The NCPA Jazz Festival 2023, presented from 24th to 26th November at the Tata Theatre, featured artistes from the U.S., Germany, Cuba, Spain and Canada, in keeping with the international flavour the genre represents. A fair cross section of styles of jazz were part of the festival, including a big band, Cuban (Latin) jazz, the great American songbook and a piano-led quartet, which catered to the varied tastes of the discerning Mumbai audiences.

A big band has a powerful, wholesome sound but staging such an outfit involves considerable logistics and expense. Such bands are thus a luxury and make only rare appearances at jazz festivals. The NCPA brought the 16-member Thilo Wolf Big Band from Germany as the opening act of its International Jazz Festival. The band comprised three trumpets, three trombones, four saxophones plus the rhythm section of the leader, Thilo Wolf on piano, an upright bass and drums. Two vocalists and a vibraphone player were added on for the event. They set the mood for their set by opening with Billy Strayhorn’s classic ‘Take the “A” Train’ followed by Wolf’s composition ‘Captain Cook’, an up-tempo piece with a nice beat. Norbert Nagel played a pleasing clarinet solo on this piece. 

The vibraphone is a rarity in contemporary jazz, and it was a pleasant surprise to hear one featured with the band. Florian Bührich played ‘It Had to be You’ and Henry Mancini’s ‘Charade’ from the film of the same name.

A jazz big band typically has a vocalist in tow. Wolf brought two. Johanna Iser, who accompanied Wolf on a previous visit here, sang two jazz classics, ‘When I Fall in Love’ and Duke Ellington’s ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing’ with a clever vocal riff from Woody Herman’s famous ‘Four Brothers’ thrown in. At this point, the band, powered as it were by an eight-cylinder powerful engine, shifted into third gear and played some untypical big band jazz with some pop songs. A second vocalist, Torsten Goods, was also part of the ensemble. The duo sang ‘Sunny’, a popular song from the 1960s and ’70s. Goods then sang Van Morrison’s ‘Have I Told You Lately’ and Iser sang a Stevie Wonder song. Goods brought out his guitar and did George Benson’s funky version of ‘On Broadway’ and the entire ensemble then combined to play Wolf’s composition ‘Masala Coke’, which has a nice blues feel about it. Overall, this was an enjoyable set but perhaps tapering off into music which did not fully utilise the big band sound.

New Orleans may have been the place where jazz was born but it lives quite vibrantly in New York. The 24 square miles of Manhattan has arguably the best jazz anywhere. Emmet Cohen and his quartet amply demonstrated this vibrancy. Cohen is a fine young jazz pianist who combines his skill with a deep knowledge and respect for the long history of jazz and its players. Backed by Philip Norris on acoustic bass and the brilliant Kyle Poole on drums, Cohen began his set, warming up with a couple of fluid trio renditions before inviting the fourth band member, Benny Benack III, to join the proceedings. Benack is a vocalist and trumpet player. Beginning with ‘Old Devil Moon’, Benack sung very clever, seemingly improvised lyrics on Duke Ellington’s ‘In a Mellow Tone’. After the standard ‘What’s New’, Benack dug into Billy Joel’s ‘Just the Way You Are’. 

Charlie Parker’s ‘Barbados’, rarely heard in recent times, was given a slow, Latin treatment with Benack playing the trumpet, after which he broke into a Christmas song. Benack again turned to vocalese where he manipulated the lyrics to the jazz standard ‘Pennies from Heaven’. His version was a tongue-in cheek ‘Bennie’s from Heaven’, and the humour was not lost on the audience.

The high point of the session was Cohen’s composition, ‘You Already Know’, played with Benack on the trumpet. An upbeat improvisation, this rendition displayed the individual skills of the quartet, with delicate exchanges between Cohen and his sophisticated and understated drummer Poole who seemed to be working as if by telepathy to match the beats. Bassist Philip Norris amply demonstrated subtlety in his playing throughout. He led the playing of the old standard ‘Tea for Two’ with support from Cohen and Poole. 

The Alfredo Rodriguez Trio was one of two bands that performed on the last day. The band members were Michael Olivera from Cuba on drums and Jesús Bachiller from Spain on bass guitar. Rodriguez is a talented pianist with a floral style and his Latin jazz roots are considerably influenced by music from Puerto Rico, Latin pop and salsa apart from his native Cuba. The trio played original compositions ‘Yemaya’ and ‘Coral Way’ and involved the audience in the singing of the standard ‘Bésame Mucho’ from Consuelo Velasquez.

They later played their version of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. The connection was the arranger Quincy Jones, who has mentored Rodriguez and was associated with Jackson’s landmark album of the same name. The trio also played some popular tunes made famous by Cuban bands, including ‘The Peanut Vendor’ and ‘Guantanamera’ to conclude an eclectic set of music.

American vocalist Jane Monheit closed the festival with a string of songs from the mainstream American songbook. Acknowledging the influence of Ella Fitzgerald in her singing, Monheit sang ‘Too Close for Comfort’, ‘Honeysuckle Rose’, ‘Over the Rainbow’, ‘Cheek to Cheek’ and a couple of Brazilian songs including ‘Waters of March’, among others. She had an impressive quartet of musicians in support, with Max Haymer on piano, Karl McComas-Reichl on upright bass, Rick Montalbano on drums and the fine tenor saxophone of Joel Frahm. The saxophone complemented Monheit’s singing perfectly. 

The festival was played to full houses on all three days, a testament to the popularity and success of the NCPA International Jazz Festival which has been a regular feature of Mumbai’s music scene since 2011.