In December 2020, just over nine years after I first wrote about my attempt to dig out information about Mena Silas, the Bombay musician who had composed Taj Mahal: A Foxtrot in 1936, …
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Another episode in our series about jazzy tunes that inspired Bollywood. From Phool Aur Patthar (1966), sung by Asha Bhonsale, here’s Zindagi Mein Pyar Karna Seekh Le. The music was …
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A few months ago, I received a request from the excellent Florian Pittner, who runs Hindustani Vinyl, the online record store that with the best collection of classic Indian and …
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The excellent Jehangir Dalal, without whose generosity Foxtrot would not have been written, has been a friend of the colossal saxophonist Sonny Rollins for more than five decades. He recounts …
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A version of this piece appeared in Time Out Mumbai in 2006. Asha Puthli has a somewhat unorthodox relationship with time. When she’s asked about her age, for instance, the …
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(This is the second part of the BBC documentary Bombay and Jazz. I wrote about the first part last fortnight here.) Quite improbably, the maestro mispronounces his own name. “Hi,” …