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Soli Sorabjee-Jazz

Soli Sorabjee was a prominent Indian lawyer and jazz enthusiast who helped establish jazz music festivals in India. As the president of Jazz India Delhi Chapter and later Capital Jazz, he worked to bring international jazz artists to perform in India and ensure the music featured both established and up-and-coming artists. Growing up in Bombay in the 1930s-40s, it was natural for Soli to enjoy the jazz music popular at the time from artists like Benny Goodman. He passionately supported jazz musicians throughout his life and career until his death in 2021.

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Arunima Ghosh
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112 views1 page

Soli Sorabjee-Jazz

Soli Sorabjee was a prominent Indian lawyer and jazz enthusiast who helped establish jazz music festivals in India. As the president of Jazz India Delhi Chapter and later Capital Jazz, he worked to bring international jazz artists to perform in India and ensure the music featured both established and up-and-coming artists. Growing up in Bombay in the 1930s-40s, it was natural for Soli to enjoy the jazz music popular at the time from artists like Benny Goodman. He passionately supported jazz musicians throughout his life and career until his death in 2021.

Uploaded by

Arunima Ghosh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Soli had all that jazz going

T.R. Ramkrishnan nicknamed ‘Prez’).”


NEW DELHI The passion extended to
Soli knew he was going. “We people who made the music,
are in the departure lounge too: he was a patron to the
waiting for visas to come jazzmen of his era. A pro-
through,” he told his friend posed line-up for a Jazz Utsav
Subash a week or so ago. in the 2000s didn’t feature
You wouldn’t have any Indian bands. Soli
thought that a month earlier, promptly shot off a note, say-
when he was on stage at the ing: “I may frankly state that
India International Centre, Soli Sorabjee if there is no Indian band per-
bantering with Supreme forming at the Utsav it will be
Court judge Justice Rohinton public. very difficult for me to asso-
Nariman at the launch of his I got to know Soli in the ciate myself with the Utsav.”
collected works, Down Me- early 80s, first when I volun-
mory Lane. teered as backstage help for In tune with the times
The occasion was also the the Jazz Yatras and later as a Soli’s preferred music was
delayed celebration of his member of the JIDC manag- that of a bygone era. Meet-
90th birthday, twice post- ing committee. I was a young ings of Capital Jazz would
poned from last year due to sports reporter then, and in start with him talking about a
Covid. It was time between awe of him — the highest-paid particular solo Lester took in
the subsidence of one wave lawyer in the country — as we the latest CD he’d heard. But
and the rise of another. In a would attend meetings at his as President of Capital Jazz
life full of myriad achieve- Sundar Nagar office-cum-re- he ensured that the music
ments, Soli himself had rid- sidence. But Soli never let performed in Jazz Utsav was
den — and crested — many a that show then, or in the 35- in tune with the times. If the
wave himself, before being odd years I’ve known him. I line-up had Grammy winner
swept away by this dreadful was an equal, a fellow jazz saxophonist Rudresh Mahan-
one. lover. When he visited Singa- thapa to please the purists,
None would have pleased pore while I was working he would also have Larry
Soli more than being presi- there in the 1990s, much to Carlton, the Grammy win-
dent of Jazz India Delhi Chap- my delight, he called me and ning guitar virtuoso, to at-
ter (and later Capital Jazz). took me out shopping. tract the youth. He did this
Jazz Yatra, the international by allowing younger people
festival of jazz music, was Bombay’s jazz era to have a voice in Capital
first held in Bombay, in 1978. Growing up in Bombay in the Jazz: first there was (the late)
It was Soli, along with fellow 1930s-40s it was natural Soli Amit Sehgal, better known as
jazz-lovers (the above-men- would “swing” to the music a rock impressario; later Ar-
tioned) Subash Lal, Rudy of that era — he passionately jun Sagar Gupta, who runs
Cotton, Harish Salve and a loved the music of Benny the only Jazz Pub in Delhi/
few others, who formed Jazz Goodman and played the cla- Gurgaon.
India Delhi Chapter to bring rinet himself. When Soli, as That was quintessential
the Yatra to Delhi. The Yatra attorney-general, was intro- Soli — a traditionalist with
(and Jazz Utsav in its later duced to sax-playing Ameri- one hand, so generous with
avatar) became a staple of can President Bill Clinton, he the other. When finally his vi-
the Capital’s cultural circuit. told him, “You are the se- sa came, it was dated Inter-
It was the forerunner to the cond President who loves te- national Jazz Day.
“live” concerts by interna- nor sax, the first was Lester (The author is a veteran
tional artists taken for grant- Young (the American tenor Delhi-based sports journal-
ed by today’s music-loving saxman of the 1940s was ist.)

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