The essence of jazz, they say, is unfamiliarity. The possibility that dangles at the end of every measure as the song progresses, that a musician might introduce an improvised lick, riff or better yet, a solo, is what keeps the listener hooked. As Derek Mathias, leader of Derek & The Cats, a Bengaluru-based jazz band brings his cats to the city this weekend, expect the thrill to grow seven-fold. Accompanied by Anand Murali, Gautam David, Joel Rozario, Adesh Vinod, Vishal Varier and Jason Sharat, the seven-piece band will perform at the G5A warehouse as part of their That Friday Jazz concert series tomorrow.

Mathias’ journey began during the lockdown when grooving and jamming were strictly solitary indulgences. “I started composing instrumental tracks using my keyboard. I would play the basslines and other accompanying elements myself using digital synthesizers,” he shares, adding that the tracks were free-flowing and weren’t structured to fit a certain genre. “Next, I started following the musicians who are now my bandmates on Instagram. I sent them a few demos and as it turned out, they all agreed to come together and move on to something bigger,” the pianist shares.