photographs below
Palle Danielson (Sweden)
Karin Krog (Norway)
Leroy Lowe (Sweden)
Zbigniew Namyslowski (Poland) |
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Jazz-Fests
1978 - 1982
While Congo Square is
a new organization, it is actually the re-union of a group of jazz and blues lovers, who between 1978 and 1982
put up four successful international JazzFest, showcasing jazz, jazz rock, rock, fusion and allied forms.
These festivals featured over 30 international groups and musicians from various countries, including the then
Soviet-bloc: talents as great and varied as Joe Williams, Clark Terry, Larry Coryell,
Zakir Hussain, Zbigniew Namyslowski, Steve Lacy, Billy Taylor, Albert Mangelsdorff, Enrico Rava, L. Shankar, Ian
Carr, Palle Danielson, Karin
Krog and top groups
such as Shakti, Mingus Dynasty, Rena Rama Quartet, Nucleus, The Globe Unity Orchestra. India's own talents also
found a platform at JazzFest - veena maestro Dr. Doraiswamy Iyengar, the Karnataka College Percussion, percussionist
Ramesh Shotham and top Indian jazz performers such as Pam Crain, Braz Gonsalves, Louis Banks, HIGH, as well as
up-and-coming rock and fusion bands.
They played to audiences of more than 1500 per session over four to five days. Besides concerts, workshops, lecture
demonstrations, etc., helped catalyze informal cross-cultural discourse.
These memorable concerts stopped only because the youthful organising team set off on divergent careers. Congo
Square is formed with the same core group, networked with both overseas and Indian musicians.
Clark Terry (USA) |
Joe Williams (USA) |
Jan Ptasyn Wroblewski (Poland) |
Rena Rama Quartet (Sweden) |
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