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Blue Rhythm

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Blue Rhythm

Our Introduction to Anto

Ajoy Ray in Calcutta introduced me to Anto..Here is the email that he sent:

I just thought of someone still around in Cal who was around heavily in the '50s, '60s & '70s.
Anto Menezes, the vibes player. He'd be able to enlighten us on this area. I used to see him in the '60s at Mocambo's on Sunday morning live jazz sessions.. Let me see if I can contact him.

In a live session in the mid - '70s for our Jazz Club which simply blew our minds was a superb, superb version of "Straight No Chaser" arranged by Louis (who's this recent 'z'?) Banks, and played by Braz Gonzalves, Louis himself, Anto on vibes, Bosco Monserate (our own budding Freddie Hubbard) on trumpet, Carlton on guitar, Iggy D'Souza on 2nd tenor sax (a massively leaking one, as Dave Liebman later discovered), Peter Saldhana on bass & Johnny Edmonds (with his Afro) on drums. Wow! I haven't forgotten, tell Louis.

Thanks Ajoy.

Sad news

FROM: ANJUM

Hi, and thanks for the update. Wonderful to know you got so much great material. Sadly, we lost Anto just a little while ago. He developed gangrene in one leg which had to be amputated, and I guess his heart couldn't take it. He had a heart attack and passed away. I just got to hear of this, and was planning to write and tell you. Your footage of Anto is probably the last documentation of him.

Warm regards

ANjum

This is really sad news. we met with Anto Menezes on July 26th. Anto's brother is the swingin piano player , Mohsin, in Delhi. The Menezes family came from Colombo. Anto was a gentle and charming person who loved his music. He showed us his ancient vibraphone which was acquired from a British vibraphone player circa 1946. Anto played for us on this beat up instrument and showed us how he voiced chords with inverted roots etc ..and how he left space for the other instruments.. It was a shock to hear that he has passed on... Anto Menezes was 78 years old. There are many other musicians whose stories we need to capture, we are grateful that we could meet with Anto and document his story. Here are a few pics. ..the one with the piano , according to Anto, is to be credited to Tina Ambani, and is from a magazine article.

CLICK on this underlined link to see an article by Ian Zachariah

Somini has a question

From: SOMINI
Sushil,

Thanks for the update, and congratulations. How does one find georgie, the only upright bassist in calcutta?

Somini

Somini,
Thanks m accordingto Carlton, and Clive Hughes..he is the only "fellow who can play bass" ...they have his contacts... George Cheator (spelling) may be found occasionally lugging his beaten up vintage bass in a yellow Ambassador Taxi ... Here is a picture of George

Feedback from the Update

I hope you dont mind my sharing this with those who may care. if for soem reason you would like your feedback removed, please let me know , and I will comply
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From: BILL WURTZEL
susheel,
congratulations.
i leave for la tomorrow through sun.
played funeral today for larry lucie-great guitarist 101 yrs.
look forward to hearing more from you
bill

From: STANLEY PINTO
I'm very happy it's turned out so well, so far, Susheel. You have scores of people waiting to see the finished product. And I look forward very much to meeting you, whenever that happens.

I am copying this message and therefore yours, below, to my friend Anil Ranadive of Berkeley Calif, than whom there is simply no more rabid jazz fan in the whole world, caste and creed and age and gender no bar.

Good luck and all the best - Stanley


FROM: THE ANGEL OINDRILLA
Hi, all!

Great to hear from you and relive those fun days. It was a pleasure to be part of this project and, if wishes could drive it, the docufilm would not only be made but would make it to the Oscars! For now, here's to the pilot. Cheers n stay in touch.

OD


FROM: ASHWIN
Susheel

I realized that in this scenario a deserving family of four brothers ( Monserrates) are left out My fault I didnt tell you earlier

They are the Moserrate brothers Ronnie - piano,Joe - trumpet, Bosco and Blasco- trombones Ronnie lives in the far suburbs of Bombay ( Vasai?) I heard the others stay in Nasik but am not sure

Anibal Castro and Johnny Fernandes are Bombay based Anibal is in Juhu and Johnny in Bandra Naresh will have their and the Monserrate whereabouts

They are all class jazz musicians

I guess you couldnt you get to Braz

The film gets underway

Folks

I owe you all a big thanks for your support, encouragement and more importantly , active participation. We have moved along the road from where we began six months ago, with a concept of doing a documentary film that tells the story of jazz in India..to beginning to edit a pilot version that will showcase the final product..

With your help ,good will, and positive energy...To sum it up, over the course of a hectic two week period we captured on High Definition Video:

- Calcutta jazz history conversations with Ajoy Ray, Ian Zacharias, Morris Menezes and others
- conversations with Anto, Carlton Kitto, Clive Hughes, Sonia Saigal in Calcutta
- a wonderful concert with the guitar of Mr. Be Bop - Carlton Kitto , his quartet, and with the vocal talents of Anjum Katyal,and Smita Mishra

- Conversations and historical material with the 96 year old former bandleader at the Taj Mahal Hotel - Mickey Correa in Bombay
- a wonderful interview with Niranjan Jhaveri and the story of how Jazz India and Jazz Yatra came about- Thank you Shail
- Bombay jazz history raconteruring with Farokh Mehta
- studio sessions and conversations with Ranjit Barot who made music for us along with bassman Karl Peters and the guitar of Sanjay Divecha (Ranjit , I dont have email id's for these great guys, so please pass this on)
- conversations with "second life " jazz fans and musiciians including Dr Farhad Kapadia and Nakul Mehta and of course India's legitimate jazz historian- Naresh Fernandes
- a fascinating conversation with "Jazzy Joe" Periera - the last of the sax men
- And most of all, the generous and gracious hospitality of the great Louiz Banks and his family who welcomed us to an evening of intimate performance featuring Louiz B, Gino (drums) , Sheldon (bass) , Adrian D'Souza (Drums) , Karl Peters, Sanjay Divecha, Joe and others - Thank you Louiz for the conversation with you and for the music. (once again, I dont have emails for all who shared the music, so please pass this on)

Thanks to Sunil Shanbag we have interview footage with jazz loving musicians who played in Bollywood including saxman Manohari Singh and drummer Leslie Godinho

Additionally , a huge thank you to all who helped and wanted to participate more actively..particularly Stanley Pinto, who we hope to return to and benefit from his perspective and musings on jazz in Bombay and a couple of whisky's perhaps ?

Also a big thanks to Ashwin Panemangalore for his incredible knowledge and willingness to track down Bollywood tracks featuring jazz musicians..And of course a great big thanks to Jehangir Dalal in Virginia whose passion for this music is unbelievable... and all those who introduced, networked, supported etc Thank you

We were blessed to have the incredible contribution a very gifted director of photography and cinematographer Avijit Mukul Kishore and soundman par excellence Suresh Rajamani.

And last , but not least Minu Tharoor, who took time off from her busy life at NYU to help us, and the Angel Oindrilla Dutt whose incredible support for this project led to a concert event that reunited Carlton Kitto with Clive Hughes and Georgie, the only remaining upright bass player in Calcutta !

I apologize if I have left anyone out, but we are just beginning and have a lot of work ahead of us. The footage is wonderful , broadcast quality , and is evocative..with people speaking from their hearts and playing the music they love.

We have a lot to do, and the next steps include - creating a six to seven minute pilot, putting together a website, and communicating what we are doing so that we can return and converse and talk about jazz with the many others we need to. We are open to any and all thoughts regarding potential sponsors who can help get this through the next stage.We need to make this happen

many thanks

The Rhythm House Connection

Promodh Malhotra sent an email that sheds more light on the founding of Blue Rhythm and an interesting insight into the Rhythm House Connection

Dear Jazz Lovers:

While we are putting together names of those who have contributed to the story of jazz in India, let us not forget an important name,Yusuf Curmally, whose family owns Rhythm House, the oldest and best business establishment that sells music in Bombay. His younger brother still runs it. He was one of the founders, including Coover Guzder, Niranjan Jhaveri,Soli Sorabjee,Jehangir Dalal,Praful Mehta,of the group that was at the heart of jazz in Mumbai. Blue Rhythm, also published a great magazine by that name, whose attractive logo of a jazz guitarist was designed by a talented Parsi artist, Mehli Gobhai,(he has returned to India and now lives in Mumbai) whose mastery of line was as good as that of the great David Stone Martin, who graced so many jazz covers, particularly at Verve. Yusuf made possible the sale of jazz records in difficult times and I still remember that it was at Rhythm House that I first heard(with my partner in jazz crime Sorab Mehta) the legendary John Coltrane (who was later to become a good friend) on a Miles Davis recording('Round MIdnight on UK Philips) that Yusuf had somehow managed to import and strongly recommended to me. Broke as used to be I bought two copies because I knew that I was going to use up the first one by constant hearings. I can still remember the smell of the sawdust that hung in the air in the new cubicles that Yusuf had just installed at Rhythm House, the first to allow us to hear LPs in Bombay before buying them. He was the quiet but important "detail" man in the Blue Rhythm group, which issued some 78 records, including one of a UK based jazz group led by a vibraphonist (Victor Feldman) who later went on to the USA to make a name for himself, whom they had arranged to come to Bombay for concerts at the Taj Mahal Hotel. Yusuf encouraged us next generation jazz fans to indulge in our love of this strange and devilishly attractive music with a beat, by making it available in his shop. Yusuf later went on to a most successful career in business with the Ciba Group and ran their worldwide fertliser business, if I remember right, from Switzerland. He is now retired, and lives with his lovely wife, Rashida, in Basel. I am copying him on this message so that he can contribute some memories if he has the time. Talking of Coover Guzder, my modern jazz guru, before he died, had put together one of the greatest collections of Charlie Parker recordings in the world. Because of the generosity of his wife, Malini, who I believe resides in Bangalore, this collection is now housed in the Al Cohn Jazz Museum near Philadelphia. There are so many unsung heroes in this continuing story!

Promodh Malhotra

WHY BLUE RHYTHM ?

In the 1950's ,several young jazz fiends in Bombay started the first club and only jazz "magazine" in India. The magazine was called Blue Rhythmm.. From what I hear, it was a mimeographed broadsheet that included record reviews, observations on the genre, and even reviews of local musicians. It would be great to see a copy of this on this site !

Yusuf Curmally, Coover Guzder, Niranjan Jhaveri,Soli Sorabjee,Jahangir Dalal, Praful Mehta Farrokh Mehta, were the founders of this passion fuelled mission. Here is what Farrokh has to say about the club:

"......is how the jazz club idea took root in the late 40's and 50's in Bombay. There were Sunday afternoon jam sessions in a building (warehouse?) on what is now P D'mello Road. Rusi Captain (fabulous and ahead of his time) on the piano, Rusi Sethna on the clarinet, Dhun Nasikwala (drums). The "visitors" included Noman Mobsby (divine tenor sax) and even Rudy Cotton on a couple of occasions. The audience? A handful of jazz junkies.

Beyond this, there was life with Norman Mobsby with Dizzy Sal (piano) at the Ambassador Hotel, still standing close to the sea. We were broke enough to sit with one coffee for a full hour from6.30 to 7.30 before the moneyed dinner-clients came and we were then politely booted out. The coffee was passable and, for us then, expensive; the jazz -- mostly in response to our passionate cries -- was fabulous. And at Volga Restauarant (long converted into shops!) at Fountain, Sunday mornings were jam session time with Mickey Correa (clarinet), Hal Green (tenor sax) as "guests".

The beauty of it was that we were all broke and could afford one or maybe two coffees. But we were a helluva audience, enthusing the musicians who otherwise were pestered with "dance requests" by the hoi polloi.

Aahh ! them were the days!!!!!!!"

Farrokh