The three-day festival of jazz and blues music at the Army Museum began yesterday amid immense anticipation in music aficionados. Here we present a close look at the four performers on the first day of the fest.
Imran Ahmed Quintet
The show opener Imran Ahmed Quintet is a Dhaka based jazz fusion ensemble who doesn’t want to be labeled under a particular genre. Led by guitarist Imran Ahmed, the quintet features Rahin Haidder on the saxophone, Apurba Mustafa on trombone, Mohaimin Karim on electric bass guitar, and Towfiq Arifin Turjo on drums.
Imran’s musical inspiration comes from jazz and Indian classical music. He is also a sharod player and studied music at Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music in Chennai.
Vasundhara Vidalur
Known more for her duo set up with guitar player Adil Manuel, Vasundhara has been singing professionally since 2004. She worked in professional choir set up for six years and collaborated with artists from France, Canada, the UK, Australia, China, Bulgaria as well as worked with numerous artists and bands in New Delhi.
Her duo called Adil and Vasundhara (alternatively called Higher Agency), active since 2009, performed all across and in India, France, Turkey, Bulgaria with their jazz/funk/soul set.
Shai Maestro Trio
Shai Maestro Trio was formed in July 2010 in Brooklyn after playing at maestro’s practice studio. The trio members are Peruvian bassist Jorge Roeder and Israeli drummer Ziv Ravitz. All reside in Brooklyn.
The trio went into the studio to record, only a few months after it’s beginning, their first album simply called “Shai Maestro Trio” for the French label “Laborie Jazz.”
Mike Flynn in Jazzwise Magazine wrote: “Maestro’s shimmering chords and dynamic build ups – always capped by whizzing piano and drum cross-currents from Ziv Ravitz – highlighted the pianist’s impassioned, emotionally rich compositions…”
John McLaughlin
It is impossible to exaggerate the massive stature and legendary status of John McLaughlin and any proper biography of this virtuoso player will easily fill up a whole book.
It will be easier to list the notable artists with whom he never played. Considered as the founding father of jazz fusion guitar, this is the first time McLaughlin is playing in Bangladesh.
A pioneering figure in not just guitar music but all of jazz and electric forms of western music, John McLaughlin also incorporated Indian classical, western classical, flamenco, and blues in his composition.
He played with legendary jazz musician and pioneer Miles Davis on his landmark electric jazz-fusion albums: In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew, A Tribute to Jack Johnson and On The Corner. McLaughlin also played with, in no particular order, Tony Williams, Zakir Hussain, Jaco Pasturious, Billy Cobham, Paco de Lucia, U Srinivas, Elvin Jones among many others.