Pan-Indian music hunt winners prep for their debut in Mumbai

From left Aakash Ganguly Arinjoy Sarkar and Sounak Roy of Arinjoy TrioIf we are to trace the history of Arinjoy Trio we have to go back to a band named Jack Rabbit The latter was an act formed in 2005 that started out playing classic rock covers as many Kolkatabased outfits are wont to do in a city fed on a constant diet of the likes of Dire Straits and Led Zeppelin But the outfit later moved on to composing original Bengali songs striking a deal with a major label in the process and creating ripples in the local music circuitBut two of Jack Rabbits later members Arinjoy Sarkar and Sounak Roy felt that there was a gap in their creative output that this band wasnt being able to fill Dont get me wrong I was really happy with what we were doing because not too many people have made the kind of Bengali songs that Jack Rabbit did But the other side of my musical upbringing the blues influences and the jazz harmonies that I had learnt remained underutilised And this was around the same time that Sounak introduced me to Aakash Ganguly and we started jamming together Eventually I left Jack Rabbit and in 2015 we were like Come on lets do this before officially forming this trio Sarkar revealsNow the three members are gearing to play their debut gig in Mumbai at the Mahindra Blues Festival no less The events organisers had conducted a band hunt inviting panIndia applications online Arinjoy Trio was among the shortlisted acts called for an audition in Mumbai last weekend So they came they performed and they won the competition landing themselves the chance to play on the same stage as bona fide international blues legendsDoes that make them nervous Not really because Sarkar says See we are going to be playing in front of absolutely topline blues artistes one of them being John Mayall whose band Eric Clapton started with So thats obviously running in our heads and over the next two weeks we are trying to raise our performance by a notch But I am not feeling the nerves as such because that doesnt happen after a stage in your career What we are feeling is more like Alright John Mayall and Coco Montoya will be there So we had better rise to the challenge Those sound like the words of an artiste whos confident about his abilities And so the 29yearold should be because we gave Arinjoy Trio a listen online and found that they play an unfiltered version of blues music that encompasses various subgenres most of which originated in southern AmericaBut India too has the potential to foster musicians playing this kind of music Sarkar feels Blues is obviously not a modern sound and so people dont always connect to it easily Its not as shiny and glossy as other forms of music may be Its really raw and crude instead But then again whomever I have played BB King to has loved the music Similarly Stevie Ray Vaughn is also very popular So there are some avenues within the genre that suit people of our generation and those after us And Ive generally seen that when weve played to a crowd of people we are touch wood mostly successful at getting them up and enjoying the music he says thus indicating that the audience at Arinjoy Trios Mumbai debut wont feel shortchanged listening to a desi band amidst a galaxy of legendary western artistesOn February 10 and 11At Mehboob Studios Hill Road Bandra WestLog on to bookmyshowcomCost Rs 2500 for a day and 4000 for both daysCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news current affairs from Mumbai local news crime news and breaking headlines hereDownload the new midday Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go