The Brown Indian Band Storms Goa!

The Brown Indian Band took the 35th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) by storm with a performance that blurred boundaries North, South, East and West.

The band led by bassist Colin D'Cruz, comprises Leonard Heredia on the keyboards, Scot Amstrong and Yvonne Gonsalves on vocals, Jayson Jones on the saxophone and Lester Godinho on the drums. The band was joined by South Indian musicians including the celebrated S. Harikumar on the carnatic violin, Ramdas NK on the tavil and TR Parameshwaran on the ghattam. Representing North Indian music were Dhiraj Kapadia on the flute, Yograj Borkar on the sitar and Saish Deshpande on the tabla.
The concert started a little later than could be described as stylish. It started off with an Indian classical recital by Kapadia, Borkar and Deshpande. Since the event had been billed as a jazz concert many in the audience stood up and walked away. Sadly, bad planning on the part of the event managers ensured that the crowd had thinned substantially by the time the South Indian musicians-Harikumar, Ramdas and Parameshwaran took centre stage.

A little bit of information on 24 year old wiz kid Harikumar: he has received dozens of awards including 'The most outstanding young violinist' which was given by former president KR Narayan. But his greatest gift is that of being able to play with jazz ensembles where he fits in effortlessly. Working the strings of his violin he sounds like a one man orchestra and when paired with the saxophone the result is simply divine. With the North and South done with it was time for the jazz musicians to take over. The group performed "Morning Dance," an instrumental song called "Equinox," "Brazilian Love Affair," "Love for sale" and Braz Gonsalves' popular track "Beautiful Goa."

After the intermission all the musicians came together in a fusion of East and West driving the audience, many of who had returned to their seats, wild with excitement. The performance drew a huge applause.

For more information on the Goa jazz scene, visit www.jazzgoa.com.