When Funk/Jazz Fusion band The Revisit Project started in 2014 with an aim to give groovy, jazz makeovers to old Bollywood classics, the band quickly discovered their chemistry was meant for far more than that. Boasting a line-up of proficient musicians from the Delhi circuit, the band released their debut album ‘Here We Go’ in 2017, with the next two ‘Brown Man’s Funk’ and ‘Born in Delhi’ releasing back to back in 2019. After additions to the line-up and a shift in gears, the band took to releasing singles in 2020 with the latest ‘Jog Through The Park’ featuring Sarod player Rohan Prasanna being their most experimental yet.
Released earlier this month, the single was born out of an experimental jam based on the hindustani classical raag ‘Jog’. The tune, in essence, doesn’t follow the strict rules of the raag but tries to amalgamate the free flowing jazz fusion techniques with the soul of the Indian scale and features one of the modern prodigies of Indian classical on Sarod, Rohan Prasanna. The band is finally exploring sonically through the jazz fusion idiom, they say. An all instrumental track, unlike the band’s last few releases, the song feels like a masterclass in progression, with the inter-play of the wide variety of instruments being visible as the song plays and layering happens. “I have been exploring Indian raags for a few years now, and it was a tune I had worked out while working on Raag Jog. The inspiration comes from a Chick Corea/John McLaughlin collaboration tune called Raju. The tune itself has a brilliant section initially with Rohan exploring the raag further. Since we are all learning, we didn’t follow the rules of the raag strictly. But, this is definitely a direction we can take in future. The idea was to not to diminish the Hindustani element, and at the same time arrange the tune in the traditional jazz fusion format.” says Abhay Sharma from the band.
The current line-up of The Revisit Project features Abhay Sharma – Saxophone/Composer, Aditya Bhagvatula – Drums, Varun Rajasekharan – Percussions, Kanu Gangahar – Guitar, Karan Wadhwa – Bass, Chetan Dominic Awasthi – Vocals and Vrnda Dhar – Vocals. Considering the band has always had a greater focus on their live show aspect, 2020 was a tough year for them but one that did not go in vain. “We learnt how to record ourselves at home and make demos. It was initially tough to sit back and do nothing, when all we really dig is being able to play together. But, we learnt to be patient. With the recent addition of Rythem Bansal, a stellar Jazz pianist from our scene, our musical direction will definitely move into slightly uncharted territories of Jazz and more improvisational stuff in general. Thus, the lessons of waiting for things to get better and being patient will help us in getting ourselves to learn and grow now.” says Abhay.
What lies in 2021 for The Revisit Project? A lot, for sure. Abhay Sharma says “We already have some 12 demos recorded and 35+ songs/tunes written. 2021end should see an album for sure. Our immediate plan is to release music every 2 months. Singles from the upcoming album is our general thought process. A lot of writing happened during the lockdown, let’s hope it comes to fruition.”
‘Jog Through The Park feat. Rohan Prasanna’ has been released via CD Baby, the largest online distributor of independent music in the world.
