In the seminal novel, “A Passage to India,” E.M. Forster writes: “Fielding! how's one to see the real India?" "Try seeing Indians.”
And for someone who was born in India (in the Southern city of Madurai, famous for its temples, poets and musicians), the idea of returning to my homeland to perform for the second time was both thrilling and perplexing.
The week’s lineup at The Piano Man, Delhi
Thrilling because: how often does one get to bring the spirit of New Orleans to one’s homeland? And that too, with one of the world’s most famous drummers, Joe Lastie from Preservation Hall. And how often does one get to introduce “raga jazz” to Indians?
I shouldn’t have fretted too much: my albums have always performed well here.
The Book of Ragas vol. 2 reached #1 on the jazz charts AND overall genre charts (!) in 2022, and my latest album, RAGS & RAGAS reached #3 in the U.S. and #2 in India. So, to present this latest work live to audiences was a great joy.
A week before my India tour—-which took considerable planning, by the way (because I organized it myself, including the venues, tickets, hotels and all the other bells and whistles including transportation)—I was featured in Rolling Stone which talked about my “Spirit of New Orleans” tour. Luckily for me, I have had some wonderful allies and helpers on this tour, including Arjun Mahdavan, my marketing manager, who runs his own PR firm called Quriosity (and makes excellent reels and social posts), the wonderful souls at the Royal Opera House in Mumbai, where I perform on Friday, July 26th, as well as countless friends and relatives who supported my vision to return to India to perform.
A Rolling Stone story set the tone and expectation of the tour…
It’s a loooong trip, but United Airlines now has a direct, 14-hour flight to New Delhi, which saved me a lot of layover angst so I could be fresh and ready for my performances. (Normally, I do a brief layover in Europe).
My vision for the India tour was to bring New Orleans to my listeners (if you can’t make it to Bourbon Street, let me bring a bit of it to you, was my thinking). The response and feedback from the venues was an immediate “yes.” The Royal Opera House loved the idea; and the Piano Man set of clubs, run by visionary Arjun Sagar, immediately granted my requested dates. I didn’t even have to hard sell the idea to them.
The band post show on July 19th in Delhi, at Piano Man Safdarjung
Joe was coming from Switzerland and Spain, so I booked him to arrive in Delhi a day early so he could rest from jet lag. This strategy also meant tapping into the locals (like my bassist, Shashank Das), to make sure Joe was okay during the day. It’s the little things, folks….
Our first show in India, on July 19th (I landed at 11 p.m. on July 18th, so I had barely one day to rest), was at The Piano Man Safdarjung in Delhi. The first club started by Arjun Sagar of the Piano Man brand, it is also the tiniest, and almost always sold-out when a good act comes along. We were fortunate to have a lot of fans cheering us on, including sitting behind the band on the curling banister leading to the mezzanine level.
Fans sitting behind the stage on the stairs leading to the mezzanine level.
What I love about this venue are the details: photos of jazz greats like Fats Waller (one brick on the interior has the words FATS WALLA engraved), the fun green room in the basement, and the wall art made up of piano hammers from Arjun’s old piano that was retuned.
The food is nothing short of glorious, and The Piano Man is extremely generous to its artists, putting no caps of any kind for the food and drink we order (try the peanut and mushroom momos, or the Keffir Old Fashioned, or the miso soup pictured below).
The miso soup is presented in an artful fashion
The concert went wonderfully! Considering that it was the very first time that this particular band (myself, Joe Lastie on drums, my sister Sharmi Surianarain on vocals, and Shashank Das on bass) had practiced together, I was about as edgy as one can get. But that’s the beauty of jazz—-playing with world-class pros in any corner of the world means you need to trust their expertise and craftsmanship to make it all come together, even with minimal rehearsal.
Arjun Sagar Gupta, the founder and brilliant brainchild of The Piano Man.
We took the listeners on a journey from Preservation Hall and some of the earliest tunes (the “Charleston” by James P. Johnson, Basin Street Blues, Louisiana Fairytale), to my raga jazz and they loved it all. A triumphant first night in Delhi, and the audience especially loved Joe’s drumming.
(More India tour tales in your inbox in the next coming days).