Joel Larue Smith trio live in India!

Music in Goa is known for its Latin American roots and one Goan musician Colin D’Cruz got the opportunity to perform Latin-jazz with a couple of masters from Brazil and America. Thanks to the Internet. The internet has turned the world into one large interesting room and it was through the internet that Joel Smith saw and heard Colin’s performances. Joel Smith is an American pianist, composer, arranger, educator and Latin-jazz performer. He leads a jazz trio which also features twenty-year-old Brazilian drummer Tiago Michelin who started playing drums at the age of three and now studies music at the world-renowned institute of jazz – the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Jazz bass player Colin D’Cruz who has been making waves worldwide with his music regularly being published on the internet, saw yet another of his dreams come true. Joel Smith invited Colin to perform with his trio at the first of their world wide gigs. They played their first international gig at the live music venue – Blue Frog in Mumbai on the 31st of May 2011. Colin had studied Joel’s music through exchanges on the internet long before the first gig and he comfortably slipped into the band even though the trio actually got together for the first time onstage itself. Joel Smith’s music has Afro-Cuban elements laced with intricate jazz harmonies and infectious Latin rhythm making it an intense yet enjoyable listening experience. The packed house at Blue Frog responded to every track with thunderous applause and did not let go of the band even way past the last song for the show. One of the tracks performed was named ‘Miramar’ which is a very common name of cities in South America. Joel was quite surprised to know that there was a Miramar in Goa too and announced the fact to the audience dedicating the song to a few Goans in the audience. Colin discussed possibilities of having the band perform in Goa and Joel Smith has promised to include Goa in his worldwide itinerary.

Pianist Joshua Costa from Goa is one of the few young Indian musicians who has taken to jazz. His latin-jazz composition 'Samba de Goa' currently tops the international jazz charts from amoung thousands of compositions by worldwide jazz giants. Checkout Joshua's composition here: http://www.soundclick.com/joshuacosta

Carlos Gonsalves a percussionist from Mapusa dedicated himself to the drums from the age of 13 and enjoyed the rhythm of his new found love. "My teacher was Lester Godinho from whom I learnt to play drums. I wanted to try my hand at other percussion instruments, so I tried the tabla and really loved the sound," says Carlos.He then graduated as drummer with 'Deep Red' a professional pop band in Goa. This band gave him the experience of performing various events at all kinds of venues including some of the five star resorts in Goa.Carlos's passion for rhythm attracted him to the exciting sounds of Latin American music that made him switch over from drums to percussion. "I got my first break as a percussionist with Goa's sensational latino band Obligato. Now I play African drums and a whole lot of unconventional percussion instruments," adds Carlos who has dedicated ten years of his life to his passion. His forte is Indian-fusion but he is also comfortable playing jazz.He is set to perform in Kolkata with the Mumbai based 'Brown Indian Band' an indo-jazz fusion ensemble. "This band is led by Goan bassplayer Colin D'Cruz. I have been associated with this band for over three years. I Travel with them all over the country and now we head for Kolkata," confirms Carlos whose inspiration is the ace percussionist, Trilok Gurtu originally Goan, but now settled in Germany.The Brown Indian Band has been invited to perform for 'U-Turn'-the annual cultural festival of Jadavpur University, Kolkata on September 22. We will perform in front of 8000 odd students, so I am really looking forward to it. Also, after this event we will conduct a workshop for the students where we will explain our concept of fusion," concludes Carlos.

Hello Panjim interview with Colin D'Cruz-one of India's most accomplished jazz musicians.
HP- Tell us something about yourself. CD- I'm a Mumbai goan looking forward to being a Goa goan very soon. I've reached two important milestones in my career. One is, after decades of playing everyone elses music i've development a style of my own and the biggest compliment I get these days is when someone recognizes my bassplaying on some tune they heard somewhere, they call up to confirm and..voila! The other milestone is probably every musicians dream, to produce music out of my own studio. A dream that will come true for me within this year when I setup my own state of the art studio in Sangolda. I've also setup an organisation called Jazz Goa with the help of fellow musicians and jazz enthusiasts in Goa.
HP- What drew you towards jazz? CD- Jazz is a huge word, it should be spelt jjjaaaazzzzz! Seriously though, I think jazz is the most open, alive and evolving form of music that allows a musician to be him/herself. Most other forms of music demands a musician to follow trends and tradition or create stuff that's currently hip. Whereas a jazz musician goes about his business listening, assimilating and finally innovating with yet another genre of jazz! We now have dixiland-jazz, swing-jazz, bebop-jazz, funk-jazz, rock-jazz, pop-jazz, fusion-jazz, latin-jazz, indo-jazz, mando-jazz... to cut a long story short, there's a -jazz attached to every genre of music. And there will be a -jazz attached to every genre that comes along. I'm a musician who's atracted to anything that looks, feels, smells, tastes and even sounds like music, so naturally I choose jazz as I get to play it ALL.
HP- What sets apart jazz music from other genres? CD- Jazz is the only form of music that embraces all other forms and it is no longer American music. Today jazz can safely be called world music.
HP- What led you to become a jazz artiste? CD- From amoung all the different genre's of music I grew up listening to, for some reason it was always jazz that struck those extended chords within me. I could always hear the human and very often super human element in a jazz rendition.
HP- Your favourite jazz aristes/tracks. CD- You'll need to extend this interview by a few thousand pages to answer that. My all time favourite however was a bassplayer called Jaco Pastorius who revolutionised bassplaying taking bass right upfront, over, under and right through a song.
HP- To whom would you attribute your credentials as a jazz musician? CD- To everyone i've worked with and everyone I would like to work with someday.
HP- Where and how did you train to be a jazz artiste? CD- I have no formal training in music, I learnt music listening to other musicians, assimilating what I liked and using it consiously or subconsiously in performance until i developed a style of my own. Once I decided to play professionally though, I did study the technicalities through some great music books that are easily available these days.
HP- How do you prepare for a gig? CD- I make sure there's enough soda to go with the whisky...just kidding! It depends, if it is a concert where I would be performing my own compositions, I get the tunes composed, then get the band to rehearse and sound the way I heard it in my head. As it often turnsout, input from the rest of the band takes the tune to a dimension I would never have imagined. So you see, music is all about connecting and collaborating, don't believe any of those fantastic one man bands. They're faking it for monetary reasons, not that I have anything against it. All is fair in love, war and music.
HP- Talking about gigs, where and when did you first perform/how long have you been into jazz? CD- Like most musicians I first got into music with school/college bands. I then graduated into fivestar hotel resident bands whose repertoire was made up mainly of jazz standards. I did that for ten years, playing music every night made me a musician.
HP- What is the jazz scene like in India, and Goa in particular? CD- The jazz scene in India, Goa or anywhere in the world is the same. There's a niche group of performers and listeners that grows all the time. Hopefully with jazz's open armed evolution, it will grow into the global sound of music.
HP- What have been your highs and lows in your career thus far? CD- The highs have always been the applause at the end of a track performed, the lows would be finding out that the applause was actually for the sixer Sachin hit on the big screen just besides the stage at Jazz by the Bay in Mumbai.
HP- How would you explain your role as a jazz musician in society? CD- A jazz musician gives people a nicer high than some other interesting social highs.
HP- Define jazz. CD- Jazz is improvised music. Sometimes structured, sometimes orchestrated, sometimes free of form and almost always, spontaneously created.
HP- Notable gigs/performances. CD- The world reknowned Hennessey XO jazz tour has always been featuring jazz artistes signed by the American Blue Note label. Last year for the first time a jazz band outside the label, from far away India, was selected for this prestigious international tour. I was the bassplayer for that band. An unforgettable experience for sure. More recently my indo-jazz fusion band 'The Brown Indian Band' has been approached to open for Sting's European tour this year. Fingers are crossed about that one.
HP- Collaborations with other musicians. CD- I am contineously collaborating with musicians from all over the world thanks to the internet and my website http://www.hullocheck.com
HP- I understand you have been into different genres of music and worked with various ensembles. Tell us more. CD- As I mentioned it before, when it comes to music I want it ALL. Name the genre and chances are, i've been there. You'll find traces of just about every genre in my own music. There are very few musicians in the world today, who would match the number of bands and musicians I have worked with.
HP- Currently performing at... CD- I currently perform on two resident contracts in Mumbai at the JW Marriott hotel in the afternoons and the Taj Lands End hotel in the nights. I also take timeoff from these two gigs to perform at concerts and corporate events in India and abroad. So that averages some sixty gigs a month!
HP- Your hobbies/interests... CD- My main hobby and interest is my profession today. Everyone else works for a living, I play for mine. Someone once told me 'All play and no work makes...makes me tick!' Seriously though, I am very keen on improving the plight of most goan musicians in Goa. I was one sometime ago so I should know the raw deal most of them get. My plan is to set up Jazz Goa as an umbrella organisation for not just jazz but all the other immense artistic talent in Goa. To start with my studio in Sangolda will record and produce deserving artistes. Jazz Goa will then launch the best from there at a global level. Jazz Goa has already produced four audio CD's and a DVD that is available in Goa exclusively at Vibes Music in Margao and online at http://www.jazzgoa.com

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OPUS: January 2006