Mumbai has a healthy number of jazz musicians plying their trade in the city. The genre has a rich legacy here as well, going all the way back to the 1950s when South Bombay was abuzz with the sound of saxophones, to when Louiz Banks first arrived here in the '70s, to the current crop of artistes. There is a music school that initiates the next generation. Organisations like the NCPA play their part, too. All in all, you would think that jazz music is in a healthy state in this part of the country, except that there's a problem - a paucity of venues. And artistes thus have to fall back on restaurants like Veranda in Bandra and The Little Door in Andheri to play in front of an audience.

But there is now an addition to that list. Goyaa, a chic eatery in a still-functioning printing mill in Byculla, has recently started a property called Saturday Jazz Nights. Tanish Thakker of Gatecrash, the events firm that curates the series, tells us, "I approached the restaurant after it launched around seven months ago with the idea of hosting gigs there, and the owner [Siddharth Somaiya] told me straight up, 'Let's do it.' But he wasn't quite sure about the genre initially, and since we do a lot of jazz gigs [with the events firm], we thought we should stick to it because jazz has this quality that lets you listen to the music if you want to or have it merely as an ambient background, which is perfect for the setting."