A three-day jazz fusion fest was recently organised by the Bangalore School of Music. The event was a part of ‘Odyssey 2012’, a festival which marks the school’s 25th anniversary.

The third day of the festival, which was held at the Alliance Francaise de Bangalore, witnessed performances by fusion bands ‘Manoj George 4 Strings’ and ‘MoonArra’.

The event drew a good number of music lovers, mostly youth, from the City. The evening set its tone with an energetic performance by versatile ‘Manoj George 4 Strings’, an Indian fusion band that blends jazz and rock.

The band has some of the best musicians from the country, who have more than 15 years of experience performing across the world. Although the artistes began with a slow rhythm, the pace grew as the trio played their respective instruments.

The band also used Indian and world percussions to produce one-of-its-kind tunes.
The magical combination of violin along with percussion, piano and tabla made the audience groove to the tunes.

The audience truly seemed to enjoy each and every tune of the musical instruments. The compositions were deeply rooted in Indian ragas and folk tunes, but had strains of other forms of music.

Muthu Kumar Varadrajan on tabla gave an Indian feel to the event by adding strong beats which complemented the other western musical instruments.

After the musical dose by ‘Manoj George 4 Strings’, ‘MoonArra’ took the stage to treat the audience to more jazz fusion music.

The members of ‘MoonArra’, which means ‘three streams’, are in constant search of unique sounds. Team members, Madhuri and Jagadish have training in Carnatic and Hindustani classical traditions.

They specialise, however, in jazz. “‘MoonArra’ always evolves with different kinds of international music. Jazz musicians have the ability to take something from each form of music,” said Aruna Sunderlal, founder and managing trustee of Bangalore School of Music.

Aruna said that the whole essence of the event is celebration of music and artistry of the groups.

Be it ‘Manoj George 4 Strings’ or ‘MoonArra’, western music lovers in the City indeed experienced the best of both worlds during the three-day ‘Jazz Fusion Fest’.