A jazz route to the city

Hyderabad will see its first ever Jazz festival in an attempt to unearth talent and spread the music

What would you need to go back to the 1920s? A saxophone, trumpets, trombones and of course, a singer. On a mission to take you back to the Jazz years is Joe Koster, as he,  along with Goethe-Zentrum and Secunderabad Club, bring Hyderabad her first-ever Jazz festival from November 25 to 27.

“Hyderabad did have a presence of Jazz way back in the past. But over the years, most of those musicians left the city for several reasons; one could be because Hyderabad was and is not (yet) an easy place for a Jazz musician to make a living,” says Joe from the Hyderabad Western Music Foundation. And it was pretty much this thought that prompted them to organise the festival.

For a city like Hyderabad where the Jazz music scene still has a long way to go, Joe is trying all means to make sure Hyderabadis get a taste of this genre. “It’s not that there are absolutely no Jazz events. Locally, we have a band called the Jazzed Friends and also a vocal band Deccan Voices apart from musicians like Ujjal Kumar Saha, a solo guitarist. There is talent everywhere, but we need people to be more aware of it,” explains Joe.

With the aim of bringing back a culture of Jazz concerts and performances, the organisers are bringing three days of fun, music and a lot of learning through the festival. “There will be an interesting mix of different Jazz styles with some of the finest Jazz musicians from around the world,” says Joe, who adds that there will also be workshops. But when compared to the past, the city has fairly improved in terms of Jazz.

“You do have more Jazz events these days, but the focus should be on creating a culture in the city. A few places have come up, where Jazz bands perform now and then. But what we need is a city where musicians can make a living out of music,” he says.

But Joe does agrees that there is a lot more that needs to be done to revive the Jazz and music scene here. “For the development of any music, we need quality education, which is hardly available here. Another thing is the lack of musical instruments. “It is also difficult to find musicians who play instruments like saxophones, trumpets, trombones, clarinet-players here. We have been working on these aspects. A seed has been sown, now we have to wait for it to grow,” says Joe.

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