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BY NARENDRA KUSNUR  Neeti Mohan/ Tere Layi Label: Warner Indie Music Label Rating: **** Two things work in favour of the Punjabi song 'Tere Layi'. One is that singer Neeti Mohan is excellent, as one would expect. The second is Jasmen Oza's video, starring Akshay Kharodia, Sidhika Sharma and Ishrat Khan. The boy leaves for a job elsewhere, and when he's away, the girl, while working in a lab, accidentally drops acid on her face. The subject is handled with sensitivity, as Neeti sings, "Main tere layi theek na yaara". Siddharth Amit Bhavsar's composition and Gurpreet Saini's lyrics go well with the basic emotion of the song. Hear and watch till the end. Aanchal Tyagi/ Sajanwa Label: Indiea Music/ Boon Castle Rating: *** Singer Aanchal Tyagi teams up with composer Abhijeet Srivastava on 'Sajanwa', a song that takes a quirky look at modern love. It's a folk-styled tune, a bit routine by nature but buoyed by Shayra Apoorva's smart lyrics and

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR NCPA International Jazz Festival/ Day 3 Artiste : Thilo Wolf Jazz Quartett featuring Johanna Iser Details : Tata Theatre, Mumbai, November 27 Rating : **** When vocalist Johanna Iser announced she would be going off-stage while the 'boys' played George Gershwin's classic 'Summertime', one didn't know how to react. After all, the German singer had been singing brilliantly all evening, and this was a tune one normally heard from a rich female voice, with audiences knowing only half the lyrics. To our surprise, the 'boys' - comprising four experienced members of the Thilo Wolf Jazz Quartett - produced one of the most beautiful renditions of 'Summertime' heard in Mumbai. It started with a clarinet by Norbert Nagel, before bandleader Thilo Wolf did a fantastic piano run. The feel was unique. In a show titled 'A Swinging Affair', which concluded the NCPA International Jazz Festival on Sunday, the German group played a balance

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR NCPA International Jazz Festival/ Day 2 Artiste : Monty Alexander and Band Details : Tata Theatre, Mumbai, November 26 Rating : **** At one point, the Tata Theatre audience just decided to let loose, and sing along with Jamaican piano great Monty Alexander. After all, who didn't know the words of Harry Belafonte's 'Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)'? " Daylight come and we want go home". Very few actually wanted to go home till daylight came. If the opening day of the NCPA International Jazz Festival featured the marvellous Mingus Big Band in their horn and piano glory, Monty and his band offered a completely different palette, blending popular jazz tunes with traditional Jamaican mento and reggae on Day 2. Appropriately, the show was themed 'Jamaica To Jazz'. Monty was a delight on the grand piano, with immaculate phrasing and constant surprises. To add to the musical virtuosity, he had a fabulous sense of humour, and even regaled the au

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR NCPA International Jazz Festival/ Day 1 Artiste : Mingus Big Band  Details : Tata Theatre, Mumbai, November 25 Rating : **** Around 8.40 p.m. on Friday, the Mingus Big Band began playing 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat', perhaps the most famous composition of legendary bandleader and bassist Charles Mingus. The song had been originally dedicated to saxophonist Lester Young, and in this rendition, tenor saxophonist Sam Dillon played the lead part. Like with every other piece played, the crowd's applause was huge and spontaneous. Clearly, the Mingus Big Band stole hearts on the opening evening of the three-day NCPA International Jazz Festival, held at Mumbai's Tata Theatre. The 13-member line-up coordinated brilliantly, with most musicians playing scintillating solos. Besides bass, piano and drums, the group had saxophonists, trumpeters and trombonists. Incidentally, this is Mingus' centennial year, and the show acted as yet another tribute. It also paid homa

On the eve of Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander's performance at the NCPA International Jazz Festival,  NARENDRA KUSNUR reviews two of his recent album releases -- From November 25 to 27, jazz fans will be heading to the Tata Theatre, Nariman Point, for the NCPA International Jazz Festival. The programme on the respective days comprises the Mingus Big Band, Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander and German pianist Thilo Wolf's Jazz Quartett featuring Johanna Iser. This writer has been checking out the music of Monty, simply because two contrasting albums have been released over the past few months. The 78-year-old has been recording since 1964, blending jazz standards and bebop with the blues and Caribbean music. Besides a series of studio and live albums, he has recorded tributes to Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Miles Davis and Bob Marley. Monty's repertoire has a wide variety, as is evident in the two recent releases. The first, Love Notes, contains his vocal inte

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR Zachary Ray feat. Shreya Bhattacharya & Bernard Dafney/ Cloud 9 Label: Self-released Rating: *** 1/2 A few months ago, independent artiste Zachary Ray worked with singer Siddharth Basrur on the single 'Danger'. Now, he collaborates with Shreya Bhattacharya and Bernard Dafney on 'Cloud 9'. The song has a retro pop meets rhythm n' blues feel, and optimistic lines that talk of being hopeful even when down. "Nothing can hold me down", is the song's leitmotif. The three singers show good individual technique, besides showing understanding as a team. T. Krishna Kumar's video captures their expressions in close-up glory. But in the end, lines like "No matter how I'm feeling, my future's bright" leave you on a high. Devika/ Kalli Kalli Raati Label: Self-released  Rating: *** Earlier this year, Delhi-born, San Francisco-based singer Devika released 'Dil Tenu', a pleasant, loungey track with a folk vibe. Her l

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR  Rashmeet Kaur/ Bulleya O Label: Self-released  Rating: **** Known for her interpretation of the folk tune 'Bajre Da Sitta' and her trendy Hindi song 'Musafir', Rashmeet Kaur has also been releasing songs based on Sufi poet Bulleh Shah's work. Her 'Lagan Lagi' was sung well but marred by a video that was totally out of sync. Her new single 'Bulleya O' has an appropriate black n' white video, simply showing her with a guitar. Rashmeet blends Bulleh Shah's Punjabi lyrics with English lines ending with 'I'll be fine, without you". Bass and keyboards add to the orchestration, and the arrangement is simple yet effective, matching the soulful voice. Dipanwita Chakraborty/ Kaash Hum Label: Self-released  Rating: *** 1/2 Singer Dipanwita Chakraborty is soulful on her new ghazal 'Kaash Hum', written by Kamal Kishore Rajput. The poet writes with flair, producing some good couplets. The matla  (opening couplet) is

(Left to right): Adrian D'Souza, Rahul Wadhwani, Louiz Banks, Mark Dey Hartsuch, Sheldon D'Silva, Sanjay Divecha and Gino Banks BY NARENDRA KUSNUR Louiz Banks, Gino Banks and others/ Jazz@Prithvi  Genre: Jazz Details: Prithvi Theatre, Juhu; November 7 Rating: **** The Prithvi Theatre Festival 2022 comes to a conclusion this evening with a western classical performance by members of the Symphony Orchestra Of India, who will play works of Indian composers, including the late Vanraj Bhatia. This year's programme has had a good share of musical events, including a dhrupad vocal recital by Pelva Naik, a Sufi performance by Pooja Gaitonde, a lavani night and a jazz show with Louiz Banks and his son, drummer Gino Banks. Jazz@Prithvi will now be a monthly affair, involving a Sunday brunch-time session curated by Gino Banks coming January onwards. The idea is to promote original compositions played by numerous talented Indian musicians. If many jazz shows feature the rendition of st

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR A cock-eyed, silly look at what happened at Independence Rock 2022 Four days after I rocked, you rocked and everyone rocked at I-Rock, I am totally, utterly confused. I mean, like any 'professional' reviewer, I had certain opinions about how the bands performed at the latest edition of Independence Rock, what was good, what went wrong etc. But now, even before I had reached the exit gate at Mazgaon's Bayview Lawns on Saturday and Sunday, I read hundreds of Facebook and WhatsApp opinions by anybody and everybody. Some loved so-and-so band, others felt the same band played rubbish. Some said the sound was great, others felt it jarred. So on and so forth. It was all so different during the Rang Bhavan days, when I simply attended a concert, took down notes and rushed to the Mid-Day newspaper   office to file my report well past midnight. There was no social media post to say, "Hey dude, that's not what I felt. What do you know about rock music? My o

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR  Vibha Saraf/ Habbakhatoon 2 Label: Self-released  Rating: **** Three years ago, Kashmiri singer Vibha Saraf had released 'Habbakhatoon', based on a traditional folk tune. Habbakhatoon is a legendary poet who was known as the Nightingale Of Kashmir. Now, Vibha has released the sequel, in which she adds Hindi lines to traditional Kashmiri folk lyrics. Like in the earlier song, her melodious voice lends a sense of serenity. Harsh Davda's production makes the song soothing, using keyboards and natural sounds. Anmol Kachroo's video blends shots of Kashmiri locales with the artiste's close-ups. It's a fabulous presentation, with a tune that lingers. Sumeet Tappoo/ Main Toh Tere Paas Mein Label: Artist Aloud Rating: *** 1/2 Sant Kabir's bhajan 'Moko Kahaan Dhoonde Re Bande, Main To Tere Paas Mein' has been recorded earlier by Bhupinder, Deepa Nair Rasiya and Sonam Kalra's Sufi Gospel Project, among others. Here's another praisewo

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR Notes on the music of Mughal-e-Azam, the film and the play On huge public demand, the run of Feroz Abbas Khan's musical play Mughal - e - Azam at Bandra's Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir has been extended by five shows from November 4 to 6, with more announced for November 12, 13, 19 and 20. I caught the premiere of this season on October 20. Since then, the shows have had two sets of actors for some roles, with Nissar Khan playing Mughal Emperor Akbar in both. The one I attended had Dhanveer Singh as Salim and Priyanka Barve as Anarkali. Much has been written about the performances, chaste Urdu dialogues, sets, choreography, Manish Malhotra's costumes and the overall scale and grandeur of the play. Here, I shall focus only on the music. This too has two aspects. One was that the play used songs from the original 1960 film, composed by the legendary Naushad and written by Shakeel Badayuni. The other was the background music for this play by Piyush Kanojia. The

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR Mihir Chandan, Anuracti Sharma & C-Deep/ Rathiya Label: Self-released  Rating: ***** Here's a 'loop' number that just keeps growing on repeated listening. Mihir Chandan's percussion blends with Anuracti Sharma's classically-inspired vocals and C-Deep's snazzy production on this club-friendly beauty. The sound harks back to the Asian underground and drum n' bass sounds of the late 1990s. Anuracti sings the lines, "Taras gayee mori rathiyan" with flair. Mihir uses the handpan and Rav metal drum with deftness. The piece is four and a half minutes long, and has some brilliant tempo variations. It's filled with surprises, and the sudden rendition of the line "Aa jaao na" takes you into another space. Go for it. Pratibha Singh Baghel feat. Rakesh Tripathi/ Kanha Label: Sufiscore  Rating: **** In her latest release 'Kanha', singer Pratibha Singh Baghel expresses Radha's feelings for Lord Krishna. "Ja t