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The South African beat... in Delhi
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MADHUR TANKHA speaks to Jazzy B trying to jazz up the pop music scene in the Capital... .
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IT SEEMS every Indian musician settled on foreign shores looks to the burgeoning Indian market to make his album a hit. Hailing from Punjab, Jazzy B - his real name is Jaswinder Singh Bains - was a mere boy of seven when his father, an agriculturist moved base to Vancouver, in Canada. Today this new singer on the firmament of Punjabi pop has a fan following stretching from the rustic belts of Punjab to London to Vancouver. But appreciation hasn't got to his head.
Sitting on the edge of a sofa in a suite at New Delhi's Hotel Le Meridien this past week, he looks slightly nervous. A gargantuan gold Khanda, made not in Punjab but England, dangles on his chest. A kada shines on his wrist. Is it from the hallowed precincts of the Golden Temple, one inquisitively queries him. "No, not from there. Nevertheless I am a highly religious person. I bow to God before I walk to the stage to do a live performance and I prostrate before Him before retiring to bed." Does this mean that he is a devout Sikh more interested that non-Indians turn to Sikhism than belting out numbers? Brooding for some time, he says, "No, this is not my mission but yes I am proud of my religion and want people not acquainted with the teaching of this great religion to know about it."
About his latest music album, `Tera Roop' - which took eight months to complete and was released at Fahrenheit in New Delhi this past week -- Jazzy B says, "We have made the album in South Africa. It took me 24 hours to go to this southern most country in Africa. It wasn't difficult to sing on the streets of Cape Town."
Jazzy B is being promoted by Tips and Sukhshinder Shinda is the music producer. One points out to him that since his English itself is so heavily accented how can Westerners comprehend his Punjabi lyrics? Jazzy B says, "Foreigners may not be able to understand anything but they relate to the beat and hum lyrics. Even Lata Mangeshkar songs are lifted, there are foreign music albums which plagiarise our music partially from vocalists, tabla players and other instrumentalists."
What is his driving force? Jazzy B says, "My role model has always been Kuldeep Manak. He has been my idol and we kept bumping into each other during weddings and birthday bashes. He initiated me into Punjabi pop."
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