ENJOYABLE, CLASSIC, STRAIGHT AHEAD JAZZ BY THE ADRIAN D’SOUZA QUARTET

STANDARDS AND MORE WITH STRONG AND INVENTIVE MUSICIANS

Secunderabad Club  8^th May 2017

Written for The Hyderabad Western Music Foundation www.hydmusic .com

    What a good time we had! Yes, we really had good time, a great time actually. It was a delight to hear some superb, ‘straight ahead’ jazz music - music that was not influenced by any sort of fusion, rock oriented beats or heavy electronic effects, but Jazz in its most elemental form: jazz standards, swinging rhythms, bossa nova, and the blues.

     And responsible for giving us such a good time was the Adrian D’Souza Quartet comprising Adrian D’Souza on Drums, Karan Joseph on Keyboard and bass, Lydia Hendrikje Hornung, Vocals, and Pawan Benjamin on Tenor saxophone.

     But before these strong and inventive musicians came on stage and put a brand new spin on some of the old Jazz standards with mainstream jazz, Latin music and blues ballads, the evening began with a performance of a few songs by a local eleven member vocal ensemble the ‘Deccan Voices’.

      The Deccan Voices began with a rendition of an old Duke Ellington jazz standard ‘I’m Beginning to See the Light’. A pop song by Toto, ‘Africa’. A hymn, ‘All Things bright and Beautiful’, and a choral version of ‘Take 5’, the eleven singer choral ensemble ended with ‘Balleilaka’ a Tamil song by AR Rehman. The ‘Deccan Voices’ directed by Joe Koster on keyboards looked like they were enjoying themselves and dealt with the rhythms and harmonies well. All-in-all a good performance!

      Let’s get back to the main event, and the music and the musicians of the Adrian D’Souza Quartet .

     Though the leader of the band is usually the main protagonist, with Adrian D'Souza on drums, it is an ensemble cast, with every musician playing their part. Yet Adrian does steer, guide and support by listening and responding. Adrian’s lightly swinging drumming is spare and elegant, and sometimes quite rambunctious as the tune needs, but his drumming is always in good taste, with a refined emotional sensitivity to the feeling of the song.  

    Lydia Hendrikje Hornung, has a light, jazz soaked, crystalline tone of voice that is sweet and flexible, textured and emotionally strong. Most of all she is so refreshingly easy to listen to. She demonstrated super vocal control, elasticity and command in the vocal twists and nuances when she improvised. Generally an insightful, able and classy singer.

   Karan Joseph on the keyboard is the backbone of the quartet. Karan is a resourceful arranger, very expressive keyboard player, sometimes a powerhouse who cuts loose, opening up free-flying improvisation, sometimes quiet and sensitive, hunched in concentration, sometimes head-back and smiling, neck stretching with bird-like movements, always maintaining an inventive but steady bass with his left hand.

    Pawan Benjamin, what can one say about this tall, thin, long haired young Tenor Saxophone player, who plays such touching, tender, and sometimes blistering and blazing solo’s; his saxophone sounding like a thoughtful voice as though he was thinking through his solos, with every phrase always connecting to the other and being completely meaningful.

     The audience saw the inner enjoyment that the musicians felt while the Quartet  played, not the overt show of rock musicians, but simple smiles of pleasure when the musicians heard one of them or the other playing a passage that that they had just created, and which grew wings and soared away, whether it was the singer singing an emotional passage or the keyboardist playing a piquant passage, or the saxophone saying something so meaningful, or the drummer playing an appropriate variation, they shared the pleasure of the musicians bringing out the best in each other, and giving pleasure to the audience at the same time.

     Whether the Adrian D’Souza Quartet played a beautifully put together slow blues, or a Brazilian samba, or a ballad or a jazz standard like 'Tenderly', or ‘East of the Sun’, or ‘Speak Low’, or the beautifully rendered ‘Moonlight in Vermont’, or a Wayne Shorter classic, the music was about joy. It was not music played for musicians. It was music played for everyone to enjoy. It was music that was completely accessible, completely understandable, completely empathetic. it was music that left the audience feeling good and elated. This was without doubt, the best Jazz show that the twin-cities have seen in the last two years.

      And for this pleasure we must thank The Secunderabad Club, Bharati Cement, The Hyderabad Western Music Foundation and Goethe Zentrum.

All Photographs by multi-man Joe Koster