A one-night international collaboration brought to life by Hyderabad’s ArtHome showed what’s possible when vision, talent and artistic ambition converge
It was a jazz concert unlike any we’ve experienced in India. Musicians from three countries and diverse jazz traditions — who, until then, were complete strangers — were united by a shared passion for the music. The result was greater than the sum of its parts: while they all spoke the language of jazz, it was the blend of their distinct dialects and accents that made the concert truly masterful.
While all the musicians knew their chops, someone had to take them by the hand and turn 14 individuals into one band. That credit goes to jazz educator Dr. Jared Sims, and the fulcrum he created with Ryan Sadri, who assembled the eleven-member Indian contingent of the Swing City Band. Remarkably, the entire project came together in a matter of days. In the end, the music transcended geographical distances and cultural boundaries. It was an ambitious vision made possible by Hyderabad-based arts organisation ArtHome, founded by Timothy Marthand.
Ryan Sadri, a Pune-based tenor sax player, and Dr. Jared Sims, also a tenor sax player based in Boston, collaborated on this project. Sims was also accompanied by fellow Americans Reggie Watkins, a slide trombone player and trumpeter Douglas Olsen.
The Indian component of the band included Shirish Malhotra playing alto saxophone and flute, Rhys Sebastian on baritone saxophone, Anurag Naidu on grand piano, Shashank Das on bass, Sounak Saha on guitar, Noah Cerejo on drums, Robin Fargose and Priyansh Jindal on trumpets, and Chie Nishikori and Zameer Shaikh on trombone.
We were impressed by the unified sound of this hastily assembled band with limited rehearsal time. It sounded like this big band had been playing together for years.
The band opened the concert with “Birdland” by Joe Zawinul, the signature tune of Weather Report. The band already sounded like a well-oiled machine. They used an arrangement from the Maynard Ferguson big band, of which Reggie Watkins was a part.
This was followed by “Moanin” from Charles Mingus (not to be confused with the more popular composition of the same name by Bobby Timmons). The complex passages were handled deftly in this arrangement.
Orchestration played a big part in jazz singing. “Fly me to the Moon” is a case in point. Here, without a vocalist, the Swing City band reached many in the audience who were familiar with the tune. The arrangement was pleasing and swinging.
Not many jazz concerts are complete without a Duke Ellington composition played in it. We heard Ellington’s “Caravan”, co-written by Duke’s trombone player Juan Tizol. The Swing City arrangement created a Middle Eastern atmosphere by slowing down the tempo. Introduced by the trombone of Reggie Watkins and multiple solos, this Caravan took us meandering through the Sahara desert.
Jazz seems to defy dates. Two tunes from the Swing Era of jazz, the 1930s, were played by Swing City. The first was “Cherokee” by Ray Noble, which became a bit hit and remains a jazz standard, followed by the 1932 composition “Moten Swing” by Benny Moten, which was made a hit by the likes of Count Basie and Benny Carter.
The reality and inherent charm of jazz lies in how a song is played at a given time and not how old the composition may be. Jazz is “in the now” at all times.
As if to make this point, Swing City Jazz leapt from the 1930s to a contemporary composition from the group, Tower of Power. The American trumpet player Doug Olsen arranged “What is Hip” for the big band to play. A funky tune was set into a lively pace with the power of the substantial brass and reed sections and emphasised by soloists’ energetic solos from Olsen and others.
Duke Ellington was revisited by the band, this time with “In a Sentimental Mood”, a slow, introspective composition. For this, the band had reduced itself to the three American soloists, Jared Sims on tenor sax, Doug Olsen on trumpet and Reggie Watkins on slide trombone, plus the rhythm section. Ellington has offered plenty of scope in the composition for individual expression, and the trio of soloists gave the audience an exhibition of their fine skills.
Retaining this small format, the band played “Cantaloupe Island” from Herbie Hancock, a funky number suggesting sunshine and palm trees!
The full ensemble returned to play Dizzy Gillespie’s “Night in Tunisia” from the early days of bebop in the 1940s, with Doug Olsen leading the trumpet opening and the band playing the complex changes to perfection.
Glen Miller’s famous “In the Mood”, Basie’s swinging “Splanky” and another Herbie Hancock composition “Chameleon” completed the evening of superb big band jazz. The remarkable aspect of the performance was the cohesion and musical oneness of jazz players from diverse backgrounds.
We spoke to a few members of this band after the concert to understand what this concert had meant to them.
Ryan Sadri, who was first approached to put together this project, said, “It was an absolute honor to put together this band. It gave me the opportunity to call on a friend and mentor, Jared Sims who helped us guide through this precious music, as well as the chance to reconnect with the top wind and brass musicians in the country and then assemble us all in one room. It was incredible. I wonder if such a project has been attempted in India and I hope we can bring this music to more audiences in India.”
Anurag Naidu, who was masterful on the grand piano all evening, had some deep, introspective observations about the concert. He noticed the shift from playing with a small group to playing with a big band. “We’ve always seen jazz tunes played in a small group as a medium to improvise; here with a big band, it was not individualistic but as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle coming together”.
The concert was made possible by Hyderabad’s ArtHome Foundation, which brought together this remarkable group of musicians from across the world for a one-off performance. It was an audacious undertaking: assembling a jazz big band from scratch and believing it could become something truly special.
Much of the credit belongs to ArtHome founder Timothy Marthand, whose vision and conviction drove the project. A concert pianist himself, Marthand is also working toward an even bigger ambition: establishing a world-class performing arts centre in Hyderabad, complete with a large auditorium designed for exceptional acoustics in collaboration with experts behind venues such as the Sydney Opera House.
If this concert is any indication, Hyderabad’s cultural future is in capable hands. One can only hope Marthand continues to bring world-class jazz to the city—and to India. For a technology hub, there may be no better complement than a thriving arts scene.
We are hoping Timothy Marthand will continue to bring superlative jazz to Hyderabad and the rest of India. After all, there can be no better tonic to a tech town than having a top-class arts centre.