Francois Jeanneau . Uli Lenz . Muthu Kumar Varadarajan - JAZZ CONNECT

. Francois Jeanneau - Soprano Saxophone 

. Uli Lenz – Piano . Muthu Kumar Varadarajan - Tabla/percussion

     The musicians are from three nations, France - Francois Jeanneau, Germany - Uli Lenz, and Muthu Kumar from India, and they made music that is hot, tuneful, complex, modern, brilliant and most importantly, marvellous to listen to!

     The music was not for a second, not entertaining. It was compelling and amusing; it was swinging and it was contemporary; it was everything one wanted to hear in Jazz, it was creative, it was emotional, there was improvisation of a high level; the arrangements and rhythms were intellectually stimulating, and with every tune they played, one felt satisfied and happy for the privilege of being at the Emerald Hall, Taj Krishna, to listen to these great musicians.  And for this privilege we have to thank the Alliance Francaise, Goethe Zentrum Hyderabad and the French Consulate General in Bangalore, and the German Consulates General in Bangalore and Chennai, because this concert is a result of the Elysee Treaty of cooperation between Germany and France.

     The musicians, Francois Jeanneau, Uli Lenz and Muthu Kumar were a perfect match. Every note they played, every rhythm they explored, every tune they interpreted, was done with impeccable understanding and coordination. The Jazz was modern, European. The feeling of the music was dazzling and cheerful, and the artists were masters of their instruments.

     Many of the compositions they played were by Francois Jeanneau the French veteran, who has been a part of the French jazz scene since the 1960’s.  His compositions were elegant expositions of modern jazz, the arrangements complex yet very interesting, and very like classical compositions; one could hear a flow from one movement or mood to another. His soprano saxophone sound - bright and smooth, his playing - fluent and cadenced, he was a true master of this genre of music. One of his compositions ‘Kotor’, was named after a town on the Adriatic sea.  Another was called ‘Bric-a-Brac’ with a piano introduction like a church organ interlude which went on to be a rhythmically intricate and interesting work of art. And as Uli, the pianist, said later, “it was like an opera”! Another Francois Jeanneau composition was a ballad called ‘Juje’, a place in Senegal.

     Uli Lenz is a master of the keyboard and in his compositions, ‘Darling’, ‘Elle’ and ‘Berlin’, -the last named after his home town- he displayed his expertise in jazz, as a composer, arranger and pianist. He showed himself to be a towering musician, an entertaining artist, and a talented skillful pianist. All his compositions were highly syncopated, swinging, funky and melodious.His fingers dancing over the keys, in turns tip toeing, tap dancing, hammering and pounding the keys. Both hands showing the same dexterity and willingness to improvise; unbelievable chords and melodies wrought from the structure of the compositions. And through it all there was so much joy expressed. Even the pianist’s body participating in the pleasure of performance, with his body weaving and swaying to the music that he was producing. This too was a master class of piano playing.

     And there just a few superlatives left after what went before to describe the percussion of Muthu Kumar. His ability to keep time is metronomic. A master of time! And watching him play is as entertaining as listening to him. But what really stood out with Muthu Kumar Varadarajan is his sense of music, his ability for interplay. His ability to adapt, to innovate and to change to suit the various moods and timings and riffs that appear out of nowhere in the compositions while playing with these two masters of jazz. His ability to produce the right sort of rhythmic percussion to suit the mood of the moment, playing on his array of percussion instruments, chimes, cymbals, bells etc. perfectly, to augment and bring out and raise the stakes in the music. Of course it goes without saying that he is a master of the tabla. A creative artist exemplar!

     And so it went! A wonderful, well spent evening. Thanks to a trio of masters of music.

 July 10^th 2010