Prior to their debut gig in India, French band Pj5 hopes to introduce Mumbai's jazz aficionados to a unique sound influenced by multiple genres
(From left) Alexandre Perrot (double bass), Maxence Ravelomanatsoa (tenor saxophone), Paul Jarret (guitar), Ariel Tessier (drums) and Leo Pellet (trombone)
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Have you ever been influenced by Indian music, maybe fusion jazz of the sort that Mahavishnu Orchestra played?
We doubt it. First of all, we don't have much knowledge about Indian music; we discovered classical Indian music only a few years ago. We feel like it's a whole world to explore - rich, complex and deep music. We would need decades to study it hard enough to blend it with my music. This is all about respect, and fascination for the musicians playing Indian music. But musicians as important as The Beatles or John Coltrane have been a lot into this music, and we have heard them a lot. So we are sure Indian music has influenced us in an indirect way.
Floor Dance, your new album, begins with an intro that sounds like something that, say, a band like Death Cab for Cutie might make. How is fluidity of genres important to make jazz music?
Ha! We just Googled that band, now we have to give them a listen! Well, from what we know, jazz music has always been evolving by fitting in elements of some other styles. We think it started a long time ago when immigrants arrived in the USA from Europe, and slaves came from Africa, with their own musical traditions. These influences have continued until recently, so yes, we guess fluidity is part of the DNA of jazz.
In the 21st century, when jazz is evolving, with all sorts of modern sounds becoming a part of the genre's lexicon, how relevant are the standards set by the American Songbook?
This is subjective, but we have felt the necessity to study the American standards for years and years, and we still sometimes play them. We have been studying bebop language, learning hundreds of songs from Broadway musicals, transcribing a lot of jazz solos, because we feel jazz has a history, and even if we always knew we would never be a great bebop outfit, we needed this to build our own personal language. It's about legitimacy. And this is what we have been focusing on for a couple of years now. This background and a relative understanding of this music history, has enabled us to craft our own personal way of expression. But a lot of great musicians we love never felt this need, and we respect this. It's everyone's choice.
What are your plans for the first trip to India?
Unfortunately, we have five gigs in five days, in different venues so we won't have much time to enjoy India. What a shame! We swear to do better next time! But we would love to attend classical Indian music concerts, and spend some time to gauge the atmosphere and see how people live here.
What can the audience expect from your show in the city?
We will mostly play some tunes from the upcoming album, and of course, from our previous ones too. I don't want to spoil anything, but it's the first time we are playing our music outside Europe. We wonder how the audience will welcome it.
ON: April 26, 9 pm onwards
AT: The Quarter, Royal Opera House, Mathew Road, Opera House, Girgaum.
CALL: 8329110638
LOG ON TO: insider.in
ENTRY: Rs 749 onwards
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