Skip to main content

Jazz in India (an article from the NYTimes)

India Ink: Hot Jazz and the Cold War in 1950s Mumbai

My comment:

Fascinating stuff! When talking about how the Americans tried to influence the world with Jazz, one cannot afford to miss the legendary Willis Conover. People in many parts of the world knew Jazz only because of him. Indeed he was the greatest Jazz arsenal America ever had. American hegemony owes a lot to this man.
This article brings back fond memories of growing up listening to Jazz Hour on the Voice of America. The radio had a hold on us like nothing else. The experience has yet to be rivalled.

Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Stumbled upon your You Tube page searching for Willis Conover on Google. Like you and probably many other in India,introduction to jazz was through listening to VOA.Had the great pleasure of listening to him live at the Jazz Yatra at Rang Bhavan Bombay when he was the MC for the entire Yatra. Great experience!Thanks to the internet now we in India are spoiled for choice!
Thursday, November 03, 2011 2:46:00 PM
Deepanjan said…
Exactly. Nice to know that people in India still remember Conover!
Thursday, November 03, 2011 2:50:00 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This is what Bertrand Russell said about religion...

Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. ... A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men.
6 comments
Read more

The year that was

I'm wearing a rather striking shirt, one that makes me feel like a clown fooling around in a graveyard. Roving eyes latch on to me and make me too conscious of myself. Checkered in red, grey, black and maroon, I've excused myself into donning it and looking silly for two reasons. It's Friday and…more importantly, the last working day of the year. Tailored half-a-year back, I never had the courage to wear it, not until today. It's that time of the year when it's time to reflect on the events that transpired. Last year ended on the worst possible note. Dad had expired and I was numb with shock. The repercussions rippled halfway thought this year. Things were so abysmal initially that I had lost the will to live. Acrid in everything I did, I was immensely angered by time phlegmatically flowing through its cadence. It was as if Dad meant nothing to anybody. What right did people have to live the way they always had when Dad was no more? Why was much of the world still
61 comments
Read more