A rhythmic connection

Manfred Weinberger

The first people who come to mind when you think of Austrian musicians are western classical composers like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schubert. A genre as modern as jazz filtered down to the country only in the late 1960s, which is when lessons in that form of music were first imparted. So, when trumpeter Manfred Weinberger first took to the American musical import at the age of 15 in the 1980s, he found himself among a minority practising it in his home country.

"It's only now that we have a fairly large number of musicians who are educated in jazz," he tells us, adding that it's a type of music that constantly incorporates influences from different countries, which explains his first trip to India in 2001, when he came to Pune to study the rhythmic structures of kathak so that he could imbibe the same in his music.

Weinberger is now back in the country to perform a series of concerts. The accompanying musicians will keep changing depending on the city he'll play in, which only emphasises the improvisational nature of jazz music. Catch him perform at a Bandra venue this weekend. And while at the gig, try and spot the points when kathak influences seep into his playing.

On July 14, 9.30 pm
At The Bandra Base, Waterfield Road, Bandra West.

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