who trace theirroots to the Indian sub-conti-nent.

“I believe that our line-upthis year represents a signi-icant trend that’s happen-ing in the jazz world and theprogramming relects themandate o the Art o Jazz— namely to present, pro-mote, and cultivate the arto jazz through enrichededucational activities andinnovative live musical per-

ormances,” Bonnie Lester,the organization’s presi-dent, tells me. “South Asia

has had an indelible inlu-ence on jazz dating back tothe 1930s. I you look back to Bombay’s cosmopoli-tan 1930s jazz scene, many talented Ar ican- Ameri-can musicians such as Leon

 Ab be y th ri ve d aw ay r omthe racial discrimination o North America.

“And the ree jazz move-ment o the 1960s and 1970s

 was a time where both rock ’n’roll and jazz musicians were

strongly inluenced by thephenomenal Indian musicianand composer Ravi Shankar,

and where American jazzsaxophonist and composerJohn Coltrane, who was at theoreront o ree jazz, becameheavily inuenced by his stud-ies o the Indian melodic orm

known as ragas.”Tat connection, in part, ledto Lester booking heavies like

 Vijay Iye r, Sachal Vasandaniand Rudresh Mahanthappa.Representing oronto is autor-ickshaw, Sundar Viswanathanand Bombay Brazil. BranordMarsalis headlines the three-day event.

I you consider the estival’sgoal, the South Asian-centricprogramming makes com-plete sense.

“We have a long history 

o presenting themed pro-gramming that emphasizesthe global language o jazz,”

Lester explains. “Over the ye ar s, we ’v e e at ur ed le g-endary artists like EgbertoGismonti, Hermeto Pascoaland Jovino Santos Neto, whohighlighted the range and

inluence o Brazilian jazz. An d we ’v e e at ur ed int er-national and local artistslike Roberta Gambarini, PatMartino, ony Monaco andRita Chiarelli — all o whominterpret their music witha hint o their Italian herit-age.”

Lester tells me she’s beenollowing the explosion o 

 young Sout h Asi an jazz art-ists or several years, andthat it was a no-brainer tobook artists like Iyer andMahanthappa.

Iyer was recently honouredin ive categories o the 2012

Down Beat International Crit-ics Poll — a eat that no otherartist in the 60-year history o the magazine’s poll has everachieved.

 And Mahanthap pa is con -

sistently heralded by criticsas one o the most originalcomposers in his ield, shesays.

“He will be perorming withhis group Samdhi, which inSanskrit means, ‘that whichcombines or unites’ or ‘theinterval between day andnight.’

“And that is defnitely whatcomes through in his music —a merging o his Indian-Amer-ican roots ever-present in theunderpinning o his progres-sive jazz sound and his inter-est in treating both Indianmusic and jazz with the

utmost integrity. Tis is some-thing he shares with Vijay Iyer,

 with whom he recorded sev-eral albums.”

 W h i l e M a h a n t h a p p aand Iyer are not household

names like Pat Metheny orGrover Washington, jazzheads know them well andLester believes they are “sureto become our jazz legendso tomorrow.”

I agree with Lester whenshe says, “it would be won-derul to see the South Asiancommunity get behind thesebrilliant musicians and cele-brate the considerable mark they are making around the

 world.”

NOTE: For concert timesand ticket prices, please visitartojazz.org

The Toronto Sun n Friday, august 10, 201256  SHOWBIZ

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nazarethRhythms N’ Rhymes

Jazzing up Brampton

Many jazz starsof future are

coming fromSouth Asianbackgrounds

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