The magic of swing, oh yes, brings back images of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Artie Shaw. Now that music can be heard at Favela every Thursday thanks to the efforts of Rahul D Mello who has curated Reverse Gear a band that comprises very experienced musicians.
Speaking to Café, he said the band would play popular songs but with a complete twist. He said “We have reworked some big hits like Leila and songs by legends like Frank Sinatra, Julio Iglesias to name just a few. It will all be performed as swing songs.”
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He said the idea for the band came about when every venue was following a trend that was not giving people a chance to witness and be a part of something different to the regular run of the mill pop cover band. He admitted it was a tried and tested genre and those running clubs were businessmen who would perhaps not take the chance of making their establishment a place where a customer would think twice. Rahul said “We decided to go the opposite way and do something different. Favella being the sort of classy venue, we came up with the idea of making the place a venue for a genre of music that would compliment the place.”
The joy of listening to big band music is indescribable. The band comprises Nathaniel Duarte e Bragança a 24 years old mechanical engineer from Merces for whom music has always been a passion. He said “ I’m playing the ‘Alto Saxophone’ for this set-up/band. I also play the clarinet and basics of few other instruments. It’s a real pleasure working with the band. Though the band members consist of different age groups, everyone just gets along well”. Scott Rodricks is the vocalist of the band. He said he had really enjoyed playing and practising with the band.
Darryl Rodriguez is a familiar name in Mumbai music circles. He started off in Goa’s top band ‘the sting’ and later ‘ the link’ and tehn moved to Mumbai to start ‘Aquaflow ‘ and ‘ Hi tide’. Healso been part of Colonial Cousins. Lester D’Souza is a saxophone player from caranzalem and plays jazz, funk, RnB and pop. Sanjay Joseph is an artist. The guitar is his exoskeleton. He has played with cats like Louis Banks, Ranjit Barot, with Bollywood phenoms A. R. Rahman, Clinton Cerejo and toured the world with KK, Vishal and Shekhar (for the Amitabh Bachan unforgettable tour). Daniella Rodrigues is the female vocalist of this band. She started singing at16 in her dad’s band and slowly build a base. She now prefers singing jazz. The much experienced Senon Trumpet: Senon Silvestre De Souza who has played the Goan Nightingale Lorna and arranged music for various Konkani albums and tiatrs is also part of this group.
Clifford Siqueira plays the drums and Diego Fernandes will play electric bass, acoustic bass and double bass.
Rahul said the band is a combination of different talented musicians, coming together to create twist, foot tapping music with a refreshing feel to the music of the years gone by. Rahul said “It’s been a dream come true for me to play an “out of the box” style of music combining with standards/ cover versions. Swing for me is something that I personally like and would want the new generation to know and understand and hopefully like too”. He said he would like to thank Gregg Furtado the owner of Favela for giving them the opportunity to showcase their talent.
