Kendraka is putting Kolkata back on the jazz map, with just a little twist
In the ’60s and ’70s, if you walked down Kolkata’s Park Street and stepped into a restaurant or a bar, you’d hear live music. And if there was any music that regaled anybody on that street where all sinners and saints come together, it was jazz. Now few live music bars remain and Mumbai is where jazz has found its address. But one of the newest jazz experiments in contemporary music comes from Kolkata, in the form of two musicians, Mainak “Bumpy” Nag Chowdhury and Bodhisatwa Ghosh and their band Kendraka.

One of the most noted bassists in the national music scene, Bumpy formed Kendraka with Ghosh in 2008 and since then the duo has been travelling across the country with their brand of jazz fusion.
And fusion is the operative word. “Bodhi and I have spent over a decade playing different styles in studio and live sessions. Kendraka is our experimental fusion project and the influences are diverse. This band is a creative space for us to express our views and philosophy, through our music,” says Bumpy.

For jazz fans across the country, Kendraka is heralding a new sound. You know it when you’re listening to Transitions in Monsoon, a sleepy track that picks up pace, swirling around in your ears as unpredictably as the rain itself or even Dodge It, a track so frantically keeping pace with itself, it immediately draws your feet and pulse to keep time.
The basis of each composition could be anything. “We surprise ourselves every time we hit the drawing board. New ideas and older ideas take time but find space to co-exist , most of the time,” says Bumpy. You’ll hear it in Jack in the Box, a maverick track that takes its own sweet time to wake up and enjoy itself being played out.

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