International Jazz Day: All about Jazz

On International Jazz Day today, musicians Vasundhara Vee and Mallika Barot (Ranjeet Barot’s daughter) share their thoughts on the genre.

VASUNDHARA VEE

Jazz is an umbrella term. It has taken a long time to develop and has changed form, shape and sound periodically since its very inception. To my awareness, it’s  the widest and most adaptive of the artforms that I know. Jazz, because of the way it functions, also gives rise to a very specific culture within the musician community, of collaboration, shared repertoire and showcasing individuality.

The necessity to actually showcase personal vision is paramount, not just in solos or improvisation. Playing with the same five individuals, the same band led by me will sound vastly different from if it were led by our guitar player or our drummer. Artistes who have influenced me are  Gretchen Parlato, Richard Bona, Carmen McRae, Sanjay Divecha and Cassandra Wilson.

MALLIKA BAROT

There are so many artistes who find a way to connect their talents in the genre of jazz to other styles of music, creating a really interesting mix of melodic and harmonic structures that somehow work really well together. Artistes that I find interesting for this reason are, Stevie Wonder, Esperanza Spalding, Robert Glasper and Hiatus Kaiyote.