Life & Style | Travel
Out of the blue
In less than a year since its launch, Mumbai's Blue Frog has got tongues wagging because of its impressive gig line-up and outstanding artist roster that includes guitar legend John McLaughlin, writes Shobha Makrand.
- By Shobha Makrand
- Published: 14:42 January 6, 2009
Wednesday 6pm, in Mumbai. A bunch of friends get together and want to check out some live music in the city to beat the mid-week blues. The options are a restaurant by the sea where a rusty cover band is up on stage or a star hotel where a few Filipino lounge singers belt out pop hits.
The friends abandon the plan and choose to catch a movie instead. This was the scene in Mumbai up until five years back.
Today, anybody who's in the mood for live music in Mumbai will be shown directions to Blue Frog located in central Mumbai. Blue Frog opened its doors to music-starved Mumbai audiences last winter. Sure, India's first Hard Rock Café which launched in Mumbai a couple of months ago had already started building a fellowship of rock lovers but the Frog offered something for everybody.
With a gig every single day of the week except Mondays, the Frog opens its week with jazz/blues bands on Tuesdays, salsa nights on Wednesdays, rock on Thursdays, electronica on Fridays and international acts during the weekend.
"Our club acts are programmed and finalised three months in advance," says composer Dhruv Ghanekar, one of the partners who set up the Frog, "In a couple of years we hope to be on the international map. Maybe Blue Frog will be India's answer to Blue Note someday."
Hitting the right notes
While that's a really tall order, the enterprise has been in the public eye because of its high voltage performances that included John McLaughlin coming unhinged on stage with drumming ace Ranjit Barot and the inimitable Carnatic jazz vocalist Susheela Raman unleashing her Hendrix avatar.
On any given night, the average footfall adds upto 200 people and the club has turned into a meeting point for Mumbai's swish set. Designed by Contemporary Urban Design, the club opens up to a long bar and a series of pod-shaped seating spaces, facing the stage.
The pods, usually reserved for diners, have been acoustically treated to enhance the live performance and the circular floor is where the fanatic music lovers swing back a drink and stay glued to the gig. On a good night, like when virtuoso banjo player Bela Fleck jammed with tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, fans were within touching distance from the stars and were plastered to the front of the stage.
"Blue Frog is crowded with about 300 people and that day we had a footfall of 700," recalls Ghanekar. The only downsides include steeply-priced F&B and a moody sound set up, but most Froggers are willing to let that pass because the place delivers live music six days of the week.
And the Frog has expanded beyond just a club that is pushing the parameters of live music in the country. It was envisaged as an integrated set-up that included a club, recording studios, a production house and a label by a group of friends who are as passionate about music as the Frog's patrons.
Ghanekar and his long time associate and composer Ashutosh Phatak, advertising professionals Srila Chatterjee and Mahesh Mathai, restaurateur Rahul Akerkar and his wife Malini and former investment banker Simran Mulchandani are the creative force behind the Frog.
The credentials make for an impeccable masthead. Ghanekar and Phatak are well-known in the music circles for their out-of-the-box compositions for films such as Bombay Boys and Snip besides being sought after musicians in the field of advertising. Chatterjee who has previously been the festival director for the annual Kala Ghoda Festival in Mumbai proved her mettle with the eclectic line-up of performances every day of the two-week festival.
Akerkar, who owns Indigo, the swanky south Mumbai delicatessen is also known to have a soft spot for jazz and has hosted several wine and jazz evenings at his restaurant. A five-minute chat with Mathai, a film maker who has been credited with a powerful body of work including Bhopal Express and you'll know that he has a formidable knowledge of world music, a staple at the Frog.
In the beginning
The seed to set up Blue Frog was sown at one of the many get togethers at Chatterjee's south Mumbai pad when Singapore-based Mulchandani was first approached with the idea of a place that offered music lovers and the community all the amenities under one roof. He was taken with the idea. So the group set about transforming 6000 square feet of unused warehouse into an upscale club, studio and
production unit.
Having been in the industry for over two decades now, Chatterjee felt that the work/life balance of advertising and media professionals needed a more streamlined approach. The idea of a place where they could work in a fun environment and break for some great live music at the club instantly appealed to Chatterjee, executive producer, Highlight Films.
Mathai along with Chatterjee hope to be more actively involved in production.
The label too has begun to generate a buzz amongst the music community. The biggest catch till date has been McLaughlin who released his album Floating Point, a collaboration with Indian artists including pianist Barot in June. "Getting McLaughlin on the label was a high point.
It wasn't difficult at all as most people believed it to be. We had been in talks with McLaughlin's management in December and the deal finally came through sometime in January. His music especially for this album is pretty much rooted in India," says Ghanekar.
For his part, Ghanekar is also glad that all the four businesses of Blue Frog are completely independent today.
"The club sustained the other aspects in the beginning but now all four of them are doing well," he says. Composers Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy who literally lived at the suburban Mumbai recording studio Purple Haze seem to have shifted loyalties and were seen recording at Blue Frog sound
labs recently.
Indian artists such as percussionist Vivek Rajagopalan, who have been signed on to the label, are extremely impressed with the fact that the founders have been able to live up to their commitment of making "stars of musicians" and not vice versa as is the norm of the day. He feels that it's easier to connect to a group of people who belong to the same fraternity.
"For example, I don't have to argue my case if I want to master my album in London. Ashu and Dhruv instantly understand where I'm coming from," he says. The label has also taken up the long-forgotten project of nurturing musicians and standing by them all through the journey, he says. "Other record labels release your album and boom, that's it.
Blue Frog will be managing my gigs as well. I was almost ready to sign onto a regular label but Ashu (Phatak) chatted me up and told me to hang in there," says Rajagopalan, who's currently in talks to set up international gigs.
A great platform
The club has also been a platform for Indian musicians to jam along with their international counterparts.
In fact Rajagopalan has, on several instances, gone up on stage with international acts such as UK-based bassist Shri a.k.a Shrikant Sriram and Bauchklang, the beat box group from Austria.
"Performing at the Frog has been a great preparing ground for sure," says Rajagopalan, who also performed at the club with his own group Ragatronics and plans to launch his album later.
There are more perks for a musician who performs at the Frog – the band's entire performance is documented on a multi-track recording system – and free access into the club all through the year. "No other club in the country does this sort of thing," says pianist Louis Banks, who's obviously thrilled that the city has found a new avenue for jazz amongst other genres.
Banks is one of the artists who features on McLaughlin's recent album.
International artists aren't any less impressed. Mango Blue, the Afro Latin ensemble from New York, which was the first act to be showcased at the Frog will return to perform at the club's anniversary this year. "I was deeply touched by the almost immediate connection and excitement we felt from the crowd. When you play original music, regardless of the place you are playing in, you are always faced with the double challenge of performing at your best and being able to draw the audience to your music.
India is a huge place so it's impossible to generalise but I think the people that came to see us at The Blue Frog were one of the best audiences," says Alex Alvear, bassist and vocalist for Mango Blue. "Any club in the world whose main focus is music faces many challenges and I'm thrilled to see this great experiment is working."
Blue Frog
D/2 Mathuradas Mill Compound,
NM Joshi Marg, Lower Parel
Mumbai, India
Phone: 97122-40332300
www.bluefrog.co.in
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