The Rain's Gone and the Jam's on! Bandra, 19th August

Great Weather, No rain, most of the gang there, great audience, great energy! Them are the keywords. It was fun to be back after missing two Sundays of the jam. We are the Jam-addicts! I have realized that the Jams are so amazingly de-stressing that for the next 2 days days at least, I feel great! the jam is great outlet for the all the stuff we go through, through the week, and a great outlet for saying your heart out..

The jam went great, with lots of participation from the people, specially a guy called Deva, who is one hell of a singer and it was great playing for him..and Another guy from Uttar Pradesh who sang a song he composed to reach out to God when his brother's son was hanging on his lifeline..Among other songs we sang Bandeh from Indian Ocean, with a nice intro..singing that songs makes me feel hell of a lot better..And I think we introduced the concept pretty well this time..that we want all of the people to forget what cars we ride, or how big a house we live in, or how many achievements we carry in our pockets..and for once just forget all the loads of gyaan and judgements we carry in our heads about others..and be one on this platform of music..

Pulin was playing with his usual finesse, Kailash with his energy, Gauri singing and cheering all the way, great jugalbandis between the three percussionists-Tarun, Kaviraj and Chintan..Danish, Khyati, Vijeeth, Bharti all there with their customary energies..And we had the honour of having 3 pro shutterbugs- Nishant, Arjun and Alok covering the jams for us.. 'And I say to myself what a wonderful world'!! Here's the picture log:

Towards a more picturesque jam: Bandra with its beauty caught by our pro shutterbug Alok.

Great Audience who does not complain and bears us and moreover participates in murdering songs with us!





'The Wind cries mary': Here we go!

Deva (Guy in center) was singing so well he made the day!

Tarun and Sanjay 'Freeze lightning'!!

Wah kya baat hai! the night matures the mehfil and fun ensues!

The 'Guitar Row': Kailash, Pulin, Vinay, Tarun. Pulin who plays amazing, likes to keep a low profile..so he gives the shutterbugs an often miss..!

Kailash, Pulin, Vinay 'Bringing it on'!

Respite! Wind up at last!

Top Row: L to R: Nishant, Chintan Vijeeth

Next to top Row: Alok, Arjun, Kailash, Danish, Kaviraj

Next: Suraj, Gauri, Pulin, Sanjay

Sitting: Khyati, Bharti (At last!)

12th Aug - When Music jams in , the spirits run wild!!!

That's what happened in the jam on 12aug, an audience full of zest and a cheering crowd which hailed us the best of spirits to make the most wonderful of jams ,graciously the rain gods favoured us too..... and the crowd expanded in numbers and so did the spirit held high!!!!

Really really cheerful audience, from all walks of society to appreciate the " spirit" which we usher in every sunday and the strength and smiles keep us going!! the song ranged from the romantic numbers to the fast approaching independence day special.. and all unity in diversity with the chant of " Vande Mataram"Mr Munish Rai, a music director himself, who was on a business trip to Mumbai dis time joined us playing showing his undaunted skills , playing his best beats!!! We had some of the Shiamak Davar group professionals, who were eager to perform but ended up singing a some of the finest tunes........... Thanks people we should be seeing more of you!!!

all to all the band and the audience mingled well too high in the spirit and the appreciation poured in too well this time!!! This was the first time i guess we had to pack off when the audience still was all willing to participate till late 9.but then again we again have to jam in next sunday with all ur best enthusiasm to back us all.... so lets pack off...

ooopssss sorry tho we cudnt catch the audience in the best of hues this time as we all had left behind the shutter bugs this time!!!!!!!!!!

--
Ar.Monika Sharma-
-Ur Smiles Count.......
'Keep Smiling'

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Well to begin i would say it was the Baap of all the jams as we had a heavy crowd (which we always wanted hahah) and were being showered with continuous requests till late 9 and the audience was unstoppable. Even it started raining lightly but we continued .

when we took of with the jam we started with fast numbers and Nupur helped a lot with singing (as Vinay and Suraj our main vocalists were not in the scene).

slowly we moved to soft numbers and monika replaced nupur, the audience participating too .

Later Mr munish Rai joined us from the audience ,helped chintan on bongo and chintan and monika were addressing the crowd about music for meaning .Amazing part was chintan was dancing on the floor.Mr Munish sang all fun songs which got in more crowd and this continued for long.

lastly we ended with slogan Vande Mataram and were invited by Mr Gandhi to perform on 15 Aug Independence day.

Sadly no pics!!!!!!!

Pulin Ashar

Baarish merbaan par bandeh pehlwaan ;)

Mazzzza aaya! We were a li'l delayed because of the rains but we decided to continue anyways after the clouds thinned down. Fingers crossed, we started out with a few rhythm patterns and that got us nicley warmed up. The evening that followed was brilliant for:-
1) It rained...& we still managed to play! :)
2) One of the kids requested for Vande Mataram and a guy stepped up from the audience and gave a beautiful rendition of the Lata Mangeshkar classic.
3) Even more new members joined the "orchestra".
4) There was some John Denver & Led Zeppelin too.
5) Suraj wasn't there (zoking!).


A special thanx to all our friends & other regulars who came to support us inspite of the rain, staying till the very end. Thanx a lot : )





Vande Mataram!


Stairway to Heaven. Shridhar on the left and one of Tarun's friends on the left - his name Tarun?


Once again, thanx a lot to our wonderfull audience for sticking and lifting spirits. Salaam! :)

The 'Chakk De Phatte' Jam of July 22 @ Bandstand

I cant believe this! three consecutive weeks! The rains have been really nice to us, maybe the Gods want to support our cause..! We started a little late, but the energies were high. Continuing to sit in our old position amongst the 'audience' on the stairs, I'm sure it is the better way. This jam for me, marked the 'return of the jam'- the way things used to be, with our energies latching on to others, people showing real participation (at least 8-10 people sung songs for us), none of us wanting to show too much of our individual skill; though we did murder some of the requests, thanks to being a little out of sync, for some new guys had joined. Aman, a real nice guy joined us and it was fun singing with him. Chintan joined the jams after a looong break and he had a real nice dhapli with him! It was a day of 'string breaks', with strings of all three guitars deciding to break! And it was the day of the percussionists, with Chintan and Tarun in real form and sync. It was fun and more than that. I got my mother who's on a trip to Mumbai to come and see the spirit of the jam. She sang us a nice Punjabi Song. Towards the end of the jam, Vinay spoke out passionately about the things the jams stand for: Environment, Humanism, belief in a simple way of life, connecting to each other, in the collective soul and I'm sure his passionate and honest from the heart speaking would have made at least some people reflect...

Cheers! Here's how it went:

A nice happy audience singing along. We could have come earlier to clean up some of the mess that has gathered on the artist's court...

'Baba Vinay Dev' took chaukari stance!!

BoomShakala! The Guy in the grey-green shirt is Aman, who joined in the spirit of the jam. Chintan (on the dhapli, red T-shirt) joined the jam after long time.

The spirits were high, with a lot of people taking to 'dance the night away'! Vinay as usual quick to join in the fun!

Two cute little girls sang beautiful songs in turns!

Tarun on the Djembe in full steam!

Thats my mum, who sang the Punjabi song charkha channan daa for us!

The Jam Windup pic. Sitting in front: Khyati

1st row standing L to R: Vinay, Ashwinie, Me and mom

2nd row: Pulin and Chintan

last row: Kailash, Kingshuk, Aman, Madhur

The Jam goes on! 15th July 07 @ Bandra Bandstand

So the rain provides 2 consecutive weeks of respite..! Great for us, for playing outdoors is far better than any other thing..the environment is great and a place like Bandstand is accesible to all..families, couples, wannabe couples ;-) and people from all stratas of the society are free to mingle..!! (we've played in a mall..but it takes time for our energies to catch on there..) and the other great thing is passerbys, joggers stop by and become a part. A great new found friend called Leslie was telling me that this is more like a "Democratic Musical Platform". We call ourselves a "jam band" or an "ever growing jam band", we're ready to play anything that the audience wants to listen and be part of..sometimes musical perfection is brutally murdered, but the objectives of having spontaneous colllective fun is achieved!

Another friend's friend cooked up another name for this concept "Alfresco Musica"! thats Italian for "fresh music"!

Here's how it went:

Back in our old positions, sitting on the stairs with everyone is more fun..there is no on stage thing and people feel more ready to participate and take initiative!

Lots of lovely little kids add colour to the whole affair!

The band 'erupts'!

Sanjay and Ali (Clockwise from top left) have become regulars and add a lot of energy to the whole thing! Kaviraj playing the dhapli, Tarun on the Djembe.

Oh yeah..! both of em play the F chord with some emotion!! haha! Yogi (the guy with the V haircut) was in great swing and sang two great great awesome songs from the same guy who wrote 'Bandeh'. They were "do paise ki bhajee" and one more great ultra-meaningful fun-satire song, really really nice.




One of our really enthusiastic regular supporters, Mr. Hari adds a lot of spirit to the whole thing!

A great Jugalbandi emerged between Vinay and Tarun, with both refusing to relent!

which led to this guitar banging 'friendly' match between Suraj and Vinay! Haha! whats life without a little bit of fun!

The windup pic: Lto R: Prashant, Poonam, Monika, Sanjay, Kaviraj, Gauri, Yogi, Vijeeth, Ali

MFM Back in Bandra with a Bang! : 8th July 07

After the rains held us from getting on with our jams for 2 consecutive weeks, we were dying to resume, and resume we did! The rains offered a bit of respite and we were there, enjoying and jamming with the people. The spirit was the same, and it made me think that its with the people that the real fun lies, a hundred collective souls, all united with the medium of music, enriching each other!

Quite a few of our gang could not make it, but many of us were there, and I guess thats the beauty of a band our size! even if some of us come, we can raise some hell! Kailash, Pulin, Amar, Mradul, Tarun, Suraj and Bilal were there with many of our great regulars from the audience who love to join in! We played 'Bandeh' to highlight the environmental message that lies in it, and the passion in that song catches on...and with the Live earth concerts (http://www.liveearth.org) going on all over the world, it was our little contribution to the movement.

So here we go, Ladies and gentlemen!
Music for Unity. Music for Peace. Music for Freedom.
Music for Meaning!

Great weather and great crowd!

which kept on growing, with people from all dimensions of society converging on a common platform!

Smiles all around! did somebody crack a joke?!!

aaaaaaaa! the band in full swing! With Amar (The baldy in the gray T-shirt) enriching everything with his customary energy levels!

Two cute kids came and sang songs with us. The little boy sang a great rap song in one single breath!

Now thats the spirit of the jam! An old lady, really caught on to the spirit of the jam and hit the dance floor! with Amar, in his no inhibitions style, come into the mood as well!!

Great dancing! Everyone was saying "Love you Maaa!"!!

The Garage Jam of 1st July 07

The rains have been merciless, staying quite for most of the week and pouring down on Sunday! This Sunday it stayed quite for a while..but not enough for us to even begin jamming!
But a high point was that Kekoo Gandhi was soooo kind to let us have his home's garage for practicing. He even went to the length of offering his bedroom for practicing, saying he'll move out to another room! Hats off to him!

It makes me believe that once you hit the road with something that you want to do, something you really believe in, you get help all along the way, we just have to keep on going!

So that day Pulin, Vijeeth, Suraj, Chintan (a pro drummer, who joined the jams back after a long break), Mradul (A guy who met us in the jam of 17th June and has joined the 'ever growing band'), Gauri (Sings and writes great, meaningful poetry) gathered to practice. Later Tarun , Kailash, Desmond and Aneef joined us as well!

Mradul and Vijeeth: Caught in the corner?!!

Me, Vijeeth, Gauri, Chintan (on the drum machine), Mradul. The jam was going great!

Pulin showing that he is as good at the drums as he is on the guitar!

We got into a really intense jam, with virtuoso leads and riffs and drums happening all over!

Desmond Joined in later as our Master of Ceremonies!