An Indian jazz musician: Colin D’Cruz

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Colin D’Cruz – Jazz Bass player from India.

JG: What inspired you to become a jazz artiste? When did you decide that this will be your career?

CD: Like most musicians, I got into music initially with school / college bands. We used to play pop / rock covers and even at that time I remember always wanting to play those tunes my own way. I was improvising even before I knew what jazz was all about. Soon after I finished college I worked as a copywriter for an ad agency. Around that time I also got into a five star hotel resident band. It was time to decide weather I would spend my life playing music or selling soaps and toothpaste. An easy decision for me.

JG: Any particular jazz artistes or musicians who have played a role in your own development as a jazz artiste?

CD: There are far too many great musicians who inspired me and continue to inspire me. The one that knocked the socks off me though, was a bassplayer by the name of Jaco Pastorius, a legend who took bass from a background blur right upfront and into the listeners face.

JG: How did you train to become a jazz musician?

CD: Most of my learning came from listening. I initially picked up stuff from recorded tracks by ear. Once I decided to play professionally, I realized I would need to know more about what I would be spending the rest of my life with. I taught myself to read music and then went through a whole lot of theory to enhance my musical vocabulary.

JG: What are the components that go into the genre of jazz?

CD: Spontaneous improvisation are the keywords to jazz. Any genre of music can be jazzed up with an improvised version. Today we have rock-jazz, pop-jazz, funk-jazz.. there’s a -jazz attached to every genre of music and there will be -jazz attached to every genre that comes along.

JG: In your view, how popular is jazz as a music genre in India? Do you think people really appreciate it?

CD: My contention has always been that, if jazz is improvised music then Indian classical music is jazz. One of the world’s greatest institute for jazz studies, the Berklee college of music in America, recognized the fact and introduced Indian classical music in it’s curriculum. How popular is jazz in India? Just as popular as Indian classical music! Jazz will never be as popular as pop music, if it did it would have to be called pop instead of jazz and the terrifying part is jazz musicians may have to do a Madonna and strut onstage wearing conical jocks.

JG: What do you make of the present international scenario as far as jazz is concerned?

CD: Jazz has a niche audience worldwide. Pop music will always rule. It will rule today and will be ruled out tomorrow, while jazz blissfully evolves, embracing all other forms of music along the way.

JG: Did you try your hand at any other genres of music before deciding on this one?

CD: I don’t think there’s any musician in this country who has played with the number of bands, musicians and music genre’s that I have. You can review some of the bands at my website www.jazzyatra.com

JG: Tell us a bit about yourself and give us your take on how your career has progressed so far.

CD: Music helped me get out of my shell and face the world with a song. If it wasn’t for music I would have been a light house keeper on Andaman Island or even worse, I would have been a doctor, lawyer or engineer. My career flows in the direction of my heart, I’m happy to be earning a living off something I’ve always been passionate about. I’ve performed and toured worldwide with some legendary international artistes as well as local icons like Sonu Nigam, Asha Bhosle and Remo Fernandes. I currently work on two resident band contracts in the afternoons at the JW Marriott hotel with my fusion ensemble called The Brown Indian Band for obvious reason and at night at the Taj Lands End hotel with my band called the Bassman’s Band for some strange reason.

JG: You have mentioned in one of your previous interviews that it would be more appropriate to call jazz ‘world music’. Why do you say that?

CD: Simply because jazz is the most open, alive and continuously evolving form of music that embraces all other forms of music in the world today.

JG: Which of your gigs would you recall as being the most memorable and why?

CD: So far the most memorable would be the Hennessey XO international jazz tour that I did in 2005. This world renowned jazz tour has always been signing on artistes signed to the famed American ‘Blue Note’ record label. After hearing the band in Mumbai, Hennessey head honchos decided that they would break tradition and sign on a jazz band from far away India. A huge feather in the cap for Indian jazz musicians.

JG: What are your other passions apart from the obvious one, jazz?

CD: I’m also very passionate about passion 😉

JG: You had the opportunity to play with Daniel Pearl as part of Jazz Junction. What was it like playing with him in the same band?

CD: Daniel Pearl was an accomplished violinist who was very easy to get along with so it was always fun having him onboard.

JG: Can you tell us about the concert you have lined up for October 10 to honor Daniel Pearl’s memory?

CD: Me and my friend Meldon D’Cunha who owns Soul Fry were among the innumerable friends Daniel made wherever he went. We’ve been organizing this event every year to keep his memory alive. This year the event will be a jam session where I’ve lined up a house band made up of Jarvis Menezes on keyboards, Ian Enthiado on drums and myself on bass. We’ve invited just about every singer and musician who perform on the local circuit including some from Goa

JG: Some pearls of wisdom for young people who might want to become jazz musicians.

CD: Imitate, assimilate, innovate!

JG: Something wacky that that no one would know about Colin D’Cruz..

CD: I’ve been rehearsing the conical jock strut for years. Watch out for my next pop gig!

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Jazz from Goa, India: Colin D’Cruz

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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 else’s music I’ve development a style of my own and the biggest compliment I get these days is when someone recognizes my bass playing 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 himself / 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 attracted 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 among 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 artistes / tracks.

CD: You’ll need to extend this interview by a few thousand pages to answer that. My all time favorite however was a bass player called Jaco Pastorius who revolutionized bass playing 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 consciously or subconsciously 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 turns out, 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 five star 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 renowned 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 bass player 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 continuously 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 time off 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: www.jazzgoa.com

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