{"id":11028,"date":"2011-11-03T04:11:21","date_gmt":"2011-11-03T04:11:21","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-11-03T23:11:24","modified_gmt":"2011-11-03T23:11:24","slug":"Hot-Jazz-and-the-Cold-War-in-1950s-Mumbai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=11028","title":{"rendered":"Hot Jazz and the Cold War in 1950s Mumbai"},"content":{"rendered":"

One evening in 1958, the pianist Dave Brubeck and his quartet gathered in the home of a jazz-loving industrialist on Mumbai\u2019s Malabar Hill to chat with a group of Indian musicians led by the sitar maestro, Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan. Then they picked up their instruments and put their new knowledge to work. The jam session with Mr. Khan, the American pianist said later, changed the way he approached his art. \u201cHis influence made me play in a different way,\u201d Mr. Brubeck told Jazz Journal International. \u201cAlthough Hindu scales, melodies and harmonies are different, we understood each other \u2026 The folk origins of music aren\u2019t far apart anywhere in the world.\u201d
\nMore than 50 years after Brubeck\u2019s India tour, fans in Rajkot and Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata, still have warm memories of the quartet\u2019s concerts. But in addition to the magical music, they still smile at recollections of Brubeck, the saxophone player Paul Desmond, drummer Joe Morello and bassist Eugene Wright ambling through town, sitting in with local bands and having long discussions with Indian fans. That\u2019s exactly what the U.S. State Department hoped to achieve when it started putting jazz bands on the road in 1956.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In August that year, as the Cold War was growing icier, the U.S. Congress sanctioned funds for the President\u2019s Special International Program, an initiative that aimed to showcase the superiority of the American way of life to the world \u2013 especially the newly independent nations of Asia and Africa. Jazz quickly became the program\u2019s centerpiece. Jazz, after all, was the only home-grown art form the U.S. could boast of. Just as important, it was an African-American art form. At a time when many people in the newly independent world were appalled by the segregation faced by African-Americans in the American South, foregrounding jazz gave Washington the chance to pretend that this discrimination wasn\u2019t as harsh as some people imaged it to be. Interviewed about his India trip on the weekend of his 90th birthday last year, Mr. Brubeck was understandably hazy on specific details. But he had one strong memory. The piano he was supposed to use for his concerts in Mumbai had become warped in the tropical heat, so he went to a music store and tried out several instruments. He eventually found a Bosendorfer that was to his liking. Suddenly, \u201cseveral porters came in, put the piano on their heads and carried it through the streets\u201d to the venue. They had to march in perfect rhythm because a misstep would cause the instrument to slide to one side and possibly crash to the ground.<\/p>\n

The substitute instrument didn\u2019t cramp his style. The Times of India\u2019s music critic was among those who could not contain his appreciation for Brubeck\u2019s concert at the Eros Theatre on April 4, 1958. \u201cPianist most outstanding,\u201d reported the newspaper\u2019s review, advising, \u201cIf you have not yet heard this fantastic group, pinch your neighbor\u2019s ticket if necessary but go and hear it. If you have already heard it, go again. It has the inestimable gift of being able to take the starch out of music snobs \u2013 and there are so many of us in this great city.\u201d Over the next few years, other jazz greats followed Mr. Brubeck to India. In 1959, the impeccably coiffed Dixieland trombone player Jack Teagarden was dispatched to the front lines of the battle for hearts and minds. In 1960, Mumbai welcomed the trumpet player Herbie \u201cRed\u201d Nichols. Mr. Nichols had been recording prolifically since the 1920s, but he\u2019d shot to worldwide fame only in 1959 with the release of \u201cThe Five Pennies,\u201d a semi-biographical film starring Danny Kaye.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Red Nichols & His Five Pennies<\/strong><\/p>\n