Art Matters: Jazz Indian Style
The story of Jazz in India is not just about music, but much more. It is about how a foreign sound from a distinct country traveled to India and became part of the culture of its cosmopolitan cities. For the first time, an audio-visual exhibition held in Delhi tried to bring this history to life. Shubha Chaudhari, Director, Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology of the American Institute of Indian Studies says, "We have taken up themes from jazz in India from the early years. From the pioneers and then going on to the 60's and then we start with the jazz yatras. We have got recordings from all the yatras." Nostalgia drew the older generations while the young were drawn to the exhibition curious of the time when an import from New Orleans was being confidently claimed by jazz musicians in Lahore, Madras, Calcutta, Bombay and across the sub-continent.
