Suman Sridhar triggers nostalgia alive with jazz-infused tribute
Suman Sridhar triggers nostalgia alive with jazz-infused tribute
Nothing transforms the space into popular again quite like a Hindi film song, as Suman Sridhar showcases the magic of nostalgia by blending jazz with film music
Anthony Gonsalves. Chic Chocolate. RD Burman represent an inherent love for jazz that refined the idea of music on the big screen in India. This is exactly the exploration that vocalist and jazz practitioner Suman Sridhar looks to explore in her performance at Mumbai’s Andheri this weekend.
The singer goes on to explain that “Jazz was never a space when it began. In fact, it was the popular standard of music in its era.
Having trained in Bharatanatyam and classical music, Sridhar also studied music and visual art at Rutgers University. For fans of film music, her voice might be familiar as the vocals behind the iconic Hawa Hawaai in Shaitaan released in 2011 and Muskaanein Jhooti Hai in Talaash released in 2012 to cite a few.
She points out that the performance is a jazz interpretation of Hindi and English songs and goes back to a tradition of jazz players
re-interpreting popular standards to create new forms and styles. Will be using jazz inflections, vocal intonations to reshape songs, including some popular Hindi ones. Sridhar reveals. The session will also have the singer interact with the audience on the nature of her own creative process and music.
She further goes on to note that as you will doubtless be aware that jazz was one of the most influential forms of music when it emerged in the early 1930s and 1940s. The influence slowly spread across, and etched a mark across the world.
Composers like Chic Chocolate, RD Burman embraced the form to give it a very Indian twist.Aaja Aaja’ from Teesri Manzil 1966.
For Suman, it is almost natural to try and reinterpret this Asha Bhosle classic with a mash up of Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto’s Só Danço Samba. It is after all, “a jazz tradition.
With the genus turning as a popular form for independent artistes, is the resurgence real, they ask. “You could say that, but she thinks it developed as a space genre. Granted, it is being performed, studied and explored even more by musicians of a new generation, but it has gotten more space says the songwriter.
News Edit KV Raman
