Meet the piano man

Sometime in the late 90s, a teenager passed on a CD to his younger brother in South Delhi's Vasant Vihar. It featured music from Louis Armstrong, a seminal figure in jazz. Cut to 2017, and the younger brother is the face behind live music restaurant The Piano Man Jazz Club, a popular haunt in Delhi. Say hello to Arjun Sagar Gupta.

Gupta, whose musical adventure began with a guitar, turned to the piano in his teenage years. Starting with a small keyboard with some automated tunes, Gupta waited patiently till his parents bought him a better keyboard and enrolled him in the Delhi School of Music. But even though he was learning music on a regular basis, it wasn't meant to be his first career.

"Being a baniya, the path was clear. You do engineering, followed by MBA and then get yourself a good job – simple," laughs Gupta. But this less romantic path that he chose to follow, taking up a 9-5 job before starting his own tech company. Meanwhile, Gupta also went to Northeastern University in Boston on a Fulbright music scholarship for a two-month course in Fusion Arts in 2007. But had it not been for a fluke inspiration from an Art Cafe in Thimpu, Bhutan, he might not have forayed into the Food & Beverage industry, that eventually lead Gupta to his dream of running a music-based restaurant.

"It was a rough start with my initial venture Cake Away, where I found myself in the kitchen trying to understand production, which actually worked out very well for me," Gupta recalls. He then went on to open an art cafe The Piano Man Art Cafe in 2012, and The Piano Man Garden Cafe in 2014 before shutting shop to start the jazz club in 2015. What exactly is this jazz club, you ask. It is a love shack of art and gastronomy, where Gupta offers a musical supper experience accentuated by Eurasian food.

"During our initial days at the cafe and garden, we couldn't afford artists who offered to collaborate. So we used the nominal entry fee to bolster our in-house band's performances," he says. Space was also an issue. But these trying circumstances eventually led to the jazz club being born, a place that would offer live music everyday and had plenty of space spread across several floors – including a performance area, a green room for artists, a bar, a cafe for lunch, a bakery and a rooftop cafe.

Although the venues and themes kept changing, the name Piano Man remained a faithful inspiration. "The opening date was looming close and we had no name! I was at home one evening, playing the piano, when my father offered this suggestion. It clicked instantly," he recalls. The cafe was revved up with its signature piano soon after. "The investment was huge and it was a business risk. But it was something I wanted to do," is how Gupta puts it.

Luckily for him, the jazz club has been garnering impressive footfall since opening doors.

But Gupta was in no mood to let his dream project stagnate in technical success. To make the venture equally meaningful for both musicians and music lovers, he made it a point to give everyone – from international artists, experimental music troupes to budding city singers – a fair shot to showcase their sound at the Jazz Club. That said, Gupta has a soft spot for struggling Indie artists (independent / not signed onto a commercial label) who he actively seeks out. His eclecticism also extends to enthusiasm for diverse genres. "Our focus is on jazz, blues, western classical, but other sub-genres of music are equally welcome," he insists. Even mainstream Bollywood music, the sole black sheep in Gupta's motley pack, gets a pat on the back when bands improvise to create an original sound.

Determined to not let music turn into a mere business ploy, Gupta doesn't even stop people who want to enjoy the performances without placing an order. But like any artist, he does demand absolute silence. While the place is known for its jampacked evenings, efforts are on give it a vibrant day scene. "We are reorienting it to strike a chord as a day club as well, where people can have their lunch or unwind on the rooftop, while listening to some old MGM classic musicals," smiles the piano man.