Mumbai receives the Jio Blues

At the annual two-day Brands & Entertainment conference that occurred in Mumbai on June 14 and 15 this year was a fabulous fire chat on day one that occurred between VG Jairam, Founder – Hyperlink Brand Solutions, and Jay Shah, Vice President – Cultural Outreach, Mahindra & Mahindra, about the Mahindra’s association with cultural activities.

Among other things discussed, Shah spoke about how Mahindra’s aimed to create awareness about the genre of Blues with the genesis of the Mahindra Blues Festival in 2011, but with a strategic interest in organising the fest too. “We wanted to sell our tractors in the U.S., but they were always suspicious about why they should patronize an Indian company attempting to do so. No amount of advertising could change their minds. Then, Mr. (Anand) Mahindra suggested that to sell tractors in the Mississippi Delta region, which is where the earliest style of Blues emerged and, though a declining genre in popularity, let’s create an event that would link us directly to the U.S. And, with that, we created the Mahindra Blues Festival.”

Shah’s explanation completely validates a media release issued by the Mahindra Group in or about December 2010, in which Anand Mahindra, current chairperson, had stated: “The Blues, an American art form, ironically doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves in the country of its origin and, indeed, around the world. We would like the Mahindra Blues Festival to give this genre of music an overseas platform in the way that Montreux has done for Jazz.” Since then, the ‘Mahindra Blues Weekend Chicago’ is held twice a year in partnership with “Buddy Guys Legends”. This year, on July 15 in New York City, the Mahindra Blues Festival, in conjunction with Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, celebrates the many communities connected to the Blues with performances at two locations.

On that date, at 6:00 pm, the Surat-bred Aayushi Karnik, a self-taught Blues guitarist who has performed alongside Indian guitar players such as Rudy Wallang and Sanjay Divecha, performs at The Dance Floor at Josie Robertson Plaza—alongside two NYC veterans, Russell Hall and Cameron MacIntosh, playing original music fusing Blues guitar and jazz harmony. Later that evening, at 7:30 pm, at Damrosch Park, attendees can soak into the incredible vocal stylings of Brianna Thomas and Ella Sang The Blues, followed by the Corey Harris Band, known for combining New Orleans, Caribbean, and African influences into their eclectic sound.

Sreejata Gupta

Nevertheless, closer home and in Mumbai, Jio World Centre’s youthful and energetic Sreejata Gupta – whose passion for music is second to none to the extent that she travelled to London’s Hyde Park on July 8, 2018 to seek virtuoso guitarist Eric Clapton’s live performance – extended the sounds of Blues by curating two back-to-back performances by guitarists who are intrinsically linked with the genre: The Arinjoy Trio (June 7) and Rudy & The Kool Kats (June 8), at the Centre’s Studio Theatre.

Kolkata’s Arinjoy Trio – winners of the Mahindra Blues Band Hunt 2018 – who had the pride of opening the proceedings of the Mahindra Blues Festival 2023, appropriately focused their Jio World gig on selections off their 2019 eponymously-titled debut album (released on vinyl by Free School Street Records LLP), featuring guitarist-vocalist Arinjoy Sarkar and accompanied by Sounak Roy on drums and Aakash Ganguly on bass.

Arinjoy Sarkar

How appropriate indeed it turned out to be with the band’s core sound having taken great musical strides forward through their brief career, whether in guitarist Arinjoy Sarkar’s songwriting or in his musicianship as he held Blues patterns together across several songs during his live performance, commencing with “Baby You’re So Fine”. While the other rockers were outstanding too, they included the hard rock of  “Who You Are” and the Blues-tinged “Cold Cold Cold”. Arinjoy played a spirited instrumental too, “Blues For Kirk”, dedicated to US-based guitarist Kirk Fletcher, a one-time member of The Fabulous Thunderbirds, the very band in which Stevie Ray Vaughan’s older brother, Jimmy, was previously a member (of whom, more later). But two songs that just elevated the Arinjoy Trio’s performance to the next level was Arinjoy’s very own, solo “Don’t Leave Me Behind”, this writer’s favourite composition of his, and then the Trio’s rendition of BB King’s “Help The Poor”, the original of which this writer first heard during a listening session that was organised at a venue known as Adagio, in Mumbai’s Bandra, when a vinyl of King’s ‘Live At The Regal’ was showcased.

The Arinjoy Trio also played tracks from the band’s forthcoming EP (produced by another remarkable guitarist, Amyt Datta), including “Now I Think We’re Done”, which is ready for launch as this article is being written, but Arinjoy is apparently awaiting a closure of a publishing deal with industry veteran Atul Churamani’s Turnkey Music & Publishing before he does so. The Arinjoy Trio is well known for their electrifying live performances that cover a multitude of Blues styles such as Chicago Blues, Blues rock, and even R&B, becoming one of the more sought-after Blues acts in the country, and they certainly did not disappoint this time too!

On June 7, Rudy Wallang played with his new Shillong-based band, Rudy & The Kool Kats. For the uninitiated, Rudy is a name synonymous with the Blues in India; founder of India’s premier Blues band, Soulmate, and having been a part of the country’s other iconic bands, The Great Society and Mojo, during the ‘80s and ‘90s. In his quest of continuing to seek fresh musical sounds this time around too, Rudy teamed up with two other guitarists, Shepherd Najiar and Gregory Nongrum of Blue Temptation fame, along with his sons Leon Wallang (bass) & Vincent Tariang (drums), and with Brian Suting (keyboards), to form ‘Rudy & The Kool Kats’.

Kool Kats

As they balanced a mix of original compositions with covers, the mood was firmly set with originals “Chaos City Blues” and “Funkin’ Alive”, but it really was Gregory’s composition, “If You Really Wanted, You Would”, that shone through…brightly!  Equally, the covers were pleasant surprises too,  with amazing renditions of Taj Mahal’s “She Caught The Katy”, the Junior Wells popularized “Messin’ With The Kid” and, of course, the Allman Brothers Band’s “Whipping Post”! On the list of renditions was also the earlier mentioned Vaughan Brothers’ – Jimmy Vaughan and brother Stevie Ray’s – “Tick Tock”, co-written with Jerry Lynn Williams, who has written songs such as “Forever Man”, “See What Love Can Do”, “Something’s Happening”, “Running On Faith”, and “Pretending” for Eric Clapton. “Tick Tock” was a song that was featured on ‘Family Style’, the only studio album featuring the guitarist brothers, released in 1990, and produced by Chic’s Nile Rodgers.

It should be noted here that guitarists Arinjoy and Tajdar Junaid guested with Rudy & Kool Kats too, on a couple of numbers, commencing with BB King’s “Sweet Little Angel” and, in doing so, showcasing their disparate guitar styles. It was a different vibe, observed Rudy Wallang during the event, and the packed audience really did see Indian Blues history in the making.

In between the Mahindra Blues and what could be appropriately referred to as the Jio Blues festivities, Mumbai’s Bluebop Café hosted a Blues and Classic Rock night on May 19 when their resident band then, Wanted Yesterday, commenced their set with Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Whiskey Rock-A-Roller” from 1975, replete with harp, to a full house; once again reiterating the popularity of Blues.

So the lesson here is that whenever you are feeling a bit off colour, it’s time for you to check the Blues!