The Hell raisers of jazz come to Goa

I can never forget the time my son Nihal Gonsalves de­cided to take up playing the recorder instead of the piano last year. I was quite surprised at his choice simply because playing a wind instrument is not so common any­more in Goa. Probing deeper, I realised, much to my delight that he had chosen it because of the overwhelming dominance of wind instruments at the Heritage Jazz and oth­er shows that we organ­ise.

This is set to change dramatically when The Jonas Hellborg Group from Sweden take to the stage at the Highway Vil­lage in Porvorim this Sun­day. playing in the compa­ny of explosive guitarist Mattias Eklundh and drummer Nicolas Cam­pagnol, Jonas Hellborg has taken the world by storm, the 19test being Mumbai on the first leg of an Indian tour which has just commenced.

Hellborg is a jazz rock virtuoso bassist who has played in John McLaugh­in's Mahavishnu Orches­tra, and has had enough people enthralled to have a fan following that reach­es even to India since he has collaborated with a number of exciting Indian musicians including V Sel­vaganesh who is the son of legendary percussion­ist Vikku Vinayakaram of Shakti fame.

Having played with McLaughin in duo and trio formations featur­ing world famous drum­mer Billy Cobham and our very own national treasure Trilok Gurtu, Hellborg is well versed in the complexities of Indian music as well as the intricate rhythmic structures of western music.

Mattias Eklundh start­ed playing the guitar at the age of 13, inspired by the work of musical non-conformists Frank Zappa and KISS. In this own words, Zap­pa was all about the hu­mour, the enormous skills and the complexity of his music while KISS was a sledge-hammer, both of whom he loved so much. Eklundh's whammy driven shred style of guitar play­ing has made him one of the most innovative and ground breaking guitar players in the world and the trio draw from differ­ent patterns including Carnatic, heavy metal and of course the wide and ex­citing range of rock and funk jazz.

When the crowd egged on the 'Hell Raisers' as they were referred to in a section of the Mumbai press, they responded with an uniquely ener­gised version of 'Purple Haze' much to the awe of the packed house at the Oberoi Hotels. It is pre­cisely this type of jazz en­ergy that we have man­aged to pack in this show that makes all this so ex­citing especially since we are so sure that you will love it so much.

And despite the fact that Nihal may not agree with me, you just cannot miss this show since you must feel how world class gui­tarists can blow your mind while soothing the soul. Even though you have al­ways been crazy about jazz, now is the time to just flip out on it!

 

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