Category Archives Indojazz

“Unity in Diversity” – A Harmony of Sounds

WTV Channel 44 (Screening of documentary)

Repeat Screening Monday 22/6/2015 @ 8pm

Two of Perth’s living musical treasures Arthur Gracias from India and Tam Thai from Vietnam tell us their life stories and then join together in a jam session with their nationally distinctive guitars, creating a harmony in sound. They along with our many migrants have made Australia a culturally richer place.

Music Director, Composer and Arranger – Arthur Gracias

Directed – Guido Negro and Peter Jefferey

Produced – Peter Jefferey (OAM)

Indojazz moments – Steve Potts and Arthur Gracias

Arthur –

I met Steve Potts through Steve Lacy another great Sax player with whom Potts and my self were associated. Potts came to India to do music for a film “La Nuit “ in the early 80’s at the time I was bandleader at the Great Eastern Hotel, Calcutta. Potts performed with us for almost a month and we also did a milestone concert at La Martiniere’s which was attended by a few thousand people. In that span of time we built up a close rapport which is still continuing.

Potts came from a musical family (just like me) and was born in Ohio, performed in New York and around the US. Steve Lacy and Potts shifted to Paris where they were given due recognition for their dedication to their art. Hopefully we should be collaborating again soon. Unfortunately Steve Lacy passed away a few years ago.

Here are a few pieces we performed together. Listen for the improvisations and the interactions and developments between the sax and guitar.


Letter from Steve Potts


Indojazz moments – Herbie Hancock and Arthur Gracias

Herbie Hancock on piano and Arthur Gracias on guitar.

Renowned jazz pianist Herbie Hancock in the company of Arthur Gracias in 1980, Culcutta, India. Herbie was on his way to play for the King of Thailand.

Currently Herbie Hancock is the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Intercultural Dialogue (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in support of International Jazz Day which is held on the 30th April each year.

“International Jazz Day is a means to highlight, support, and leverage the unifying attributes of music through worldwide celebratory events and activities on 30th April each year,” said Herbie Hancock. “On International Jazz Day, jazz is celebrated, studied, and performed around the world for 24 hours straight. Collaborations abound among jazz icons, scholars, composers, musicians, dancers, writers, and thinkers who embrace the beauty, spirit, and principles of jazz, freely sharing experiences and performances in our big cities and in our small towns, all across our seven continents.”

“Jazz has been the voice of freedom for so many countries over the past half century .”

More information about Herbie Hancock, and International Jazz Day can be found here:

Herbie Hancock’s website

UNESCO website – International Jazz Day Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock

From Perth, Via Culcutta – Guitar Jazz and Archival Photos

Finding Carlton, Uncovering the story of Jazz in India

http://bluerhythm.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/from-perth-via-calcutta-guitar-jazz-and-archival-photos/

Original Article

With permission from Arthur Gracias, a pioneering and respected Calcutta jazzman, now settled in Perth..Arthur was one of the earliest jazz musicians in India to seriously study Indian Classical music.. he was ahead of his time..Arthur left Calcutta for Perth about seven years ago. He currently performs and teaches in Australia.

FROM ARTHUR:
“I have attached a few photographs of the 60′s performing at the Grand Hotel( Scherazade)
left standing is Lenny D’souza (drums) Michael Dias, Alto Sax and Clarinet,Hector Cranenburg, Double Bass, Arthur Gracias, Guitar, Felix Torcato, Piano. we used to play Bebop,Swing etc. (Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Wes Montgomery, Ramsey Lewis etc.)

With Felix Torcato at the Scherazade

(2) performance at Prince’s (Grand Hotel) .Sonny Lobo (piano)Rubin Robeiro (jazz vocalist) Jimmy Sam’s (Trumpet/violin) Michael Dias, (Tenor/Alto Saxes/Clarinet/violin) Bostio Fernandes, Bouble Bass, (sitting left) Lester Rozario,( Drums) Arthur Gracias, Guitar. Custod Silveira, Tenor/Alto saxes/clarinet/violin. During the period we used to perform big band jazz such as Duke Ellington, Count basie, etc.at night and Classical music for the lunch sessions everyday, Sonny used to import the orchestrations from the Uk.and USA.

Charlie Smith ’65 etc { Who was Charlie Smith ?, does anyone know ? }

With Sonny Lobo at Princes

With Charlie Smith

In 1972 I performed the first Indo jazz concert with the Great Tabla player Ustad Nanku Maharaj,Dulal Lahiri, Indian classical Violin and myself Guitar, at Rabindra Sadan.”

First Indojazz 1972

And now you has Indo-jazz

West Australian Indojazz Review

The West Australian, Stephen Bevis

4 September 2006

Not many Musicians can claim to have invented a new genre.

Arthur Gracias has not only done that, he has created his own instrument to play it on.

The guitarist, keyboardist and composer has built an international reputation as the originator of Indo-jazz – a fusion of contemporary Indian raga and jazz.

Born in India but now living in Perth, Gracias has scored music for award-winning Indian films Yatria, Gudia, Beyond the Himalayas, Patang and Dekha, and has performed with Herbie Hancock, Gunther Klatt and Steve lacy.

In concert, his fingers fluently negotiate a twin-necked 18-string instrument based on a 1940’s Harmony Archtop guitar with an added 12-string Indian-style fingerboard turned to give a sitar-sounding shimmer.

The old Harmony guitar belonged to his uncle and Gracias learnt to play on it from the age of four.

“It is of immense sentimental value to me,” he says.  His Indo-jazz Archtop will be the centre piece of his performance to launch his CD, Night Raga, with his three-piece band called, fittingly enough, Indojazz, for the Perth Jazz Society tonight.

Gracias, who moved to Perth four years ago but tours regularly in India and Europe, formed Indojazz with Manoli Vouyoucalos on bass and Mohan Sathyanath on traditional Indian instruments mridangam, ghatam and ganjira in 2003.

They will also perform music from the gypsy musical migration from North India to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Spain and North Africa.