Summary: (http://kamlashow.com/podcast/wp-content/uploads/tajmahal-150x150.jpg)India discovered America and made it their own though jazz music explains Naresh Fernades (http://www.tajmahalfoxtrot.com/?page_id=7), whose book Taj Mahal Foxtrot, chronicles how jazz (http://www.tajmahalfoxtrot.com/?p=1234)entered Bombay and found a new home in this port city. Taj Mahal Foxtrot (http://www.tajmahalfoxtrot.com/?p=1147) was the first jazz song recorded in Bombay. The early American musicians were traveling ministrels, who came to Bombay in the mid-19thc. By early 20thc there was a steady stream of jazz musicians, mostly African-American, who came to Bombay and played at the Taj Mahal hotel, which was the musical nerve center for the city. Teddy Weatherford was one such musician, who played extensively in Bombay, and helped mentor Indian musician, mostly from Goa, which was a Portuguese colony then. Jazz heralded the birth of India and Pakistan as Naresh explain in the interview. Mohammad Ali Jinnah had his favorite jazz band especially flown in from Bombay to celebrate the birth of a new nation - Pakistan. And in Bombay's Taj Mahal jazz was being played as the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was reading his famous freedom at midnight speech in New Delhi. Among the audience at Taj Mahal was Vijaylakshmi Pandit, Nehru's sister. And in the 1950s a string of jazz ambassadors traveled to India including Dave Brubeck, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Although jazz made a slow disappearance from Bombay, you can still find its influence on Hindi (Bollywood films). If you missed it, you may want to listen to Part-1 of the interview (http://bit.ly/zmBuBB) with Naresh. Note: Apologies for the audio quality.
