Seeped in nostalgia-dipped notes, the rich musical legacy of the city’s East Indian bands plays a crucial role in uniting and preserving the stories and traditions of this community
The Jesus Band in action
On February 14, 2019, Melody Fereira was gifted a saxophone by her father Valerian Fereira aka Valley Master. This is how East Indian (EI) bands have survived, with music — a gift of love, tradition and culture — being handed down from family members or musicians within the hamlet. We visited the two residents of Uttan at Manori earlier this week, where the master’s band, Jesus Band Uttan, played for the EI Marathi singing competition.
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Valley Master was drawn to music from a young age, watching the neighbourhood band play at wedding processions, Umbracha Panis, and EI singing competitions. “Everyone has a hobby. Music is mine,” he shares. Approaching the older boys to teach him, the master started out by carrying drums and playing smaller instruments like tambourines and bass drums. Valley Master, now 51, set up Jesus Band in 2015, but has been playing and teaching music for over 30 years. Today, the band has 12 members anchoring the drum set, trumpet, saxophone, keyboard, and bass and lead guitar.
George Edward Misquitta with Amitabh Bachchan
Having grown up in a family where music was a big part of daily life, it was only natural for the saxophone to fall into Melody’s hands. EI band members are mostly men. Melody, 20, is one of the few women to play; you may spot women playing the violin and keyboard in other bands. This writer has also had the privilege of hearing a woman from Sion play the ghumat with flawless finesse.
Melody and Valerian Fereira
During the soundcheck before the competition, the musicians individually balance their instruments filling the venue with tunes of Tequila, The final countdown, the Pirates of the Caribbean series’ theme song, and iconic Hindi and English tracks. Our request that was graciously entertained was a rendition of Aagichi tingli, which was medleyed with Oh when the saints go marching in. This forms part of the practice for the singing competition. With around 30 accompanying singers, the band has had only two weeks of preparation since listening to the participants sing their original compositions at the tuning day. After this, Valley Master, trained in writing Western staff notations by his teacher Charlie Master, writes down the notations in Marathi for the band to follow. We’re told that most of the tunes are extracted from older traditional songs, but it still takes practice to follow the key of the singers’ voices and the structures of their songs. It helps that the older generation worked without notes, played by ear, and picked up the nuances of EI music ready to drop the beat on any traditional track or original song. Apart from talent nurtured by growing up in the centre of music, hard work is what makes Valley Master’s band one of the best in the city today. Speaking to regular competition goers, we’ve heard this reiterated in variations of “Valley Band is too good.”
Sheet music with notations in Marathi by Valley Master. Pics/Anurag Ahire
But we cannot miss the other names that come up when we ask about Bombay’s most rocking EI bands. This includes at least 50 bands in the city, including Regal Band from Kurla, led by Jacob Dominic Gomes, Alywn Master’s Band; Vailankanni Band from Kharodi; Clive Band, Blue Heaven Band, and St Francis Band from Vile Parle, led by George Edward Misquitta [or Georgie Boy Band, as it is fondly called]. Bands are usually referred to by their master’s name. Gomes aka Jacob Master, 73, who expertly handles the drums, started out in his father’s band, Dominic Braz Gomes, which was formed in 1947. He took over in 1965, and continues to play for Umbracha Panis, funerals, weddings and singing competitions. “By 1990, I played 110 songs in a Gorai competition from 10 pm to 10 am where I took just one 15-minute break. When I got up from the drum set, my hands and legs were swollen. They carried me, put me in the car and took me home,” Gomes recalls with a chuckle.
We catch Misquitta, 65, as he prepares for an Umbracha Pani later in the evening. Misquitta picked up music at his boarding school St Francis D’Assisi in 1974 from Master Balthazar Fernandes, and played with the school band. His tunes caught the attention of Babla and Kanchan, the husband-wife musical duo when they attended an event at the school. He then went on to tour with their orchestra for 16 years, starting with a tour to Fiji in 1979. “I played on tours with Amitabh Bachchan and Jeetendra, too.” Later, he started Georgie Boy Band in 2002 and has been trumpeting across the city ever since. The Jesus Band is all set to play on December 25 at Our Lady of Vailankanni Shrine in Mira-Bhayandar. Before heading back to practice with the rest of the band, the Fereira father-daughter duo put their effort into perspective. “We play to keep the culture alive, to contribute to the music because who doesn’t love music, right?”
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