Soul Yatra-Indian Jazz Ambassadors

Mumbai based jazz ensemble Soul Yatra is back after a very successful
Asia-Pacific tour. Appointed as the Indian ambassadors of jazz by Hennessy XO,
Soul Yatra has now been signed on as brand ambassadors and will perform several
international events for Hennessy over the next two years. This is heartening
news indeed for Indian jazz artistes who have been struggling for decades to
find a voice in the international jazz arena. Jazz may have originated in
America but today this form of improvised music is widely being accepted as the
global sound of music. Jazz has always been alive and evolving drawing from
worldwide cultures in its journey towards global acceptance. Indian classical
musicians in particular, have made a huge contribution to jazz since Indian
classical music is all about improvisation-the keyword to jazz.Soul Yatra’s four country Asia-Pacific tour kicked off in Taipei, Taiwan on the
7th and 8th of October. The band performed at the very stylish nightclub of the
Taipei Sheraton hotel to a surprisingly receptive audience. Testing overseas
waters for the first time Soul Yatra stuck to traditional straight-ahead jazz.
The next two concerts on the 10th and 11th were in Seoul, South Korea where the
band got the opportunity to perform at ‘Once in a Blue Moon’ jazz club that’s
listed among the world’s best bars. The band’s original indo-jazz fusion tunes
made a big impression on the jazz connoisseurs in the audience. Next on the
itinerary was Shanghai, China where the band literally rocked the boat on board
a luxury yacht which was the venue on the 12th and 13th. The Shanghai crowd let
their hair down to some swinging sounds of Latin jazz from Soul Yatra. The final leg of the tour wound up in Malaysia at the Kuala
Lumpur Hilton’s ‘Zeta’ bar on the 17th and 18th. Bollywood is big in Malaysia
and what tickled the audience the most here, was the band’s jazz interpretations
of some popular Bollywood hits.