Carnatic-jazz is not everybody’s cup of coffee. But me, I am guilty of enjoying it more than getting mad at it, though I admit some fusion attempts of this at-first-glance-disparate-genres has made me pull out my few remaining hairs.
Here’s the thing: Carnatic music and jazz might have sprung out of greatly different wells but have curious meeting points — the free-form singing being the most obvious one, but there’s also the common aspect of laya (rhythm) that is at the crux of both genres.
So when Chennai-based fusion band Jatayu announced their new EP Moodswings, I had to check it out. The EP has four tracks, all of which showcase, well, the different moods that Carnatic-jazz is capable of (in the right hands, of course). The title track is my favourite, though Salad Days, the fourth track, has some cool drum sounds. Moodswings is very 2020; sometimes ebullient, sometimes morose, a string of poignancy running through it always. But, by the time you reach the middle of the track, you hear the distant riffs of the violin that carry within it a strange sort of hope...you barely dwell on it and the track reaches its conclusion. And that’s really my only quibble — should have been a tad longer, unlike last year.
(The EP is available on YouTube Music)
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