JAZZ BY BOMBAY

Bands performed regularly at Eros, Regal, Metro and Strand (now movie theatres). During the colonial times, Radio Ceylon was a popular radio station that played the best music of its time by motivated and budding musicians.

One of the most remembered concerts in Bombay during the ’50s was the Benny Goodman show at Excelsior Theatre near VT Station. Inspired Indian jazz bands led by Cyril Sequeira, Guddy Sarvai, Ken Mack, Hal Green, Chic Chocolate and Johnny Baptist played tribute to Benny Goodman (born 1909 in Chicago), the legendary jazz clarinetist. Other well known Indians like Chris Perry and Lorna Cordeiro, Joe Pereira (better known as ‘Jazzy Joe’), Braz Gonsalves and Edward Saldana (better known as ‘Dizzy Sal’), Ronnie Monserrate, Toni Pinto, Leon Abbey. In fact, world renowned American pianist Dave Brubeck heard Dizzy Sal play and offered him a free scholarship at the Berkeley College of Music in Boston, USA. Dizzy later went on to become the leader of the international jazz quintet at the Newport festival.

The musicians I met have fond memories of restaurants and coffee shops in Bombay where bands performed live throughout the day during the ’60s. Churchgate was a popular jazz destination, bands played at Hotel Astoria’s famous Venice restaurant, the Ritz Hotel, the Airlines Hotel, Gaylord, the Ambassador Hotel, Talk of the Town (now Not Just Jazz by the Bay), Berrys (present day Mocha), Bistro and Volgas at Fountain, the Taj, Alibaba at Colaba were some of the hotspots. Several musicians began their careers at Bombellis; once a restaurant at Churchgate. At the far end, just across from today’s Not Just Jazz by the Bay was bistro Napoli that had no live band, but had Bombay’s first and only juke box. Bands also performed at the Oberoi, the Nataraj on Marine Drive, the Shalimar at Kemp’s Corner, the Sundowner at the Sun ‘n’ Sand, restaurants like the Blue Nile at New Marine Lines and the second Bombelli’s at Worli.

Jazz gradually lost its popularity after India attained independence. Pop and dance music became the ‘in’ thing amongst youngsters. Rock bands like the Beatles and the Beach Boys had by then become extremely popular in the West. A majority of the jazz musicians in India were forced to play pop. While some lost their jobs, others worked in recording studios, composed music for film soundtracks that had to be performed by orchestras, or found openings abroad. The era of live performances was diminishing and was being taken over by recorded music.