THE JAZZ BEATS Aamir Momin
KEEPING ALIVE MUSICIAN
MOHINI DEY, BASS PLAYER
We are performers, and in such times sitting at home affects the mental health as we love playing live in front of the audience. The Pandemic has been difficult
RHYTHM SHAW, GUITARIST
Jazz as a genre will never die. It’s a really true form of art. Although the pandemic has been very difficult for jazz musicians and performers everywhere, artistes still strive to do the same in any setting, which is to improvise and play differently every time. We do miss performing live, the whole environment makes you play differently. for everyone, but we have now discovered that virtual live gig performances are a possibility. I like to have a positive outlook and believe that if one door shuts, another will open.
O n the occasion of Internation al Jazz Day, today, Louiz banks, who is considered the father of Indian jazz, has curated an online streaming event, which features multiple artistes (Indian and International). The coronavirus pandemic has been known to have affected many industries, music industry being one of them, especially the live gigs. We spoke to a popular jazz musicians to know how has the pandemic affected jazz music/musicians.
SHELDON D’SILVA,
We have no choice in this pandemic so we are trying to be creative by composing music or collaborating and recording stuff with different musicians and trying to get better with our skill sets. Jazz is something artistes do because they love it, they don’t do it to get rich and famous, so there is a lot of passion behind it which will never go away.
We rely on performing in front of people. It is like having a conversation with the audience. So the lack of live performances due to the pandemic is a little detrimental to an artiste. Jazz is heavily based on improvisation, and happens in the moment among musicians, not doing it live is a very big challenge.
GINO BANKS, DRUMMER