Mumbai Gig Preview: International Jazz Day Curated By Louis Banks

There was a time Jazz Yatra, later to be renamed Jazz Utsav, was one of the biggest musical crowd-pullers of the year. A few days during which the entire city's music elites gathered to make merry over the swelling syncopation and improvised polyrhythms. In the recent scramble for survival via modernity however, suffice to say jazz took a bit of a backseat. Thanks to Louiz Banks and blueFROG however, they're determined to bring it back tonight.

The timing couldn't be more right of course. April 30 is International Jazz Day, the perfect day to bring together communities, schools, academics and jazz enthusiasts from all over the world to celebrate the genre that birthed the likes of John Coltrane and Nat King Cole. In celebration of the same Louiz Banks, one of Jazz's fore-figures (within the Indian framework of the genre), has curated a night full of local jazz maestros to keep audiences captivated.

The line up includes artists such as Banks himself and Merlin D'souza on keyboards, Ranjit Barot and Gino Banks on drums, Dhruv Ghanekar and Sanjay Divecha on guitar, Sheldon D'silva and Mohini Dey on electric bass, Tala Farlal and Rhys Sebastian D'Souza in the horn section, Rajeev Raja on the flute and vocalists like Vivienne Pochs, Shefali Alvares and Gary Lawyer to name but a few.

You can read the full lineup here. Either way, with a lineup as nostalgic and brilliant as this, it promises to be an unforgettable night.

International Jazz Day will be held tonight at blueFROG between 9pm and 1pm. Entry is free all night long.

**More info on this event and others happening across the country can be found on our events page here**

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Words: Mandovi Menon