Louiz Banks: Blue Fox to Bombay and beyond

Jazz maestro Louiz Banks, born Dambar Bahadur Budapriti, has always believed that some divine intervention has shaped his destiny. Just like fate got him together with saxophonist Braz Gonsalves, singer Pam Crain, and guitarist Carlton Kitto to form a band, his interaction with film composer RD Burman was nothing short of a providential occurrence. Burman was visiting Blue Fox, the popular Calcutta nightspot, when he was so impressed with the pianist that he invited him to play in his films. The rest is history. Banks not only began a parallel film music career after shifting to Bombay in 1978, but eventually also got into advertising jingles, musical theatre and Indipop albums.

Louiz Banks: A Symphony Of Love written by Ashis Ghatak captures the life of the ‘godfather of Indian jazz. Besides talking extensively to the musician, the biographer has interviewed many who have worked closely with him in jazz, film music and in other endeavours. Appropriately, the book was released on Banks’ 80th birthday on February 11.

Jazz has, of course, always been Banks’ first love. Having seen his father George Banks play trumpet and piano, the youngster spent his childhood in Darjeeling absorbing different sounds. His biggest influence was jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, and it was clear that he wanted to play like him. And though he also played trumpet and guitar, the piano remained his favourite. After playing in five-star clubs, Banks landed up at the Blue Fox, which was more informal. The group Louiz Banks Brotherhood became a huge draw.

The author Ashis Ghatak describes the maestro’s growth in lucid detail. The book has a foreword by Ustad Zakir Hussain, who says he himself has learnt much from Banks about “finding my way through jazz forms, composing for a jazz ensemble and many other facets of being a performer of music from all parts of the world.”

While his early performances shaped his jazz career, his teaming up with RD Burman added a new facet to his musical personality. Once in Bombay, Banks made many friends with musicians who were in Burman’s team including saxophonist Manohari Singh, drummer Ranjit Gazmer, multi-instrumentalist Kersi Lord, guitarist Sunil Kaushik and bassist Tony Vaz.

The International Jazz Yatra began in

Ashis Ghatak 242pp, ~595,Rupa Publications

Bombay in 1978, and that was when the idea of forming the fusion group Sangam came up. Featuring vocalist Rama Mani, saxophonist Braz Gonsalves, percussionist TAS Mani, bassist Karl Peters and drummer Ranjit Barot, it gave Banks a chance to create new sounds blending Indian and western elements. One of his huge projects was the national integration video Mile Sur Mera Tumhara. While describing these developments, Ghatak uses a good mix of quotes by Banks and anecdotes from those he worked with. There are interesting stories of his sudden opportunity to perform with Dizzy Gillespie, and the making of the Grammynominated project Miles From India, which had Indianised adaptations of Miles Davis’s tunes.

Banks’ work with the groups Silk (featuring vocalist Shankar Mahadevan, bassist Karl Peters, drummer Sivamani and mridangam exponent Sridhar Parthasarathy), and the Matrixx Trio (with his son, drummer Gino Banks, and bassist Sheldon D’Silva) has been presented in detail. There is also a reference to the groups Ganga Shakti and Guitar Synergy, where he worked with younger musicians.

Besides Banks’ musical achievements, the book also captures personal traits like his love for Chinese food. Special box items provide interesting trivia, and rare pictures are used. However, one wished more care had been taken with names and spellings. Fusion group Shakti’s violinist L Shankar has been called L Srinivas and singer Vivienne Pocha becomes ‘Vivian’. The good thing is that Ghatak’s narrative flows and his writing is reader friendly. This is a fascinating document of western music in India that ably brings out the musical personality of one of its most innovative exponents.

Narendra Kusnur is a veteran

music journalist