Aakash Mittal at DI. Picture: Rashbehari Das

Aakash Mittal is no stranger to Calcutta. The Colorado-based musician’s latest album, Ocean, is in many ways inspired by the city.

Aakash, who is in India with a Creative & Performing Arts Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies, will perform at this year’s Congo Square JazzFest 2013 –– supported by the American Center, Goethe Institut, Fonds Podium Kunsten Performing Arts Fund NL and The Embassy of Netherlands –– on November 30. His quintet will also feature Payton McDonald (vibraphone), Nishad Pandey (guitar), Chandramouli Biswas (bass) and Gaurab Chatterjee (drums); guest artiste is Jayanthi Bunyan. A t2 chat.

Tell us about your India connect…

My father was originally from New Delhi and my mother is American. In some ways I am part of the Indian-American experience and have tried to bring that to my music. Pandit Tanmoy Bose is close to my family in Chicago. When I showed an interest in Hindustani music, Tanmoyda very generously let me live with his family and introduced me to my guru Prattyush Banerjee.

Since your first Congo Square JazzFest outing in 2010, in what ways has the Aakash Mittal sound evolved?

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. However, they 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 towards using Hindustani vocabulary in much more subtle ways. These Hindustani elements are much more hidden but still affect the overall aesthetic of the music.

How much of your new album, Ocean, will be featured in your gig? And what is the concept behind it?

We will perform the new album, Ocean, in its entirety at the jazz festival. Ocean documents numerous compositions I have written from late 2009 through 2012. During that time I had some incredible experiences living in Calcutta and studying Hindustani music. The album opens with a suite of tunes inspired by that experience. The title track was inspired by a trip I made to the Pacific Northwest. There the ocean is not the bright and sunny ocean of tropical India but the grey moody ocean of Washington. All of the tunes have been inspired by various places, spaces, and environments I have been in since 2009.

The tracks Ballygunge Crossing, Rash Behari Ave. and Hazra Road… what’s so special about these places?

These are streets and roads that I travelled regularly to arrive for my music classes. Each location had a different feeling and vibe to it. Many of the notes and rhythms were notes that I sung while walking to or from my lessons. I wanted to capture the experience of taking this route in the music. In retrospect, I wish I had included something about Gariahat market. In 2009 I was new to Calcutta and lumped Gariahat market in with Ballygunge, so the tune became Ballygunge Crossing.

You had recorded the album with your quartet and Ron Miles. What are the challenges in replicating the sounds on Ocean minus the original people?

One of my favourite aspects of jazz is playing the same music with different artistes and letting them bring their own voices and experiences to the music. I don’t want my Calcutta band to sound like my Colorado band. I want them to sound like themselves. In this sense the challenge is to be authentic to the sound of this new band in Calcutta while using the compositions as vehicles for expression. It forces me to discover what the essence of each piece of music is and how I can keep that with a different band.

What kind of music did you listen to growing up?

The first music I listened to on my own was the swing revival bands of the 1990s. My favourite band at that time was the Royal Crown Revue. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was also a favourite. I started listening to traditional and avant-garde jazz at the age of 14 and Hindustani classical at 16. I discovered hip-hop, rock and pop much later which makes me feel like I’m always catching up.

You’ve always moved around jazz but are there any other genres you would like to explore?

Honestly, I am most interested in breaking away from this concept of genre altogether. While I was attending a workshop with pianist Vijay Iyer in Banff, Canada, he said that genres just represent communities of people and have been invented to sell records. What Vijay said really resonated with me as I had an intuition about this but was never able to articulate it. I want to work within communities of people and create music that is relevant to the modern world and an expression of these communities.

Don’t miss your date with Milan Svoboda Quartet

Aakash Mittal at DI. Picture: Rashbehari Das

Acclaimed jazz pianist and band leader Milan Svoboda is all set to perform at Congo Square JazzFest 2013, in association with t2, with his band featuring Milan Krajic (saxophone), Filip Splaney (bass) and Ivan Audes (drums). Here’s what he told t2 before the concert.

Having a quartet, what are the main artistic challenges?

The biggest challenge is to narrate our stories and fantasies with the communicative co-players through improvisation, which is played at the moment... right here, right now.

Open-air to clubs... how do you see the connection between sound and space?

In my opinion, the best place for playing modern jazz is a full jazz club. I like the close contact with the audience. But playing on a big stage for a large audience is also very impressive.

What inspired you to start playing the piano?

My inspiration was my musically-educated family and also the Czech musical tradition. In the domain of jazz piano, my inspiration comes from the possibility of a free expression and the related fantasy.

Tell us about your relationship with your audience… do you feel you play to entertain, inspire or challenge them?

I prefer comprehensible but original music with the attribute of communication, where there’s a large space, enabling to share personal expressions and emotions.

What do you do when you get a writer’s block?

Oh, that is a well-known feeling! Sometimes it helps to have a deadline. At the moment there is no time for writer’s block.

Your take on the music of India in general, besides jazz?

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

Milan Svoboda will perform at DI on November 29 from 8.30pm

Mathures Paul

Aakash Mittal will perform at DI on November 30 from 6.30pm