India is widely associated with Bollywood and local classical music. But a new wave of musicians in Mumbai are drumming up interest in jazz.
This jazz scene marks the revival of a genre of music that once flourished in the city.
Our correspondent in Mumbai, Rebecca Bundhun, reports.
IN: It's a sultry evening...
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It's a sultry evening in Mumbai. The cool sounds of jazz are drawing in a packed audience to a basement venue.
The popularity of the genre is on the rise in the city.
Saurav Ghosh is a full-time musician, a jazz drummer, playing at the gig.
"I've noticed there is like a real upsurge in this whole jazz community and the way musicians are dealing with their music. People are taking it a lot more serious than they were when I was growing up, and now we have more than YouTube. We do have good teachers which wasn't there when I was growing up. We didn't have good music teachers. Now it's all coming together. People are really trying to play original music. They're not afraid of playing original music and I think it's a good thing."
He got into jazz when he studied abroad.
Fellow musician, Rahul Wadhwani, a keyboardist in his twenties, explains jazz wasn't something he was exposed to at all growing up, but now he specialises in it.
"For 18 years of my life I was born and brought up in this small district called Yavatmal where there was no scope of western music whatsoever, so Bollywood was the only thing, or Indian classical at best."
Mumbai in fact has a rich but largely forgotten jazz history.
This rare, historic recording from the Taj Mahal Palace hotel gives us a glimpse of that era.
Louiz Banks is often referred to as the godfather of Indian jazz. He is pleased to see renewed interest.
"Since the last couple of years youngsters are getting into this music, so the scene is changing now for the better. And I'm really getting involved myself with all the youngsters now."
He says that he is focusing on Indian jazz fusion, which is helping to bring jazz to more Indians.
Things have have come full circle. Louiz Banks recently performed sold out gigs in the United States.
Indian jazz musicians seem to be hitting the right note with a larger audience.
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