There is a nip in the air and that means the Congo Square JazzFest is ready to let it rip. This year’s fest –– supported by the American Center, Goethe Institut, Fonds Podium Kunsten Performing Arts Fund NL and The Embassy of Netherlands –– will be held between November 29 and December 1 at The Dalhousie Institute. Congo Square is a non-profit society that was formed in 2002 to promote jazz and blues in India. Members of the organisation had earlier powered Jazzfest from 1978 to 1982. They returned to their first love –– jazz and blues –– with six concerts in 2003.

November 29

Milan Svoboda Quartet

His composing and conducting skills cover jazz, musicals, film, theatre and contemporary classical music. Born in Prague, he has written the music for an original musical based on Boris Vian’s novel The Foam of the Days, the full-length ballet Mowgli, feature films like Karel Kachyna’s The Last Butterfly and Samuel Fuller’s The Day Of Reckoning, and much more.

Milan to t2: “India represents for me a spiritual place. As I’m getting older, I’m more and more aware of the spiritual scale of the human existence. And the traditional Indian music plays a very remarkable role in the spirituality.”

Band members: Milan Svoboda (piano), Milan Krajic (saxophone), Filip Splaney (bass), Ivan Audes (drums)

Carlos Bica and Azul Trio

Carlos Bica is known for his “lyrical tone” on the double bass, making him a master at composing melodies with words. He will be in town with his trio Azul. His musical influences include Bach, Stravinsky, Bill Evans, James Brown, Keith Jarrett, Jimi Hendrix... whew!

Carlos to t2: “To have success is to have beautiful experiences without a big effort.... Our first live concert was 21 years ago, the first Azul record came out in 1996 and I feel very lucky that we are still playing together as a band.”

Band members: Carlos Bica (acoustic bass), Frank Mobus (guitar), Jim Black (drums)

November 30

Prasanna & the Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music Faculty Band

A well-known performer of Carnatic music on the guitar and an acclaimed guitarist in contemporary jazz, rock and blues, Prasanna is also the founder-president of Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music. He has composed music for the 2009 Oscar-winning Smile Pinki.

Prasanna to t2: “When I was 19, I composed a song called Peaceful one morning when I woke up at Bhopal train station while on a journey to Delhi. That one song has endeared me to more fans than anything else! It was this traditional-sounding Carnatic composition in ragas Mohanam and Kiravani that sounded somewhere in between Santana, Joe Satriani and Allman Brothers Band. I was starting to sound like myself in my writing and playing. From then on, it was just pushing myself to discover myself in a deep and heartfelt way.”

Band members: Prasanna (guitars/vocals), Arcoiris Sandoval (piano), Steve Zerlin (bass), Karina Colis (drums)

Aakash Mittal Quintet with Jayanthi Bunyan

Aakash Mittal has performed across the world –– The Dakota (Minneapolis), The Cultural Center of Chicago, The Blue Room (Kansas City) and Dazzle Jazz Club (Denver). As a sideman, Mittal has performed in Calcutta with Pandit Tanmoy Bose’s Taal Tantra, and with the music ensemble Kendraka. He is currently in India with a Creative & Performing Arts Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies.

Aakash to t2: “Since 2010 I have been exploring harmonic ideas that do not exactly fit within the traditional jazz vocabulary. These sounds are sometimes dense and dissonant as well as open and intervallic. They, however, don’t fit into typical western tonality. I am interested in pushing myself to reach beyond traditional vocabulary and focus on the sound itself and the emotional content within it. I have also been working toward using Hindustani vocabulary in much more subtle ways. These Hindustani elements are much more hidden but still effect the overall aesthetic of the music.”

Band members: Aakash Mittal (saxophones), Payton McDonald (vibraphone), Nishad Pandey (guitar), Chandramouli Biswas (bass) and Gaurab Chatterjee (drums)

Tickets are available online at www.indianstage.com and at the venue from November 27. Daily ticket: Rs 300; season ticket: Rs 750