Page 50 - Seniors Today - May21 Issue

Raatein’, sung by Mukesh in the 1977 film
Banks with RD Burman (second from left)
longer conversations after shows.
A few times, I’ve told him how I used to
enjoy attending his concerts, listening to
Sangam or tuning in to his radio show where
he explained jazz forms like big band, bebop,
hard bop, free jazz and fusion. When I told
him I never imagined I would actually get to
know him and meet him so often, he said, “It’s
destiny.”
Believer in destiny
Banks has always had a strong belief in
divine intervention. In both Ghatak’s
biography and my recent interview, he cited
instances where meetings with specific
people changed the course of his life. An
encounter with one person led to his going to
Kathmandu to play at the Soaltee hotel, and
similarly fate had got him together to play in
Kolkata with saxophonist Braz Gonsalves,
vocalist Pam Crain and guitarist Carlton
KItto.
The jazz star cites the example of how he
met RD Burman. The ace Hindi film music
director was fond of jazz, and had come
to Blue Fox, the Calcutta nightspot where
Banks and his band played. When Banks
was introduced to the legend, he had no clue
who he was. “I just wasn’t into that scene. But
someone told me he is very well-known, and
I was shocked he was actually inviting me to
play with him,” he recalls. The first song he
recorded for Burman was ‘Suhani Chandni
50
Mukti.
Before that, Banks’s life totally revolved
around jazz, having seen his father George
Banks play trumpet and piano. He cites
pianists Oscar Peterson, Errol Garner and
Herbie Hancock as huge influences, while
also admiring Thelonious Monk and Chick
Corea. But once in Mumbai, other things
followed.
In the evenings, Banks played at the
prestigious Sea Rock Hotel in Bandra,
Mumbai. The International Jazz Yatra began
in Mumbai in 1978, and eventually, the idea
of forming Sangam was mooted. Soon, Banks
also began composing advertising jingles,
working with well-known personalities
Alyque Padamsee, Prahlad Kakkar and
Kailash Surendranath. One of his huge
projects was the national integration
video ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’, which
featured many musicians, with Ashok Patki
organising the language dubbing.
With the group Silk, Banks played with
vocalist Shankar Mahadevan, bassist Karl
Peters, drummer Sivamani and mridangam
exponent Sridhar Parthasarathy. With the
Matrixx Trio, he was joined by drummer
Gino Banks and bassist Sheldon D’Silva.
One of the trio’s memorable shows was with
American guitarist Mike Stern at the Tata
Theatre in 2010. Another career highlight
was in the early 1980s, when he was invited
From left, Karl Peters, Yvonne Gonsalves, Buster Grant,
Braz Gonsalves, Lew Hilt and Louiz Banks