A jazz moment

(From left) Sanjeeta Bhattacharya, Abhinav Khokar, Saurav Ghosh

It was in 2010 when the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) first made a foray into jazz music with artistes like Diane Witherspoon. Then a year later, the institution organised its inaugural jazz festival. And now, after hosting numerous artistes from the genre in this intervening period, it has taken the step of forming its own jazz outfit, called The NCPA Jazz Collective.

Pradyumna Singh Manot

"Our intent right from the beginning had been to eventually have a band that will represent the organisation both nationally and internationally. It will also collaborate with visiting artistes who play gigs for us," says Farrahnaz Irani, general manager of international music at NCPA, adding that a process of distillation from the various Indian bands that have played at the SoBo venue led them to picking pianist Pradyumna Singh Manot, vocalist Sanjeeta Bhattacharya, upright bass player Abhinav Khokhar and drummer Saurav Ghosh to form this outfit.

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