Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay's Jazz Age

by Naresh Fernandes

In 1935, a violinist from Minnesota named Leon Abbey brought the first 'all negro' jazz band to Bombay, leaving behind a legacy that would last three decades. In a decade, swing found its way onto the streets of India. It influenced Hindi film the very soundtrack of Indian life. The optimism of jazz became an important element in the tunes that echoed the hopes of newly independent India. This book tells a story of India, especially of the city of Bombay, through the lives of a menagerie of geniuses, strivers, and eccentrics, both Indian and American, who helped jazz find a home in the sweaty subcontinent. They include the burly African-American pianist Teddy Weatherford; the Goan trumpet player Frank Fernand, whose epiphanic encounter with Mahatma Gandhi drove him to try to give jazz an Indian voice; Chic Chocolate, who was known as' the Louis Armstrong of India'; Anthony Gonsalves, who lent his name to one of the most popular Bollywood tunes ever; and many more. Taj Mahal Foxtrot, at its heart, is a history of Bombay in swing time.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, India, History, Jazz, Indian Literature

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 16, 2012

Reviews

[Vaibhav Srivastav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taj Mahal Foxtrot is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of Bombay. It covers the Jazz age between 1935 and 1965 and a dizzying number of artists, singers, journalists and historians waltz in and out of the book across continents while centering around the jazz culture of South Bombay, some of them (like Soli Sorabjee, Alyque Padmasee) are names which you have heard in a different capacity. It also harkens to a much more cosmopolitan and inclusive past of the city where people from different nationalities lived and worked together with aplomb. Also reading this book creates a roshomon effect because now there are areas and hotels which I will end up looking at in a different light (for example - the group of hotels on the Churchgate Street used to be Jazz hotspots, and this is perhaps why the Pizza restaurant at the end of the road was for a long time known as Not just Jazz by the Bay).

Naresh Fernandes' love for the city and it's past shines through this painstakingly researched book. This book along with City Adrift make a great case for reading more about this city of a million dreams and consequently a million stories.

[Vartika · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heartfelt history of the Jazz Age by the Bay

When, in 1935, Jazz traveled from its birthplace in New Orleans to colonial Bombay, most people wouldn't have anticipated its rewriting of the city's musical ethos for decades to come. Taj Mahal Foxtrot maps the cultural history of Jazz in this city of dreams, traveling from elite ballrooms of The Taj to its miscegeneration with Hindustani in Bollywood — and beyond. From cabaret, minstrelsy, and a privilege of the high society to a political tool from Cold War America in a non-aligned country, Naresh Fernandes' thorough research brings out the revolutions brought about by this musical import all over India's cultural capital through a rich study of its many faces in India, including Ken Mac, Hal Smith, Dizzy Sal, and the incredible Chic Chocolate.

Intertwined with a (contextual) history of India's struggle for Independence, Taj Mahal Foxtrot also nurses the readers' desire to see the city through the lens of lost time. I, for one, can likely never unsee the Framjee Cowasjee Institute (now a library housing an ill-suited Brand Factory showroom on the higher storeys) as the Jazz hotspot it once was, or fail to imagine the intensity of the historic concerts that once took place in the St. Xavier's College quadrangle and the countless hotels and restaurants along Churchgate. Without this book, I would likely never have known of the Blue Rhythm magazine, which came long before Amit Saigal's Rock Street Journal urged (Western) music journalism into the country.

Particularly enjoyable are also the sections that precede and explain the osmosis of Beatlemania from the West, and of Rock music slowly rolling into the country. Taj Mahal Foxtrot should definitely be required reading for anyone with even the most fleeting interest in the modern history of Bombay, and all that Jazz.

A note on this edition

You may be tempted to overlook this book's value as top notch cultural history based on its coffee table aesthetics, reflective cover design and glossy pages (slightly difficult to read from), but there's a lot that makes you overlook those things in the end — its carousel of rare photographs and the supplementary music CD make one's experience more immersive, taking the experience of Taj Mahal Foxtrot beyond the pages.

[Nate Rabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top notch cultural history

[Raquel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched and very well written, this book is appealing to anybody with interest in the History of Jazz. Its thrilling mix of etnographic history, jazz history, India's colonial and Independence history along with the international politics background influencing music related matters, make the book a must for a good jazz library. But not only that. I had many questions about the roots and history of the music of the old times of Bollywood film industry developed in the same city as the history of this book, and the book has enlightened me and answered many of these questions and confirmed some of my intuitions.

[arjn]

A good book that leaves room for better histories to be written. Not as coffee table as it looks, but not too rigorous either. Left me wishing some threads were pursued deeper, among other things, but I do recommend this. It's a singular history of a time starved of attention, both academic and popular, and Fernandes does a decent job.

[Faisal Rahman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written with a lot of joy. It chronicles a Bombay we (the millennials) are entirely unaware of. Would love to read more about the Jazz times of this city.