Indian band mesmerises Russia with jazz-classical blend

IANS  |  Koktebel (Crimea) 

The international festival, Party, which had its stage opening with an American band that brought people to their feet, suddenly had its audiences poised and glued to the sound of various instruments put together by a band from

On the first day of the festival that runs through August 26, the seven members of the band including its founder and flautist, Rajiv Raja, got various genres that fall under the umbrella of -- Latin Jazz, Jazz, blues, etc -- mixed with the Indian classical.

What made the performance stand apart was that the artistes, who didn't jump from one genre to the other and the blend was completely smooth -- sans spaces -- and at the same time, the Hindustani classical flavour was carefully retained.

Other than this Indo-jazz band, the jazzy Friday evening here had musicians from the US and the UK.

There was Rebirth Brass Band that play style jazz and funk, and from the US and Incognito from the UK, which performs acid jazz.

The 20-band line-up for the festival, whose ticket revenue will be transferred to a school, includes groups from Russia, and

On Saturday, the Sedar band from China, artistes and Don Braden, and the New Latin Jazz band from the US will be performing.

The third day will have the New playing together with the Russian artistes -- and

"This year's festival is being held at five venues.

"A surprise for the guests will be a jam session with famous and participation of many stars of the 2018 Jazz Party," the festival's founding member said during the opening.

The festival began under the name Koktebel and its inaugural edition was held 16 years ago.

It got split into two different festivals ever since took over after a referrendum in 2014, an issue that is still contested in various global fora. While one of them still runs with the same name though in Ukraine, the other half takes place here at this resort townlet, Koktebel.

Kislev announced that the artiste line-up of the programme was not revealed in advance as an American could not come to the festival in 2015 because of a letter from the US State Department, which threatened prosecution if he attended.

"To save ourselves from similar failures, we now refrain from giving the schedule away much before the festival," he said.

(Mudita Girotra is in at the invitation of the organisers of She can be contacted at mudita.g@ians.in)

--IANS

mg/nir

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Sat, August 25 2018. 19:38 IST