Here’s how this series of fabulous musical evenings, curated by our team in tandem with The Leela Palaces Hotels & Resorts, played out in Delhi, Chennai, and Bengaluru. With the TravelDine Jazz Nights, we not only reported on distinctive experiences for TravelDiners as we always do but created our very own!
The TravelDine Team has a clear mandate — to take Jazz out of stuffy concert halls and bring it to the bright and beautiful folks across India in a way that it appeals to aesthetes across all ages. We are quite chuffed with the great start to this endeavour, with the TravelDine Jazz Nights successfully concluded in three cities recently — Delhi, Chennai, and Bengaluru. This series of effervescent evenings took place through November and December in partnership with The Leela Palaces Hotels & Resorts.
The lively concerts featured the Paddy Trio from Kolkata, with the animated Aditya Servaia on bass and the mercurial Tamaghna (Bihu) Mukherjee on drums, accompanying India’s top pianist Pradyumna Manot a.k.a. Paddy. Augmenting the trio to make Paddy’s Hot Five, was Aniket Chaturvedi, a brilliant saxophonist from Delhi, as well as a different vocalist in every city.
Delhi’s audience loved the young and talented Sanaa Arora, Chennai was charmed by the already-famous Sarthak Kalyani (originally from Indore), while Bengaluru’s audience was held in thrall by the elegant Ahona Sen from Kolkata.
The band presented selections from their wide repertoire and came up with a new song list for each evening they performed. Sound Engineer Bunty Sinha accompanied them in every city, ensuring that the sound of Paddys’ Hot Five came through just as it should.
Sunil Sampat, Jazz aficionado who is at the forefront of India’s Jazz scene, attended the events in all three cities. He says, “Just as the right choice of grapes ensures a good wine, TravelDine picked a high-quality Jazz band to present to the connoisseurs of the three cities. The versatility of Paddy’s Hot Five was well demonstrated by the different styles of Jazz they played, from conventional swing, bebop, standards, and straight-ahead Jazz to Afro Cuban and also the Bossa Nova from Brazil.”
Sampat adds, “The talented Ahona Sen sang in three languages — Spanish while doing Cuban songs, Portuguese for the Brazilian Samba, and English for the Jazz standards.” It was heartening to see that the audience in each city was as eclectic as the music.
An event of this quality and scale is impossible to stage without the backing of sponsors. We are grateful that we had the invaluable support of ICICI Pru AMC, official timekeeper RADO watches, destination partner Los Angeles Tourism, U’luvka vodka in Delhi, pouring partner Bacardi Reserva, and especially our generous hosts, The Leela Palaces Hotels & Resorts.
Dazzling Delhi
The Leela Palace Delhi had the biggest Jazz aficionado within its own team, the dapper General Manager Anupam Dasgupta, who not only played host at the evenings with contagious enthusiasm, but also gamely got on stage to belt out songs with the band!
The audience, a mix of embassy officials from the surrounding diplomatic enclave, Delhi glitterati and international guests of the hotel, enjoyed the excellent music, lip-smacking cocktails and delicacies served piping hot from a wide array of live stations in the crisp evening air. The large terrace leading off from the opulent Library Bar made for a superb open-air venue.
Charming Chennai
At The Leela Palace Chennai, the velvet couches and sparkling chandeliers at Spectra, the hotel’s spectacular all-day dining venue, set the tone for an evening of classy entertainment, even as the cyclonic weather on Marina Beach outside added more drama than we had anticipated.
Even so, the turnout was formidable, and concert attendees ranged from young children of the foreign expatriate community to college students visiting from other cities to enthusiastic couples from the city. The seafood at Spectra is always a big draw and the evening’s patrons binged on the lavish fruits-of-the-sea buffet while their senses were sated by the band’s bountiful talent.
Bewitching Bengaluru
Bengaluru has the advantage of having been exposed to more Jazz than the other two cities and our events were sold out even before we could finish saying TravelDine Jazz Nights! The perfection of the wintry weather and the glorious set up at the inside-outside venue of the Library Bar at The Leela Palace Bengaluru had everyone, from the city’s IT industry movers and shakers and intelligentsia to music lovers and party people, in high spirits.
The set list of the band which included familiar numbers such as Rock classic Crazy Little Thing Called Love but presented in a Jazz swing style, won everyone’s hearts. Cocktails and delicious pass arounds by the hotel’s kitchen team circulated merrily as did the guests, making new friends among the like-minded crowd.
An Italian expression goes ‘Eat well, laugh often, love a lot, and listen to Jazz!’ The TravelDine team and the TravelDiners that attended the events in the three cities did all that and more throughout this series. This has been a monumental beginning. Cheers to many more TravelDine Jazz Nights and other events that will keep you engaging with us in newer and more exciting ways always.
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