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A living legend of the American Blues genre, bids adieu to an iconic and inspirational career with true elan, saying—"Damn Right"!
From Humble Beginnings to Spreading Global Wings Snazzy drumbeats, pastoral guitar riffs and sultry trumpet tunes owe their birth to the Blues—a genre of the African American folk, bubbling from melodies of field workers—a beacon of hope in inhumane times. What started as a means to find the silver lining of brotherhood in an era of apartheid in the West, Blues has now even taken the East by storm, and is celebrated ferociously in India at its very own Mahindra Blues Festival in Mumbai.
Mumbai itself is a brewery of culture, where the arts invite and absorb people from all sects and lifestyles. Among the thousands of platforms that host this unison, the Mahindra Blues Festival, for the last 11 years, has pulled in the Blues and Rock n' Roll lovers of the city to Mehboob Studio in Bandra. Here one gets to feast on an incredible lineup of artists who have seen the conception of this genre and championed it in their lifetimes. So, when the Blues call, I must drop everything and let myself be swept off my feet!
On the evening of February 11th, 2023, my head spun with giddiness as I made my way to Mehboob Studio. The tunes of blues are so incredibly versatile: they exist in the bounce of a step, the sizzle of a pan and even in the cracks of a heartbreak. Especially in India, where you cannot possibly put a number on how many genres and styles of music live and die every day, the Mahindra Blues Festival comes to us with a bright halo around it.
The first day of the festival hosted The Karan Mahajan Band from New Delhi. Winners of the Band Hunt, composer and lead guitarist Karan Mahajan's soothing notes allured everyone to the Garden Stage of Mehboob Studio. In the company of Gurpreet Kaur's husky vocals, groovy bass by Tanisha Bhatnagar, Ravali Komanaplly's light-fingered melody on the keys and Siddharth Jain's reliable thumps of the drums, The Karan Mahajan Band had graciously began the Mahindra Blues Festival on the breezy, winter evening.
The culture of the land of Asia, in this instance India, has its roots buried in its longstanding history and the people who made it. Where most Indian artists grow up influenced by art that runs deep into the culture of the nation, music festivals like The Mahindra Blues play an exceptional role in encouraging Indian artists to explore their talent beyond their boundaries. In addition to The Karan Mahajan Band, the music festival headlined several other India-based Blues acts like the Arinjoy Trio, Soulmate, Backstratblues and the Overdrive Trio, converging this genre of the West with our culture through familiar faces.
Argentinian bluesman Ivan Singh (with his roots in India's Punjab) then commandeered us into a sly sway with his tangy guitaring on covers of Michael Jackson's The Way You Make Me Feel and Santana's Maria Maria, as well as some of his original Spanish releases. Singh's soundtrack easily fits like a movie score—picture a cunning protagonist on their way to a victorious scheme, except you are the main character. Singh then handed us and our groove over to three-time Grammy winner Taj Mahal, who heated the stage with his gruff vocals on his tracks, Everybody Is Somebody, Queen Bee and Loving In My Baby's Eyes, declaring his love for the Blues, his love for the world, and his love for love!
The Soul Strat Saloon—one of the two enclosures that stage the festival's performances and named after the Shillong-based band Soulmate and Warren Mendonsa's Blackstratblues—was graced by Christone ""Kingfish"" Ingram on the second and final evening of the festival.
The 24-year-old bluesman had his face contorted in concentration, eyes closed in a trance, as he aimed at the hearts of all the guitarists in the house and hit bull's eye with his original scores like- Another Life Goes By and Your Time Is Gonna Come; each note played with precision and devotion. Ingram was followed by a short performance by the Beatz Crew and Nanhi Kali Choir before the Polka Dot Parlour welcomed the star of the night: Buddy Guy.
An 86-year-old Blues maestro with a history of more than 70 years of dominating the stages he has performed on, Buddy Guy is the legend of legends. The Mahindra Blues Festival opened his Damn Right Farewell Tour, a surreal ending to his long run of live performances.
The Polka Dot Parlour—the second of the two enclosures at the festival—takes its name from the artist's signature polka dot attire. Before Buddy Guy makes an appearance, we watch cuts from his documentary, Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase The Blues Away, which features his start as a young boy in the cotton farms of Louisiana to his becoming the face of Blues music—inspiring popular industry stars like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and John Mayer. However, watching him live was a whole other story.
Buddy Guy stepped onto the stage and commanded attention without ever asking for it. He gripped the audience with his performance of the funk-dripping cover of Willie Dixon's I Just Want To Make Love To You and I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man. As his raspy voice filled the air, in the company of his effortless guitaring, a sultry lull fell upon the parlour. At that moment, I think everyone wanted their own Hoochie Coochie Man to sing to, as well as to dance with—I know I did.
A cover of Denise LaSalle’s Someone Else Is Steppin’ In came next in line. The steady beats of Someone Else came in with electrifying energy that broke the crowd into a series of hoots and cheers. Like a wave, the drumbeats crescendoed and hushed down, and with them, they took us on a booming joyride. As Buddy Guy moved to his rendition of Little Willie John's Fever, he got us to give him a tempo with our claps, and with a sly grin, serenaded us with the song's seductive bass, front-lined obviously, with his husky singing.
Ivan Singh, Christone Ingram, Taj Mahal and Arinjoy Sarkar took to the stage with Buddy Guy as the Mahindra Blues Festival reached its finale. The Blues wizards came together for a 20-minute jam, a back and forth of vibratos and licks—a banter between their guitaring as they egged each other on to play sicker tunes. Each new tune was an encouragement to go on, every lyric ascended the ambience of the parlour. Watching them play bewitched me, body and soul. I was listening to a conversation with no words: a monument of how many years of perseverance had gone into their mastery of the Blues.
Ingram, Singh and Sarkar played into the night, bidding a befitting farewell to the Blues legend Buddy Guy, truly testifying the music festival's motto: The Blues Live Here.
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