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| Shawn Lane (left) and Andrea Marchesini in the city last year. A memorial show will be held for Lane. Picture by Rashbehari Das |
It’s time for all that jazz again. The erstwhile, extremely successful JazzFest is being revived in a new avatar thanks to the untiring efforts of the same bunch of jazz and blues lovers that made those unforgettable festivals happen. Jazz Blues & Beyond 2004 (Dalhousie Institute, January 22-25), an “international festival of world music” organised by Congo Square will showcase a scintillating line-up of distinguished musicians from Sweden, Norway, Germany, Italy, Bangladesh, the Netherlands and Turkey besides India.
Tanmoy Bose’s Taaltantra (featuring Taufique Quereshi, Jon Von Clevitz, Kai Bruckner, Andreas Weiser among others) brings up the curtain (January 22). Bangla, the hugely talented fusion group from Bangladesh is up next, anchored by the deep and mesmerising vocals of Anusheh and creating a timbre “that will sustain the transcendental charm of eastern words and simultaneously projecting a very haunting ensemble of western rhythm”. She is complemented by Buno on bass, Arnab (keyboards, guitar, vocals), Tipu (percussion), Kartik (guitar) and Shantanu (drums).
The highlight of Day Two, and indeed the festival, is the Shawn Lane Memorial Concert when Jonas Hellborg & Friends will do the first gig in memory of the departed guitar guru in Calcutta. Hellborg, considered one of the five best bassists in the world, who has collaborated with the likes of John McLaughlin (Mahavishnu Orchestra), Michael Shrieve and Ginger Baker, had performed in the city with Lane, V. Selvaganesh and Andrea Marchesini last year at Congo Square’s inaugural concert.
Dutch bassist Hans Mantel and his quartet will keep the audience in groove with their “direct intelligent lines and big sound” before Hellborg & Friends take the stage.
Thomas Wallisch and Oli Bott present their outstanding interplay of guitar and vibraphone to kick off the third day, with Norway's leading and most idiomatic jazz singer Karin Krog and her trio bringing up the rear.
The final evening will see the Italian troika, Emtrio (Andrea Marchesini — drums, Alessio Menconi — guitar and Pippo Matino – bass) set the tone with their strong musicianship, feel and sensibility. The grand finale features the redoubtable Rena Rama Quartet/Oriental Wind, one of Europe’s foremost bands, which played at the 1978 Calcutta JazzFest.
Started in Stockholm in 1973, the Swedish-Turkish group features Lennart Aberg (saxophones & flute), Bobo Stenson (piano), Palle Danielsson (double bass), who had electrified the audience with a lacerating solo during a power-cut at the first JazzFest in the city, Anders Kjellberg (drums) and Okay Temiz (persussion).
Members of Rena Rama & Oriental Wind have collaborated with Indian classical music icons like Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shivkumar Sharma and Zakir Hussain.
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Soumitra Chatterjee is turning 70. And the film industry is gearing up to doff the hat to its elder statesman.
An elaborate script has been penned for the birthday celebrations on January 19. On the big day, Netaji Indoor Stadium will stage three sets — Sonar Kella and Jhinder Bandi on two sides as tributes to Feluda and Mayurbahan. In the centre will be the structure that Chatterjee himself had designed for his play Namjibon. “We are trying to present the man in all his creative aspects,” says Debabrata Chakrabarti, chief convenor of the programme suitably styled ‘Soumitra Sottor’. So the four-and-a-half hour show will encompass the actor, the stage personality as well as the elocutionist. Participants include Goutam Ghose, Madhabi Mukherjee, Lily Chakraborty, Mrinal Sen and Sunil Gangopadhyay. Film clippings spanning Chatterjee’s acting life from Apur Sansar to Dekha will punctuate the programme. A VCD on Kabi O Abrittikar Soumitra will be released.
The birthday boy will take the stage during a dance recital by Anjana Banerjee and her troupe and a song composed for the occasion by Chandan Roy Chowdhury. A huge cake has been ordered. And the chief minister will be there to felicitate the star of the evening.
In 1969-70, when Tareque Masud was seven, his father, a born-again-Muslim, sent him to study in a madarsa. He wanted to protect his son from the pagan influences of Faridpur, where Muslims would participate in boat races during Viswakarma puja. His mother was opposed to this rigid system of education and the film ultimately becomes a plea for religious tolerance.
In his autobiographical film Matir Moina (The Clay Bird), screened on Friday at Gorky Sadan, Masud sees through the eyes of a child those volatile times in former East Pakistan, when the mullahs felt threatened and there was a growing rift between the ultra-secular and orthodox sections of society.
The film has already won the International Critics’ Prize at Cannes 2002, besides the award for best screenplay at the Marakesh International Film Festival. Bangladesh was initially uneasy about the sensitive subject the film tackled and banned it. Masud ascribes the knee-jerk reaction to post-9/11 paranoia. But subsequently it became the first Bangladeshi film to be shortlisted for the Oscars.
In December 2003, when it was screened in Pakistan, there was expectedly much opposition as the film was about the nationalist movement in Bangladesh. But when people saw it at the Kara International Film Festival “they loved it”, says director Masud, in Calcutta for the screening. There it bagged the awards for best film, best music (Calcutta’s Moushumi Bhowmik was music director) and best cinematography (Sudheer Palsane of Mumbai).
Masud says the child in Matir Moina looks at the predicament he is in with a questioning eye but without being judgmental.
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| Santa’s long gone, but the spirit lingers. Designer Kiran Uttam Ghosh spends time with the inmates of CINI Asha’s home in Poilan, showing them samples from her recent collection Kilim. Proceeds from the sales of the collection will be donated to the NGO’s ‘adopt a mother, save a child’ project. Picture by Aranya Sen |
It’s a fashion, arts & crafts extravaganza — and all for a good cause. The Pride of Bengal show, on January 11 and 12, organised by Rotary Club of Calcutta Chowringhee, will showcase some of the best in designer wear, handicrafts and creativity from Bengal, by artisans, organisations and big names.
To be inaugurated by first lady Anjanaben Shah, at ITC Sonar Bangla on Sunday morning, the stalls will feature creations from Sabyasachi Mukherjee to art galleries.
The proceeds raised from the event will be utilised for the social service activities of the club, such as polio eradication, paediatric heart surgery, rural development and residential and resource centres for vulnerable children.
It’s suddenly time to return to school or college, to catch up with old friends and make new ones. Here’s a rundown of the reunion weekend around town:
k Alumnorum Societas is hosting its 26th Reunion nite “showcasing the fervour and zeal of Alsoc members in their service to St Xavier’s School and to society at large”, with an evening of fun and feasting. The spotlight will be on singer Shane Hyrapiet and his dance troupe, along with DJ Jimmy Tangree. The time: 7 pm on Saturday. The venue: the St Xaviers grounds.
k On Sunday, 10.30 am onwards, it’s get-together time at the English department of Jadavpur University. The registration fee is Rs 100. T-shirts are also on offer for an event that is taking place after a decade.
k Joining in the mood are the old boys and girls of South Point. They meet at International Club on Saturday, 6 pm onwards. Lakkhichhara will perform.
