Music to enrich the soul

In our boredom filled daily life, what couples best with a rain soaked evening? Perhaps good music or, a cup of fragrant coffee. The Seesaw Quartet's jazz performance at 3rd Space café on September 14 was perhaps the best combination of everything mentioned above.

The promising instrumental band comprises of Rahin Haider on tenor saxophone, Jishnu Haider on guitar, Samiul Wahid on drums and Alistair Sarkar Raj on bass.

The team performed some of their original tracks as well as some covers. This gesture can be interpreted as a prelude to their album that might be released at the end of this year.

The beauty of jazz lies in contemplating the music, as there are barely any lyrics.

Sometimes it can be a challenge to communicate the artists' feelings directly through instruments but that is what performers love best about this genre. 

Although the audience was not familiar with the quartet, their cheers and applauds made it apparent that the performance was wonderful.

The different yet relatable track names were also audience favourites. For example, the track called 'Moghbazar flyover' reminded many of being stuck in traffic on the Moghbazar flyover!

The track 'On est tous Africains' (We are all Africans) was a tribute to the African-American communities in New Orleans from which jazz originated.  

The gig ended with the track 'Meena's desire' that musically portrayed our childhood icon Meena. The use of flute notes gave it a distinctive touch.  

Rahin from the quartet said, "To be honest we have not yet reached the state where we can say that jazz and similar genres have established an industry in Bangladesh.

However, we are growing and I am hopeful about the future. Till then we will keep playing jazz to soothe our souls."