All that Ozmic jazz

KATHMANDU, March 28: Kathmanduites finally got to hear what jazz metric-rhythmic-swinging-warmly-festive-dynamic-rough-explosive is really all about. They could finally sum up the complex description of the uncanny sounds of OZMA, the French quintet jazz band, in one word: brilliant. It was jazz all right but nothing like what the Himalayan republic had ever heard before. [break]

Consisting of freewheeling notes and wildest improvisations, OZMA’s ‘ozmic’ performance was both theatrical and musical masterpiece. French Ambassador to Nepal, Gilles Henry Garrault, called them ‘probably the best band in the French Jazz stage’ and Mariano E Abello, director of Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory, said, “it was an honour to have them performing in Nepal”.

OZMA´s was the climactic performance of the Miles Music Festival organized by KJC, Alliance Française Kathmandu and Infinity International. Their weird yet soulful performance in the Army Club auditorium at Tundikhel Friday evening etched them out as one of the most exuberantly emphatic Nepal has ever seen.

“Please remember that we are not a rock band”, said Stephane Scharle, drummer for OZMA, repeatedly. But no one in the audience believed him. They were rock musicians in jazz clothing.

David Florsch showed his immense power on the saxophone, playing some of the most unusual metrical compositions ever. The soulfulness of sax was there, but not in ways we were used to. It was sleek, slapdash and breathless, literally. You were both awed and scared listening to him run through the notes like a wild mustang rampaging through the wilderness.

Accompanying him on trombone was Mathias Mahler, who was both erratic and immaculate. They chased around one another, giving the audience the musical ride of their life. It resembled the storyline of some mysterious novel; no one knew what was to follow and when the mysteries unfolded the revelation was startling.

Each instrument was a character apart, and smart, secretive and seductive. Calling the whole performance mesmerizing would simply be understatement. It was thrilling drama, thematically melancholy and resonated influences ranging from Radiohead to Miles Davis to Thelonious Monk. It was jazz, it was funk, it was rock and it was electronica, it was bebop and confusing, yet chaotically sophisticated and mellifluous.

Later in the evening, OZMA played something we could identify with the soundtrack of Star Wars. Rich variation in the rhythmics with improvised electronic sounds from Adrien Dennefeld´s guitar and thumping bass from Edouard Sero-Guillaume elucidated what ‘ozmic’ was really about. It was contemporary jazz and rock fused with futuristic euphonies.

Even for people who didn’t like jazz and its tedious metrics, it was an event not to be forgotten. Never before were people seen banging heads and swinging in their chairs to what was supposed to be jazz.

In about two hours, OZMA didn’t just play music but showcased a hypnotic concoction of “improvisation derived from the inspiration of the cosmos and the maestros of music”.

OZMA will be further showcasing the concoction alongside Nepali folk musicians and other international artistes at the Miles Music Festival‘s Fusion Finale Concert at Dhokaima Cafe in Patan on Sunday, March 29th from 06:30pm. Tickets are priced NRs 999.

(All photos by Bijay Rai.)