Posts

Showing posts with the label Music

Goa’s Rock Gods

Image
Goa is one place where fame is not an impossible dream, as long as you possess the talent. Age does not seem to be a determining factor either as proven by the late thirties and forty something rockers of a music group called Bad Blood. Consisting of a crew of musicians from diverse backgrounds, Bad Blood is making Goa proud with their first single, 'Tomorrow’s Yesterday', which has aired on VH1, MTV Indies, R-Vision and 9XO. Nixon Soares was a college going teenager who wanted to make a bit of pocket money and indulge his passion for rock music at the same time. This was the beginning of Bad Blood. Only Nixon remains of the original line up that came together nearly twenty years ago. Today Bad Blood is made up of Blasio Pinto, Aurvile Rodrigues, Anthony Fernandes and Frazer Andrew Pacheco. Blasio Pinto, a pharmacist, lends his powerful tenor voice to the vocals of the band. For the most part, he performs with his band, Skye High, along with Aurvile Rodrigues. Aurvile is a soun

The Inspirational Musician

Image
The first time I heard Selwyn Menezes play was a pleasant surprise. Having been accustomed to village violinists squeaking out notes on improperly tuned violins, my surprise grew into tremendous appreciation as Selwyn worked his violin to produce upbeat melodious music, accompanied by the equally talented Omar de Loiola Pereira at Child’s Play India Foundation’s Monsoon Concert 2019. Selwyn is the quintessential Goan, brimming with love for his land and a sure sense of social awareness. He says, ‘I come from Curtorim, a scenic green village, untouched by the building mafia.’ After completing his schooling from Manovikas High School, Selwyn obtained a bachelor’s degree through correspondence from Osmania University. He opted for a correspondence course because by 16 he had already begun working as a music teacher at Music Circle. He finished his 8th grade in music from the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College London while he was in the 10th standard. By 18 years of age Selwyn was

Jazzing It up with Raga Rock

Image
Communicare Trust has been prodigious in the good work it has accomplished thus far by drawing the best out of young people through training in the arts. Some of the Trust’s collaborations have been with NGOs such as Bethesda Life Centre and Margaret Bosco Bal Sadan, leading to plays and other activities that explore and hone previously unbeknown skills of the children housed at these homes. Now Communicare brings us a musical called Raga Rock based on the life of Goa’s famed jazz musician Braz Gonsalves. The musical, which bears the same name as Braz’ own jazz album, is the result of a collaboration with Lotus Film and TV Production and the NGO Help India. Raga Rock , the musical and the jazz concert which will follow, are aimed at a jazz revival and commemoration of Braz’ life. The programme will take place at Kala Academy, Panaji on the 14th of June 2019 and at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao on the 15th of June 2019 at 7pm respectively. Jazz saxophonist Braz Gonsalves was instrumental in

An Advocate for Music Education

Image
It is a rare breed of humans who look for more than establishing their own worth and engaging in the pursuit of ambition. Indian-American Lara Saldanha is one of that rare breed. 14 January 2018 saw her playing a benefit concert for Goa’s own Child’s Play (India) Foundation, which was founded by Dr Luis Dias to bring the skill of reproducing Western Classical to underprivileged children on the lines of El Sistema. The 25-year-old pianist entertained the audience with a programme that included works by Bach, Haydn, Clara Schumann, and Messiaen. Lara Saldanha has a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and studied under the acclaimed pianist Alan Chow. She has an additional bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern University, USA and is at present in the process of attaining a Master of Music at The New School’s Mannes School of Music in New York City, being mentored by Vladimir Valjarević. An accomplished pianist in her own right, Lara has won prizes at competitions such as Gen

Sky High and Beyond

Image
Sky High, Goa’s home grown band, has proven just how beloved it is with it endurance through the years. After twenty years of being in the music business, the band is still going strong with most of the bandmates now in their forties. Instead of taking it easy, these passionate music lovers have the aspiration of releasing an album of their original scores. The band came together when Blasio Pinto, Aurvile Rodrigues, Collins Dias, John Sequeira and Elvis Alves met through mutual friends and discovered their shared affinity towards music. In 2014 John Sequeira left owing to ill health and Anthony Fernandes took his place. Though some of the band members have regular jobs, it does not seem to deter them from coming together for band rehearsals. ‘We manage somehow,’ says Blasio Pinto, understating the zeal these men possess for music. He continues, ‘When you like something, you make time no matter what.’ It is when you see Sky High in action and watch the forty something Blasio, who is th

A Music Festival for Peaceful Coexistence

Image
The journey towards the Ketevan World Sacred Music Festival begins with the birth of an idea to promote peaceful coexistence, an ambitious project spearheaded by Professor Santiago Lusardi Girelli who has been part of the Visiting Research Professor Programme of the Anthony Gonsalves Chair in Western Music for the last two years. ‘Last year we had some collaborations with a sitar player, a table player, a bansuri player, an Indian singer. So from those experiences I thought we should try to build a full festival of sacred worship,’ says Prof Girelli of his motivation to bring different traditions and religious music together under one standard. It started with initial discussions about the venture with Goa University, some members of the Goa University Choir and Rudolf Ludwig Kammermeier, who partners with Prof Girelli in his work in Goa. Later the project was broached with the Church in Goa, the Archaeological Survey of India, some European universities, the Government of Goa, and the

For the Love of Music

Image
Music is this man’s life: that is the first impression of Aurvile Rodrigues who has his own recording studio called Audio Masters, connected to his house. At the age of four he took to the drums and has been playing since then. He plays the bass guitar apart from the drums but his chief preoccupation is his recording studio. Aurvile sings too, and has sung many Konkani duets with his wife Trisca of DnT fame. He reminisces about his younger years studying in Kuwait. Aurvile’s father was employed with a radio station in Kuwait and as a boy Aurvile would help his father and this played no small role in prompting his desire to work as a sound engineer. He says, ‘There I learned to put spools…in the old days they had spools for recording. Now everything is computerised. I always had this thing about going to the studio and sitting down with the announcers.’ After the 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, Aurvile came back to Goa with his family and has been playing professionally in bands ever s

Andalusian Music Meets the Oud

Image
An Argentinian by birth and an Italian by descent, Ignacio Lusardi Monteverde was born into a musically inclined family and it is no surprise that he took to music like a fish to water. ‘The earliest memories of music I have must be listening to my brothers playing. At home there was always the company of live music coming from a Spanish guitar and an electric guitar,’ says Ignacio, who began learning classical guitar at a very young age in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The country that was once under the Spanish rule has much to offer by way of blissfully enthralling music.  Ignacio explains his proclivity towards the guitar, especially the Spanish Flamenco guitar, ‘It just started naturally… did not require a decision.’ It seemed almost inevitable as it is commonplace to have a guitar in every Argentinian home. Besides, South American music, which is something all Argentinians grow up with, is usually rendered with the aid of a guitar as it is with the Argentinian Tango. ‘In times when th

The Power of Jazz

Image
Music should be judged by the images, sensations and emotions it helps one conjure up rather than by purely technical standards. Jazz is one such genre of music that defies being straitjacketed by a particular definition. Seen as a universal unifier, jazz was conferred a privileged position by UNESCO by declaring April 30 as International Jazz Day in 2011. In December 2012, the United Nations General Assembly formalised the decision. The goal is to foster respect for human rights and freedom of expression, encourage intercommunity dialogue, promote peace and gender equality, and create a platform for the youth to be instrumental in the movement for social change. It draws the attention of various schools, artists, academicians, historians and communities to learn about the origins of jazz and appreciate the power it wields to impact the world. An entire month is devoted to the education of the public about jazz. April is Jazz Appreciation Month, which ends with International Jazz Day.

Hope to the Beat of Music

Image
When something precious is taken away from you, Divine Providence enables compensation of significant magnitude. However, it takes a resilient spirit to recognise and embrace this ‘gift’ in the throes of adversity. For Jolene Dias, her life could have fallen apart when she was confronted with a seemingly insurmountable catastrophe, but for the support of her mother and her reliance on the power of God. Jolene began life as normal as any human could relatively be. At the age of fourteen she was dealt a devastating blow: she was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. Before this she was an avid sportsperson, participating in football, tennikoit, badminton. She was learning Bharatanatyam too. It was a shock to her parents who had seen her as an active child. ‘Who would expect a person who was into sports and dancing to be handicapped at a later stage?’ says Jolene, who also suffers from ADHD. She is very demanding of love and attention from her family, friends and others, because of her condi

Moving and Shaking it with Sherrin

Image
Sherrin Varghese appeared on the music scene as the effervescent Cherokee with the famed Rubber Band from the hit talk show Movers & Shakers . He wooed the audience with his pristine, melodious tones. With next to no training in music other than being part of his school choir, Sherrin was able to make the most of the opportunity to climb the ladder to musical fame. Sherrin has a diploma in mechanical engineering and had one more year to complete his bachelor’s degree in the same when the monotony of the education system and bad teaching began to wear him down and he opted for a career in the music industry. The music bug had already bitten Sherrin while still in engineering college. Before Movers & Shakers and during his engineering days he was involved in rock bands and had won best vocals (IIT Mood Indigo). ‘I literally strolled into it... didn't really look for a career in it till it came to me,’ says Sherrin about his move from engineering to melody. After auditioning f