Iconic singer-songwriter Jim Reeves may have died in an air crash over the hills of Tennessee, USA 46 years ago, but in a small corner of south India, Reeves lives.
Iconic singer-songwriter Jim Reeves may have died in an air crash over the hills of Tennessee, USA 46 years ago, but in a small corner of south India, Reeves lives.
Or, at least, his fans in Mangalore believe they can keep his memory alive through festivals featuring Jim Reeves songs, with Reeves sing-alikes commanding a premium when it comes to live shows. The coastal city can boast of being the only Indian city to have organised a tribute to Reeves every year for the last seven years with a 20-piece orchestra that features all the instruments used by Reeves. These include three violins, two trumpets, muted trumpet, a saxophone, acoustic and electric guitars, acoustic drums and other percussion instruments. Missing prominently are the electronic instruments favoured by modern musicians. “We have deliberately barred all electronic instruments. Reeves never used any harsh-sounding instruments. An orchestrated effect of unplugged instruments and his great vocals was what Jim Reeves was all about,” says Max Karkada, whose voice is said to contain echoes of the great singer’s.
“But this time we have included a slide trombone, needed for a special song of Jim Reeves. But we are making a concession only this time,” says Arun Shiri, a senior musician. The show this time will feature 30 all-time Jim Reeves hits including all-time favourites Danny Boy, Old Kalarhari, Heartbreak in Silhouette, a medley leading with Yonder Comes a Sucker, Is It Really Over and many others. Karkada will also sing that special song But You Love Me Daddy with his son.
Oscar Weltha, who plays the sax for the group, says, “The group is all worked up. Jim Reeves’ music is not just music – it’s an obsession. I know hardcore Jim Reeves fans in the city who have spent half their lives listening to him and they would not want even one single note out of place. It is hard work.”
For Karkada, Jim Reeves is a one man religion. His home by the riverside and the large coconut plantation at Haleyangadi near Mangalore is full of pictures of Reeves. On a corner of his estate stands a concrete replica of Reeve’s guitar in concrete, which has become a pilgrimage centre for Mangalore’s budding guitarists.
“We started it as a private concert in 2002 on a corner of my estate after lighting a candle to ‘Gentleman Jim’ on his death anniversary on July 31, but we did not know that Reeves was still singing in the hearts of thousands of his fans all over Mangalore. But now we have musicians joining from Kerala and Goa, making it the West Coast of India tribute to Jim Reeves,” says Karkada. Two trumpeters Nigel Simon from Kozhikode and Theo Alvares from Goa have joined the event since last year.
In a special e-mail interview with DNA, Ray Baker, manager of Jim Reeves’s estate, said: “It is so heartening to know there are so many fans of my Jim in Mangalore and they remember him and even play a tribute every year for the last seven years. In the USA, his own country, there are tributes paid to him but the tributes paid in India are special considering the limited following Jim had there.”
Mangalore is known to be a music-mad city that has a special fondness for American singer-songwriters who reached their peaks in the 60s; apart from Jim Reeves, musicians such as Tom Jones, Elvis Presley, Engelbert Humperdinck, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Matt Munroe, Harry Belafonte and many other greats have huge followings in the city. “My group has singers who can play their numbers. I am still looking for a singer who can play numbers of Ray Charles,” says Kerkada.
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