Mesmerised by all that jazz...

ORIGINAL TOUCH

Traffic Jam is a strange name for a band and Marcus Daniel, the pianist of the group, explained that they were not given much time to come up with something more musical. “I was asked to give a name for the band in eight hours. So instead of having a sleepless night, I just said the first thing that came to my mind,” he said. The band played at Alliance Francaise de Bangalore recently and the concert was a treat for all the lovers of jazz music in the City. The programme comprised Jazz standards as well as a few original compositions.

The other band members who were present during the concert were Kenneth Wilson on the bass guitar and Victor Francis on the drums. “Victor has been playing drums before we were even born,” joked Marcus while introducing the band. They started their performance with the the lively song Mercy Mercy Mercy. The audience, which included the children as well, clapped along with the song. The next number was Autumn Leaves and even though the performance was given without any vocals, no one seemed to miss those too much.

My Favourite Things and Girl from Ipanema followed next. The next number was Summertime to which they added their own twist. The audience took well to it as most of them returned for the second half of the programme. The next part of the concert had guest artistes like Sowmya Raghavan, Esther Daniel and Mohan Krishnan. It started with the song Baby Elephant Walk, which was played by Marcus on the piano. Sowmya followed the solo with the songs Broken Hallelujah and Dancing with a Stranger which had everyone glued to their seats.

Mohan K on the other hand, enthralled the audience with his guitar skills in the songs All the things you are and Blue Bossa. Some of the other really enjoyable numbers played during the concert were Help Me Love, Fly Me to the Moon, Maple Leaf Rag and My Funny Valentine.

The show came to an end with the rendition of the popular number All That Jazz, from the musical Chicago, by Sowmya R.