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Jazz in India: A Small Scene With a Big Heart

Jazz in India has never been a mass-market genre, but it has shaped far more music than its size suggests. Jazz musicians played on Bollywood scores, ran the nightclubs of Bombay and Kolkata, and built a fusion language — Indo-jazz — that mixed Indian classical scales with jazz improvisation. The scene is small, but its influence runs deep.

The early hubs

Calcutta was a hub for jazz in the late 1950s and 60s, with musicians like vocalist Pam Crain, pianist Louiz Banks, saxophonist Braz Gonsalves and guitarist Carlton Kitto. In Bombay, jazz players who could read music and write arrangements made a mark on film scores, giving jazz an Indian flavour in the process. Usha Uthup sang jazz numbers laced with indigenous masala, reaching a wider base of listeners.

Jazz Yatra and Louiz Banks

The 1978 Jazz Yatra was the first festival of its kind in India, held every two years, bringing international jazz talent to Bombay, Delhi and Kolkata. Louiz Banks became the scene's central figure: in 1979 he formed the Indo-Jazz Ensemble with Braz Gonsalves, composing on Indian classical scales with jazz rhythms and instruments like ghatam and thavil, and in 1980 he performed with Ravi Shankar in the suite Jazzmine at Jazz Yatra. In 1988 he composed the tune for the national-integration film "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara," and his 2008 collaboration "Miles from India," a tribute to Miles Davis, was nominated for a Grammy.

Why it endures

India's jazz scene endures because it never tried to copy anyone. Its players built a relationship with jazz through their own experiences, classical roots and local rhythms. Today, talent is emerging from smaller towns, with more venues and festivals creating platforms — proof that a small scene with a big heart can keep growing.

The players who built it

Jazz in India traces back to the first performances and recordings of the 1920s, with foreign bands arriving during the Second World War and a local scene taking shape after their departure. Early virtuosos like saxophonist Mickey Correa, trumpeter Chic Chocolate and pianist Solo Jacobs formed the foundation, while later figures like jazz vocalist Asha Puthli and pianist Madhav Chari made their mark — even though long periods abroad limited their influence at home. Banks himself went on to form the band Silk with Shankar Mahadevan and Sivamani, and played with international greats including Dizzy Gillespie. The lineage continues through younger players like his drummer son Gino Banks.

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