A Friday night date with a jazz quartet

Kolkata jazz aficionados were in for a treat as a jazz quartet took a restobar in a five-star establishment by storm on Friday night. The Sumith Ramachandran Quartet graced the stage with their energetic performance, featuring Bihu Mukherjee on the drums, Aditya Servaia on the bass, Pradyumna Manot, a. k. a “Paddy”, on the keys and Sumith Ramachandran on his guitar. Guests chatted about the revival of jazz in Kolkata and the importance of venues that support jazz music. They added that it was encouraging to have teachers of the genre like Sumith and Paddy showing us how it’s done. The second half of the set included a surprise as jazz vocalist Ahona Sen performed The Girl From Ipanema. The audience was left awestruck as she put up a soulful performance. Talking about the direction the band chose to follow in terms of style, Paddy said, “My only aim in life is to enjoy; everything else is pseudo-intellectual and stretches it all out”. Sumith on his part spoke about how the music was all about the coming together of like-minded musicians and music lovers at a suave setting such as the venue for the night.


— Ayush Chakraborty