Mountains, Buddhism and Jazz

KATHMANDU, March 26: Legendary Bluesmen BB King once said, “Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy is playing blues like we play, he´s in high school. When he starts playing jazz, it is like going on to college, to a school of higher learning.” [break]

Thanks to Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory (KJC), Alliance Française and Infinity International, OZMA, a French jazz band, is all set to give Kathmanduites some higher lessons of jazz.

With fluctuation of genres and quirky improvisations, OZMA is definitely going to be turning heads when they perform at the Army Club in Tundikhel on Friday, March 27.

Date: March 27, 6 p.m.

Venue: Army Club Auditorium, Tundikhel

Tickets: Rs 800, Rs 400

Named after the NASA project and a character out of the Wizard of Oz, OZMA fuses rock and electronic with hints of psychedelic melodies against a backdrop of contemporary jazz.

“Our music doesn’t resemble the jazz we are used to. The only thing similar is the instruments that we use and nothing else,” says guitarist Adrien Dennefeld.

One of the best jazz bands of France, this is OZMA’s first time in Asia, Mathias Mahler, trombonist for OZMA, says, “We were shocked to know that there was a jazz club in Nepal and a conservatory where musicians like Mariano E Abello are working. Before coming over here it was either the mountains or Buddhism that identified the country to us”.

OZMA’s fans call their music ozmic, musicians call their style “jazzmetric-rhythmic-swinging-warmly-festive-dynamic-rough-explosive-music” but they modestly sum it up as, “only an attempt to pay our homage to the music masters of every genre that we grew up listening to”.

They say that their music comprises the “freeness of jazz with the power of electronica and rock, it is all about improvising in the ways no one has.” The wizards responsible for producing the quirky jazz form are Matthias Mahler on Trombone, Adrien Dennefeld on guitar, David Florsch on Saxophone, Stephane Scharle on drums and Edouard Sero-Guillaume on bass.

With 99% imagination and 1% improvisation, their music feels like the soundtrack to some psychedelic thriller. One of their songs starts off with a rap, followed by soothing sax and then blends the two with electronic effects and glimpses of blues and powerful rock riffs. It even has whiffs of the African tribal jazz along with Cuban and Brazilian palpates. It’s jazz at its best.

The band has already released two studio albums and will soon release their third album. Some of their latest songs will be performed during the week-long Miles Music Festival, here in Kathmandu.

“We are delighted to have a band like OZMA participate in our festival,” says Mariano E Abello, principal of KJC, “It will further put Nepal in the jazz map of the world.

OZMA will also be performing with various Nepali classical artistes fusing eastern with their own ‘ozmic’ sounds in the week-long festival.

Date: March 27, 6:00 p.m.

Venue: Army Club Auditorium, Tundikhel

Tickets: Rs 800 for 1st rows and Rs 400 for others.

For further details: www.milesmusicfestival.com

(All photos by Bikash Karki.)