Drums and eardrums

The concert was loud, it started late and there were no chairs to sit on

JAZZING IT UP The Jonas Hellborg trio tossed off some astonishingly inventive melodic improvisations Photo: Murali Kumar K.

There was standing room only at this jazz concert last week. And not because the concert venue was packed. It just so happens that whether by accident or by design the organisers held it in a bar where, except for a few sofas scattered around the edges, there usually aren't any seats. And none were brought in for the benefit of the crowd that waited patiently for the concert to start and listened through it.

Patiently is right, because it broke this listener's record for late starting. Half an hour is par for the course in jazz performances in Bangalore, but this one was an hour late.

Luckily for me, a fellow-listener offered me a one-third share in a sofa, perhaps out of deference for my age. Perhaps, if she had any way of knowing, consideration for my varicose veins. But that meant that for most of the time I had to content myself with listening, unable to see the faces of the Jonas Hellborg trio (Hellborg on electric bass guitar, Ia Eklundh on electric guitar and Morgen Agren on drums) from Sweden — the land of "polar bears walking the streets and cheap pornography", as the genuinely funny Eklundh described it.

And then when the music started, it was loud. Eklundh, speaking on behalf of the trio, informed us that was their intention, and that it was going to get louder, so I can't blame the Windsor Manor or Seagram's 100 Pipers for the exact number of thousands of decibels that were packed into the small room.

All of which makes it pretty difficult for me to put aside my personal taste and try to evaluate the concert objectively. Because my personal taste is not particularly indulgent towards jazz-rock, which is what the fare served up was. But if I stand back and try to look at it, forgetting the electronic squeals and wails from the guitar and even the very loud beat maintained by the drums, both among the reasons for my distressing failure to warm to jazz-rock, these three musicians played very well.

Hellborg and Eklundh, sometimes alternating and occasionally together, tossed off some astonishingly inventive melodic improvisations. They were fluent, they were very skilled, and the melodies could be beautiful. Besides, they'd clearly diligently studied music from around the world and worked in influences that ranged from Romanian folk to Carnatic. Except that even the Carnatic was overlaid with the loud rock treatment.

Even Agren's drumming, on the one occasion when he took a solo during the hour I listened to them, showed he could use a quieter, more jazz-based technique if he wanted to and the quieter he got the more I could pay attention to the beauty of his drumming. But just when I was adding my appreciation of his abilities to the credit side of the ledger, it was time for me to call it a day.

I had a prior engagement — sleep and the preservation of my eardrums. But I must mention that the credit side included the pleasant chat I had with Charlie Mariano, who'll be performing today at the inauguration of the new building of Max Mueller Bhavan. Watch this space! And if you can make it, be there. I think you'll hear some good jazz.

JAZZEBEL

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