At the moment, the hills are certainly alive with the sounds of jazz. Jazzmandu 2015 is on full swing and as we have come to expect of them, this year too they have brought international artists and quality jazz to the capital to enthrall music fans. Ever since its conception, Navin Chettri, drummer and vocalist of Cadenza, has been a part of this annual festival. He not only helped cofound it but is also a regular fixture on the bill. So we thought there'd be no one better than Chettri to help us introduce some jazz to our playlist.
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Priyanka Gurung caught up with him in between his rehearsals for a chat and some recommendations.
Excerpts
Do you agree that jazz is an acquired taste? And how do you feel when people say that they don't understand or even like this genre of music?
You can't be impatient with jazz. There is a long and rich history behind this music thus it can be tricky to
comprehend or fall in love with it right off the bat. The thing with this genre of music though, is that you can
grow with it.
I was already 27/28 years old when I started immersing myself in jazz. I too grew up on a diet of hard metal and rock music. It's easy with these popular music because they are everywhere and simpler or catchier. It's only natural to find the mass favoring them. Jazz, on the other hand, takes a while to soak in.
I imagine your recording sessions aren't like the ordinary sessions.
Certainly, we don't use any track recordings. Everything is done live in the studio in one take. In case anybody in the band misses a beat, we start the whole thing all over again. So we have several go at a song and the recordings obviously sound different each time. There are lovely solos sometimes, a lot of interaction among the players as well. There is this essence of spontaneity that naturally helps build a vibe and energy that is crucial for jazz.
Despite the fact that Cadenza Collective was bringing a different sound to the masses, you achieved mainstream success. The band even won awards last year, but initially was there any kind of resistance from the public?
The public really embraced 'Back to the roots'. There weren't any instances where we had to urge for radio plays or more gigs. Our sounds might have been unusual for the Nepali audience at large but they all seemed to enjoy the groove of our record. Add to that the fact that we used Nepali lyrics was key to this mainstream success. It held people's attention and made them more curious. Usually we have expats coming to our shows but after our album, 'Back to the roots' started doing the rounds on the airwaves our audience grew significantly. We had already been playing these tunes for a long time in our live shows but after the album we had all these young Nepalis keen to dabble in jazz.
So as we go about the 13th edition of the biggest jazz party in the Himalayas, would you like to share your most memorable moment of Jazzmandu?
Playing at this festival is always a pleasure but there is this one moment that was extra special. It was perhaps the very first Jazzmandu back in 2002. We were going to play in Patan and I remember being very excited about the fact that we could collaborate with our traditional musicians. However as we were going about our performance, the lights suddenly went out. It was a load shedding problem. And back in 2002, we hadn't prepared ourselves for such hiccups. So it was pitch dark and there we were on stage with no solution in hand. The stress of the backstage crew was palpable.
But then it began with a drum solo. I started playing and swiftly other musicians too grabbed any other acoustic instrument like flutes, sax that was onstage and we began to jam. The performance was being salvaged and soon the locals around began lighting candles and lamps around the Patan venue. Everybody present including those of us on stage performing were in awe of the atmosphere. Nobody left. We probably played like that for 45 minutes.
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