Braz Gonsalves and His Jazz Odyssey

Listening to Devapriya, a collection of music by Braz Gonsalves released on 45s in the early 70s. The 10” release by Ovular was lent to me by Naresh Fernandes - who has also written its liner notes.
An extract:
A native of Goa, Gonsalves spent his formative years studying Western classical music at his parish school.
Interestingly, his first job was in a circus band. But his talent was too enormous to fit in a canvas tent.
Gonsalves lead bands in prominent nightclubs in Bombay and Calcutta.
He played tenor, alto and soprano saxophones (and sometimes the flute), and gained the reputation for being India’s most accomplished reed player; his phrasing was flawless, and his improvisations remarkably inventive. He had the rare ability to surprise.
A fan wrote of Gonsalves’s music “rearing and swaying and striking like a serpent”. Another went into raptures about his “improvised jag…fuddled and wild”.
Gonsalves is best remembered for his quintet at Bombay’s Astoria Hotel in the mid-1960s and various formations in Calcutta in which he participated in the next decade, along with the pianist Louis Banks and the singer Pam Crain

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These bands played a mixture of styles: post-bop, soul, funk and raga-based jazz. But because India’s recording industry was focussed on film music, very little of Gonsalves’s work from that time was actually preserved on wax.
The tunes on the few 45s he cut were probably picked as much for their commercial appeal as much for the creativity they display. Despite this, they present a glimpse of dynamism and originality that characterised the Indian jazz scene in the 1960s – and of the abundant talent of Gonsalves.
In the early 1980s, a fall in Munich shifted his focus to religious and gospel music. Jazz and gospel have long shared the same pew, so Gonsalves' decision to devote himself to religious music may not be so unusual after all.
Read more: Remembering India's Forgotten Jazz Masters - International Jazz Day 2023
Remembering India's Untold Jazz Masters - International Jazz Day 2022
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