Jana Gana Mana and Mumbai's Jazz connect

By the time Independence finally arrived swing had become so popular that the highlight of the banquet at the Karachi Club on August 15 1947 to toast Pakistanrsquos founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah was a performance by the AngloIndian bandleader Ken Mac Mac had been flown in from Bombay on a special Tata Airlines plane In 1947 outside the Taj at the Gateway of India crowds crooned ldquoJai Hindrdquo PICs Pradeep Dhivar As the evening proceeded Jinnah asked the band to play Paul Robesonrsquos ldquoThe Endrdquo a tune he used to hum when he performed his weekly Thursday ritual of visiting the grave of his wife Ruttie in the Khoja cemetery in Bombayrsquos Mazagaon neighbourhood As a mark of respect to Jinnah Ken Mac sang the tune himself But nowhere in the subcontinent did the taste for jazz run as deep as in Bombay a port city like New Orleans that was home to people from across the subcontinent mdash and many other parts of the world The Taj Mahal Ballroom hosted some of the earliest Jazz bands in India Around the time Ken Mac was crooning a lullaby to the new nation of Pakistan a Bombay Swing Club brochure listed more than 60 bands in the city starting with the Alexandra Band and running through to the Zoroastrian Symphonyans The list included outfits headed by such legends as trumpet players Frank Fernand and Chic Chocolate and saxophonist Micky Correa The combined bands of Micky Correa and Chic Chocolate were on the stage at the Taj on the evening of August 14 1947 when Dosoo Karaka mdash by now a veteran correspondent at the nationalist Bombay Chronicle newspaper and author of several books on Indian social life and politicsaccepted another invitation to dine there Musicians take to the stage at the Taj on Independence Day Pic Courtesy Taj Mahal Foxtrot Roli books This time he was a guest of the mayor of Bombay His companions included the young industrialist JRD Tata and Vijayalakshmi Pandit the younger sister of Jawaharlal Nehru who at that very moment was preparing to ascend the podium of the Constituent Assembly in Delhi to intimate the country he had been chosen to lead about its tryst with destiny As it neared midnight the lights in the Taj Ballroom were dimmed Karaka stepped forward to make a speech ldquoToday we join the community of the free people of the worldrdquo he told the gathering ldquoThe flag which was once the symbol of rebellion has become the flag of the people Let us hope that under it this country of ours will find peace dignity and greatness againrdquo As the lights flooded back on the crowd cheered and the jazz musicians on stage launched into a jaunty version of the Indian national song ldquoJana Gana Manardquo An Indian Theme Page 104 Men in dinner jackets danced with men in dhotis Englishmen sang ldquoAuld Lang Synerdquo Gandhi caps were tossed in the air Outside by the Gateway of India the crowds crooned ldquoJai Hindrdquo to the tune of ldquoTipperaryrdquo ldquoSo freedom came mdash like all the New Years rolled into onerdquo Karaka recalled Vande Mataram in A Capella This Independence Day catch a special version of the Vande Mataram on 9XM The special version has been sung in a capella style by a USbased band called Penn Masala The band mainly comprises of college students and five of the band members have been part of the video The video will be aired on an hourly basis on the channel so any time you switch to the channel you should be able to catch itu00a0 Log on to httpwwwyoutubecomwatchfeatureplayer_embeddedampvrqu5M6AkEbw Did you know Jana Gana Mana was adopted as Indiarsquos National Anthem three years post independenceu00a0