Sandhya Sanjana live at Goa Chitra

by Jazz Goa
(Goa, India)

Goa Chitra presented Indo-jazz fusion diva Sandhya Sanjana live in concert with her band 'Random Access Melody' featuring Vishnu Prabhu on bansuri, Bob Tinker on trumpet, Xavier Peres on keyboards, Colin D'Cruz on bass and Dennis Coelho on drums.

Sandhya co-founded India's pioneering fusion band 'Divya' in the early eighty's before migrating to Amsterdam where she went about recording and performing her own compositions with artists from all over the world. Her recently launched album, also called 'Random Access Melody', has recieved rave reviews in the international world music arena and her current live performance repertoire is largely based on tracks from this album.

The concert drew a close to capacity crowd and not the over capacity crowd that Goa Chitra shows have been known for, thanks to the opening world cup cricket match featuring India.

The die hard music buffs that landed up though, were in for what can only be described as a breath taking performance, where global sounds of music seemed to seamlessly blend into each and every composition belted out by a tightly knit band.

Sandhya opened the concert with a tune called 'Sanny' that set the tone for an enchanting evening. The crowd was immediately mesmerized by Sandhya's amazing control over her vocal chords. Something that can only be possible after years of hard work or 'riaz' as Indian classical artistes call it.

Sandhya is one of the few Indian jazz singers who went through Indian classical training in order to offer India's contribution to the world of jazz. And this has earned her great respect in the west where she has been invited to perform alongside legendary international jazz artists.

Sandhya's compositions had all the elements of a great jazz tune. Rhythm, melody and harmony with space for spontaneously improvised contributions from each member of the band.

All her compositions seemed to be platforms that displayed individual virtuosity in a team effort. Considering the band being put together in a couple of brief rehearsals after her arrival in Goa, the concert was nothing short of incredible.

The final track called 'Change' explained how change is the only constant thing in life and even onstage, when a funky blues track changed into a steamy unplanned jugalbandi between the trumpet and bansuri, leading to individual bursts of brilliant soloing by the keyboard, bass and drums and finally Sandhya getting the crowd to join in the action, coaxing them into singing along to take the end of the show to a literally 'breathtaking' crescendo.