Photo: Ashwin Prasath
CHENNAI: A vocalist sings the chorus for Skyfall with a guitarist, a percussionist and a violinist backing him up. Someone from the audience hits a trombone to the beat, while two others harmonise with the singer. The entire room bursts into the last line of the Adele song, At Skyfall…
The second floor of The Grid was packed with musicians during On That Note’s monthly jamming session, The Jukebox. Most of the participants were semi-professional musicians.“The music community in Chennai is small and underground. We want to create a space where people can meet each other and have fun, and not just come to prepare for a show or perform at an open mike,” said Gaurav Khimka, founder and producer, On That Note.
To make the ordinary jam session interesting and fresh, The Jukebox saw the participants jam with each other in four-themed rounds. ‘More Than Just Words’ saw teams trying to compose a song around words such as ‘chicken wings’, ‘pepper spray’ and ‘taxi driver’. ‘Rolling in the Deep’ forced the performers to listen to the whims of the audience, who could ask musicians to stop, speed up, pause or change the tempo at any point of time.
“This is the first time I’ve been to a jam in a professional setting. It was easy to communicate and improvise with musicians,” said Shankarraman K, a sound engineer. The musicians were seen trading tips after the jamming session.
