SHREYA BOSE
IN INDIA
Wanderlust Set to Sound:
The Gypsy Jazz of Paulus Schafer
We had a chat with the band ahead of their concert at India’s favorite jazz music
venue The Quarter in Mumbai, a platform for amazing music acts to perform.
If you loved a musician, would you crawl under his caravan to hear him
play? Would you then run back to your own, and try your hardest to
replicate that sound?
Paulus Schafer did.
Being born and raised in a Dutch Sinti-Romani community
meant listening to Django Reinhardt’s composition before
speaking his first word. Schafer comes to his music the way
he approaches his breath: with inseparable ease.
It is little wonder that
Schafer is hailed as a
luminary in the
gypsy jazz
artistic
community. His music is redolent with ancestral
memory. The craft he uses to astound millions around the
world passes from father to son; he never had to go to a
conservatory to know what chords could make you weep.
In December, he descends upon Mumbai with Noah
Schäfer (Double Bass) Mozes Rosenberg- (Rhythm Guitar)
Dominique Paats (Accordion), courtesy of The Quarter. As
a venue, The Quarter is known for its painstakingly crafted
décor (jazz club in the 1950s, yes?) as well as its dedication to
bringing musicians of exquisite skill (and often, philosophy
to boot) to the glorious chaotic conglomeration that is
Mumbai.
When did you first find Django Reinhardt?
I was born with music; it was inevitable. It is like breathing,
you don't think about it, it just happens. In our community
you just grow up with gypsy swing. There is music
every day. It is an ongoing process; you
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