Gig review/ Joe Alvares @ Abbey 301



BY NARENDRA KUSNUR

Dr Joe and The Patience/ Live in Khandala 

Genre: Jazz

Musicians: Joe Alvares, Tea, Clement Rooney, Clifton Rodricks, Jarryd Rodrigues, Zidaan

Details: Abbey 301, Khandala, June 13

Rating: ****

On Saturday, June 13, Abbey 301 hosted its 10th show. Dr Joe and The Patience, led by veteran singer Joe Alvares, presented a set of jazz standards and retro tunes.

The venue is actually a restored church in Khandala, and therefore heading there was a nice picnic, as Salsa Fortynine drove us down the distance. In the group were ace photographer Ashok Salian and journalist Steve Fernandes.

It's a beautiful site in the hills, though the weather that day wasn't too different from a breezier Mumbai. The chapel, named after the area's postal code, has been held by the Kotak family since 1973. Its recent restoration was led by Kamini Kotak and architect Adil Dholakia of Five Cross Architects. Safala Shroff is the chairperson of the steering committee, with Pushan Kripalani handling the creative side and Xerxes Unwala looking at strategy. Besides concerts held in an intimate setting, it plans to host plays, workshops and residencies, playing the role.of a performing arts venue. 

The Dr Joe show began with a duet performance by saxophonist Jarryd Rodrigues and keyboardist Clifton Rodricks. Young keyboardist Zidaan sang Coldplay's 'Fix You' and, after the break, Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now'.

Singer Tea (in picture below) did a few popular jazz tunes, including Antonio Carlos Jobim's 'Desafinado' and Billy Strayhorn's 'Take The A Train', besides teaming up with Joe on an uptempo version of George Gershwin's 'Summertime'. The keyboards and rhythm programming were done by Clement Rooney on these tracks, and Jarryd's saxophone added to the jazz flavour.

For his part, Joe impressed on Cole Porter's 'I've Got You Under My Skin' and Hoagy Carmichael's 'The Nearness Of You'. Both he and Tea were solid in their vocals, showing wonderful tonality and range. One only wished the show was half an hour longer than two hours, and a few more swinging tracks had been kept for the end.

The venue has so far hosted concerts by rock band Indus Creed, fusion outfit Rajeev Raja Combine, jazz group Sanjay Divecha Trio and flautist Rakesh Chaurasia. Forthcoming shows include a solo djembe recital by Taufiq Qureshi on June 27 and poetry reading and a talk by Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi the following day..

Hopefully the rains would have started by then. The getaway would be even more charming.




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