IWA boasts of 400+ whistling members - both male & female, ranging from ages 10 to 75 years.

‘phhhh…phhhh’ that’s the sound of a whistle that most of us can get out. Fortunately, that’s not the case with the members of the Indian Whistlers Association. It was one of the ‘see it to believe it’ moments, or rather a hear it to believe it moment. On 14^th February the members of IWA performed at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival as a tribute to the great Mohd. Rafi. They kept the huge audience enthralled with their impeccable whistling for well over an hour!

The kurta clad, well shaven, smart members of IWA belonged to various different fields. Some were doctors, some senior managers in MNCs, some owned their own businesses, etc. But they all had one thing in common. They could whistle any tune to perfection. The members showed no signs of inhibition in donning a colourful ‘topi’ while performing a qawali, ‘parda hain parda’.

You would question the variety that a group of whistlers can probably bring to the stage. But the audience was in for a surprise. The performance ranged from solo whistling to duets and even to a symphony like effect brought about by the whole group. One of the youngest performers on stage was Sweta, all the way from Chennai. She is a trained classical singer and a classical dancer. She displayed her art in unique style when she performed a dance and whistled at the same time on ‘Madhuban mein radhika nache re’. As versatile as Rafi sahib himself, the performance included romantic numbers, classical numbers and even qawalis.

IWA has entered the LIMCA Book of Records 2009 with 28 whistlers from all over India whistling "Saare Jahan Se Accha..." in unison

At the end of their performance, the IWA in order to promote whistling as an art held a small competition. They would whistle a tune and the audience was to respond by whistling the paragraph of the song. The audience showed tremendous enthusiasm but no one could elicit a whistle half as clear and accurate as the members of the association.

The roar of the applause at the end of the show depicted that the audience understood and appreciated the rare talent that these members had displayed and that they were in fact willing to accept whistling as an art form.

Do visit http://www.whistleindia.org/ for more info on IWA.

Article & Images courtesy: Nikunj Bhaiya

A hundred and fifty years ago, the Britishers built ‘bandstands’ all over the city. As the term suggests, they were stands for bands; sheds in parks within which artists would perform. As time has passed places for open air performances in the city have dwindled in number.

Revival of the Bandstand Culture

The Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry has started an initiative ‘Revival of the Bandstand Culture’ in order to change the scene of open air performances in the city. Unfortunately, from among the 11 remaining original bandstands only two are accessible; one in Dadar and the other at Hanging Gardens, Malabar Hills which is the venue of this 3 month long event. Every Saturday up to end of May, two artists will perform and promote music; not for money, not for fame but just for the sake of music.

Band Stand Performances

Saturday, 27^th of February saw the performance of none other than our very own Mumbai Police Band. A group of 30 odd policemen playing a varied range of instruments including the clarinets, horns, drums, etc. The joy was evident in their faces while playing in front of such a crowd. The humility was something to admire. The other performance for the day was that of Mumbai’s famed ‘jam band’ Something Relevant. The crowd was treated to a never before seen fusion of STR and the Police Band for a brief period before STR took over. In the words of the drummer of the Police Band, Mr. Deepak Kasare, “In my 19 years of service, this has been one of the best shows ever.”

Something Relevant then took over with their trademark stage presence and energy. The beauty of seeing them perform lies in the fact that they truly enjoy playing music. It is evident in all their shows. Their playlist included their originals like ‘Ahaa’ (with the Police Band accompanying them), ‘Harry Mole’, ‘Mosquitoes’ and also covers like the Pakistani band – The Call’s ‘Pukar’ and ‘Smooth Criminal’. All performed with the same enthusiasm and energy.

The Bombay Chamber, which had also initiated The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival hopes that this event too will gain momentum soon and will become as big as Kala Ghoda. One thing is for certain, if you are looking for pure unadulterated music in the purest environment, this is the place to be every Saturday all the way up to May.

Article by Nikunj Bhaiya
Images Courtesy: Shashank Kapur

Something Relevant's first album "Feels Good To Be Live" has been released.

Their first album ‘Feels good to be live’ has been released. In the run up to their upcoming tour around India, we reminisce about how ‘Something Relevant’ (STR) got together, their journey, the effort that went into putting out the album and the future..

Lets us rewind back to Rang Bhavan, Independence rock. Winds of change were blowing upon the Indian rock scene in form of ‘Zero’, currently one of the best Indian bands who were on stage doing an ‘all original’ set getting booed by the crowd that wanted them to play covers. Not all of the crowd was in protest though, we know for sure that two guys from within the crowd actually liked it – Aazin (Vocals, STR) and Tanmay (Guitars, STR). “Aazin and I were in the crowd, we really thought it was good and they sounded much better than those bands doing Metallica covers, why on earth were people throwing bottles at them?!” asks Tanmay, expressing surprise and laughing at how far things have come since then. This incident infact was one of the many moments that helped in shaping up Something Relevant, but it may perhaps have been the most important considering that it triggered a certain philosophy – Original music was the way to go!

The performer was always there in the gene. As kids, Tanmay and band percussionist Aalok, who are cousins, used to organize family shows by combining on the Guitar and Tabla. “We used to do random shit! It was terrible and we even forced our family members to pay 20 bucks and watch our show!” These shows also had a stall and balcony system apparently. “A talk show, the Jay Leno kind was one of the many ideas, err but that’s another story altogether!” exclaims Aalok. The guys knew each other for a long time. All of them were College mates at St.Xaviers and were inclined towards music. It had to happen. “Individually we were not great musicians or anything, only Luis (Piano, STR) and Ryan (Saxophones, STR) are actually properly trained in music. The rest of us just wanted to play music!” says Tanmay.

Original music was the ultimate objective but they had to start off somewhere, so they did start covering bands like The Beatles, Dave Matthews Band, Grateful Dead, Phish, etc. “We used to play bands which people could enjoy more, it was all very chilled out and more on the softer side” says Aalok while also pointing out that the band was never afraid to try out different things. “We sucked then but our friends and others who got to know about us still wanted to see us perform because we were different!” declares Tanmay indicating as to how even the covers made them stand apart in a crowd that comprised of various bands playing Floyd, AC DC, Metallica, Iron Maiden et al.

In 2006, Something Relevant performed for the first time ever at an auditorium. The venue was the 765 seater Y.B.Chavan auditorium situated in Mumbai. In order to make it a success, the members had to do what they call ‘Political campaigning’ but boy did they pull it off or what!  “We ourselves organized it with this company called ‘Grateful life’, it was a self promoted show and we managed to sell out tickets in 4 days, all by word of mouth!” says Aalok. The response spurred them on to take up a bigger challenge in 2007. In a similarly organized show, but at a much larger auditorium, this time the 1300 seater Ravindra Natya Mandir, the band climbed another step. “We did it again! The tickets got sold out in 4 to 5 days this time too, and the best part was there were a lot more unknown faces in the crowd. That’s probably when we knew we were going somewhere with all of this and for the first time, we played our original songs.”

Something Relevant Logo

Naturally, the liberal minded approach also transmitted into their original compositions. Practicing and being part of the band had helped them all progress individually as musicians. Intended or not we don’t know, but it is difficult to categorize their songs under one genre. Their songs are an amalgamation of Blues, Swing, Jazz, Rock and everything in between. On stage – the confidence, energy, showmanship and telepathic communication amongst the members led to extended jam sessions more often than not and voila! India’s first ‘Jam band’ had arrived.

STR now wanted their music to be heard and the performances to be witnessed. The new sound, their unpredictability and onstage theatrics were well liked by many. For more than a year and a half the band became a constant in the live scene of Mumbai by performing at night clubs and pubs. They also performed for social causes like the revival of The Bandstand culture in Mumbai. “We did a lot of free shows then, if there was an opportunity to play we’d go out there and perform” says Tanmay. The band apart from the set seven members was always open to guest musicians performing on stage with them. “A Hindustani singer, two Keyboard players, a Tabla player, a Conga player, Trombones and also, we’ve played with a bagpipe player!” says Tanmay. Despite the impressive repertoire, they still wish to play with a trumpet player. So what’s the smallest stage they have played on then? “Aaah, that was at Jazz ( Not just jazz by the bay, Mumbai). We had 13 people on stage! Considering it’s a small stage there, we were severely restricted. Not an advisable thing to do at all!”

Year 2009 started on a positive note for Something Relevant. They were invited by the ICCR ( Indian council for cultural relations) to play at the Java Jazz festival held in Indonesia. This was another one of those major turning points for the band, so much so that they almost seem to look at themselves as ‘pre and post Java Jazz’. “It made us realize that music could never be geographically segregated, it was never going to be good or bad just for India or as per Indian standards. The internet age means there’s a world stage for everything now. So it is either good or bad” says Tanmay. The response to their music abroad surprised them, but it was pleasant alright. “It was really good! It proved that language was not a barrier when it came to music; it also gave us a lot of confidence and self belief. The best part about it was that nobody asked for an ‘Indian Element’ in the band. The music mattered the most and that made us happy” says Aalok stressing on the fundamental difference in approach and support towards upcoming bands. “Youngsters there are given a lot of encouragement, music education is provided in schools. There were five main amphitheaters and about fifteen to twenty stages reserved only for young bands coming out of Indonesia. We saw this all girl band doing Police covers where a 14 year old girl was playing double bass and singing like Sting!” The experience helped them gain a better perspective about their own music, six years since its formation and Something Relevant was ready (or so they thought!) for what was going to be their toughest challenge yet. The album.

Feels Good To Be Live

Feels Good to be Live. That’s the name of Something Relevant’s first album since the band formation in 2003 and that is exactly what they portrayed at the album launch at Not just Jazz by the Bay, Churchgate on 19^th December 2009.

The suave and swanky restobar was swarming with dedicated fans of the Mumbai based jam band. There was no place to move around and everywhere you could hear the fans singing along their popular numbers like Horn Ok please, Harry Mole and others. Midway into their performance Stuart decided to very informally launch the album by inviting Imran Khan of Jaane tu…fame and the multi grand slam winner Leander Paes on stage to do the honors. After the crowd had cheered in the album (for the fans had waited a long time for this) they got back to their performance like nothing much really transpired just two minutes back on the stage. This nonchalance is what seems to have become their trademark style.

They performed most of the songs on the album and also a few new innovations. One particular song that stood out was the one on Mosquitoes sung by Stuart while Armeet was supporting him by beat boxing.

The album was available at the venue for sale and is also available in various stores all across India. It is now also available on Amazon. They even had various band merchandise available at the venue which will also be available during their subsequent shows. Don’t wait anymore and get yourself a copy because if the launch event is anything to go by, then you surely do not want to miss this album.

Something Relevant - The Band

Aazin – Studied film making in Whistling Woods International Film institute for a couple of years. Interested in and working as a director/cinematographer.

Stuart – Marketing and Artist Manager at the Blue Frog. Graduate from St. Xaviers College Mumbai.

Tanmay – Studied BSC Maths from St. Xaviers College Mumbai and then Sound Engineering from SAE.

Ryan – Graduate from St. Xaviers College Mumbai. Worked at Total Sports Asia and Left Field International.

Luis – Information Technology Engineer. Also a qualified piano teacher from Trinity College of Music.

Jehangir Jehangir – Graduate from St. Xaviers College Mumbai. Teaches Speech and Drama.

Aalok – Computer Engineer. Working as a Software Engineer at Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Article by Vignesh Iyer and Nikunj Bhaiya