HYDERABAD: Jazz aficionados in Hyderabad had a gala time witnessing some of the best bands from across India performing against the backdrop of the magnificent Quli Qutb Shahi Tombs on Sunday night. The garden amphitheatre at Deccan Park saw scores of Hyderabadis walk in to watch some bands play at the fourth edition of the Hyderabad International Jazz Festival. The star of the night, however, was German Ambassador Walter J Lindner, who played the flute along with New Delhi-based The Revisit Project. He opens up with CE about performing in Hyderabad, what jazz in today’s generation is like and more.
Walter has been to Hyderabad before and speaks of the city, “The city has a very special vibe, and I love how tolerant the people of Hyderabad are. It is different from the other Indian cities I’ve visited, I couldn’t put a name tag yet, but it’s beautiful and diverse. It’s well built, has cleaner air and has a good combination of modern and ancient living.” Of his favourite memory in the city he excitedly shares, “I visited the Mecca Masjid this time, I got to go onto the roof and took a good picture!”
Walter breaks into broken Hindi saying, “Mera Hindi bahut acchi nahi hai,” when asked if he has picked up any words from the Dakhni language here, during his stay. “My Hindi teacher would kill me if he saw me learning another language!” he laughs.
On what he thinks the jazz of today is like, he says, “Jazz has a very wide definition. There are different styles that come under it — free jazz, funk jazz, jazz-rock, rhythm and blues, salsa and reggae and more. Jazz has very different connotations for different people. What the older generation looks at as jazz.” And on what jazz means to him, he says, “Jazz to me means freedom, there’s always this scope for improvisation, unlike certain things you need to adhere to, when it comes to classical music.”
How he leverages this freedom during his shows, Walter shares, “You see, only 5 percent of what I play on stage is how the music for the song was written, the rest is improvisation. I react to the audience I play for, I react to the temperature, I react and improvise according to different things around me as I play. Jazz sets me free.”
Finding it very difficult to answer, but he goes ahead and tries to name his favourites in the genre of jazz: Pianist and composer Keith Jarrett, saxophone player David Sanborn, and pianist George Duke, among many others.
Apart from jazz, rock music is something Walter enjoys listening to. Funk and smooth jazz come next. He says he tries to keep himself updated with modern artists, and looks to his daughter to help him out with that. “I listen to them on the radio, and can identify many of them that are writing great music, but I can get better.”
On a parting note, Walter says, “The fourth edition of the festival shows how Hyderabadis love jazz music. Being able to perform live, on such a sacred ground (he points to the tombs that were lit up), is an honour. The fact that so many people turned up to the event despite the Covid scare shows how many love, and many others, are willing to understand jazz as a genre. That makes this festival a success.”