MUMBAI: With album openers like ‘Benares’ and ‘Raga of the Heart’, veteran jazz musician Louis Banks wastes no time in creating an early impression to the listener about the essence of his latest studio effort – seven track album titled ‘Diya’. Simply put, it’s a fusion. It’s that territory among the genres of music that Banks had spent most of his youth exploring about and some portions of his recent years experimenting with.
‘Diya’ begins with the two (earlier) mentioned tracks, heavily dominated with classical sounds and lesser emphasis on Banks’s keys. But as the album reaches its third track ‘Two Way Street’, it’s quite a One Family Show. Banks Sr. and his son (an accomplice in almost every Louis Banks related creation lately) Gino Banks turned up the entire sound to a few notches higher in terms of progression. If the first two songs express the veteran musician’s curiosity to incorporate newer elements into his discography, the third track returns the album to the Banks duo’s newest musing – modern jazz.
The album follows the ‘fusion’ code throughout, and with contributions from some of the biggest names in the music industry, including flutist Rakesh Chaurasia, sitarist Ravi Chary, bassist Sheldon D’Silva, tabla player Satyajit Talwalkar and mridangam represent Sridhar Parthasarathy. The fourth track ‘The Dove Flies’ is heavily synth influenced, also reminding the listeners that fusion does not necessarily have to stick between classical and jazz.
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The album ‘Diya’ is available on Times Music and Saavn.
