His academic training is in math (Dartmouth College and the University of Illinois, USA) and his thinking about jazz is ?cutting-edge?. At 39, Madhav Chari is arguably the country?s greatest jazz pianist-musician-composer, and one of India?s strongest figures in the international music world. His philosophy remains simple: use jazz music as a template and reach out with an interdisciplinary viewpoint.

Chari, who started the first-ever jazz and modern music outreach programme in India with his hometown Chennai as the focus in 2004, is keen to replicate the project in Calcutta, where he spent the first 19 years of his life. ?Jazz music was too niche even 40 years ago, and this interdisciplinary model is aimed at touching a wider audience,? he explains. The various venues/platforms for the outreach programme are Montessori schools (?I even teach the kids African polyrhythms?), colleges and institutions, performances and lecture demos/workshops.

This is also the ?most comprehensive music outreach programme within India?, integrating multiple disciplines and viewpoints, even using music as a ?unique pathway? to understand creativity. Corporate and institutional sponsorship willing, the virtuoso pianist is confident he can bring this interdisciplinary-viewpoint project to Calcutta, which ?has the cutting edge because of its egalitarian perspective?.

Chari feels Calcutta has an ?amazing? talent pool and a ?most discerning? music audience. ?All it needs is an intense window like we have with the Carnatic music fest in Chennai, where all the energy can be focused into one high-octane frame. It has put Chennai on the world music-tourism map and a structured effort can do likewise with Calcutta,? he says.

?Both Chennai and Calcutta have international cultural profiles and perspectives, but not even one-tenth of the collective potential of both the cities has been exploited. By linking music with diverse disciplines and elements like dance, storytelling, creativity, cognition, spirituality, architecture, history or intellect, we can develop a common language and achieve a powerful connect,? he adds.

Chari has studied and interacted musically with six-time Grammy nominee Kenny Barron, saxophonist composer Henry Threadgill, and more recently with multiple Grammy-winning and Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz composer Wynton Marsalis. He has performed extensively abroad, working with jazz legends Max Roach, Lester Bowie, Ed Thigpen (who was Oscar Peterson?s drummer in the early 60s), saxophonist-composer Chico Freeman and Grammy winners Carlos Gomez and David Murray. ?Music has to be a healing therapy, and for that to happen the form must come from a high consciousness, delivered with high energy that comes from within, like a Coltrane or a Vilayat Khan,? stresses Chari, who is working on a book on music and consciousness.

The jazz artiste is scheduled to return to the city at least thrice this year, following his Friday evening solo recital of Duke Ellington?s works at the Calcutta School of Music. The Madhav Chari Trio (also featuring Adrian D? Souza on drums and Karl Peters on guitars) will perform at Someplace Else on August 5. ?I?ll come back in end-August for a WorldSpace project at Gyan Manch where I?ll demonstrate the deep connect between language and music,? he declares. In October, he will perform in Calcutta again as part of a pan-India tour with a jazz group from France presented by the French ministry of culture, followed by a live CD recording of the group performing in Paris.