MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA

Based on their performance on 27 March at the Army Club auditorium, Ozma, the French quintet jazz band should add the word radical to the string of adjectives used to describe their music. As David Florsch (saxophone), Matthias Mahle (trombone), Adrien Dennefeld (guitar), Edouard S?ro-Guillaume (bass) and St?phane Scharl? (drums) performed, they unfolded beautiful stories through their instruments. The stories were as diverse as their music with subjects that ranged from a big rabbit to their memories in Lithuania.

Though in the beginning it seemed as though each of the five musicians were doing their own thing, the natural sync that banded them together had the audience spellbound. The theatrical presentation they put on for the show had the audience tapping their feet and swaying to the music, bringing to light the cosmic (or should we say the 'ozmic') understanding of their music.

The five-member band Ozma was in Kathmandu to be a part of the week long Chevrolet Miles Music Festival which was jointly organised by Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory, Alliance Fran?aise in Kathmandu and Infinity International. Apart from this concert, Ozma also mesmerised the audience on 28 March at 1905 along with many national and international bands. On 29 March, the last day of the festival which aimed at uniting people through music, they also played with Nepali musicians at a unique repertoire concert at Dokhaima Caf?. Nature pitched in with the amazing acoustics of thunder in Kathmandu Valley's unique echo-chamber. The celestial fireworks display gave way to a spectacular hailstorm: all we needed was a bit of jazz to break the six-month drought.

Shitu Rajbhandari