One of winter’s main calendar events in the city, the Kolkata Jazzfest 2018 kicked off with aplomb last Friday at the Dalhousie Institute courtyard. 

The opening act and by far the best act of the festival, MND FLO from USA, won over hearts immediately with their wonderful compositions and mature playing. 
To categorize this melange of sophisticated, surprising, syncopated sound is not to do them justice. They enthralled an eager crowd with brilliant compositions like ‘Oddessy’ and ‘SMDMA’, melding their sophisticated jazz sensibilities into a seamless whole.

The second act for day 1, Ozma created some melodic jazz typical of their native France, however, the over dependence of relying on sight-reading their compositions took away some of the energy that the previous band so successfully built. 
Supergombo, the last act of the evening came on next and their North African inflected world music hit the right notes with the crowd and immediately got the crowd dancing to their infectious groove, with stirring tunes like ‘Refuge’.

Day 2 began with some excellent music and compositions with the French Latin-jazz Adrien Brandeis Quintet. Playing from their 2017 album Euforia, they were an immediate hit with the music aficionados and the crowd. 

The local flavours were supremely supplied by the Rohan Ganguly Ensemble, the second act of the evening. A lifelong DI member, Rohan dished out refreshingly mature tunes from his upcoming solo album and clearly marking a ground in modern jazz with his John Scofield influenced guitar work. Drawing the largest crowd of all three evenings, almost everyone from the local music fraternity came out to hear and support Rohan’s band.

Klein from Luxembourg closed the evening with some melancholic, misty mood with dark tones. 

Day 3 started off Neils Klein’s Tubes and Wires which showcased some thought provoking atmospheric music which the German band indicated as Sci-fi Jazz. 

The penultimate act, Gauthier Toux Trio kept the atmospheric mood alive with their melodic yet complex tunes. Hailing from Lausanne, Switzerland, the band has managed to blend everything from pop to hip-hop into their sound.

The closing act of the festival, Worldservice Project from London,  took up the energy level with their thumping grooves and tight, compositionally Zappa-esque approach to polyrhythmic playing.  Putting on a visually arresting theatrical live performance thrown in for good measure, they are easily one of the finest live acts in Europe, today. 

One must, as a jazz lover, congratulate Varun Desai and Littlei for keeping the Kolkata Jazzfest alive amidst mounting financial and operational difficulties. His passion for bringing a wide variety of world class bands form across the globe annually to the DI courtyard is a boon to the city.