In 2018, Gatecrash alongwith Alliance Francaise and Institut Francais, organized a tour for Alexander Herer’s band-OXYD and as a part of the tour they played a concert at the community center of an NGO based out of Dharavi, Mumbai-Acorn Foundation.
The center was packed with kids who had never heard ‘Jazz’ in their lives before, but that didn’t matter, the kids loved the music, they grooved and danced, lapping up the music as if it was their own. The band also spoke to the kids about rhythm & improvisation, and they were joined by young rappers & beatboxers from the community & the gig turned into an impromptu jazz Hip-Hop jam. The kids & the musicians both went back with massive smiles on their faces and also with a sense that they were just a part of something special.
Little did she know back then, but this particular gig would turn out to be the inspiration behind Emmanuelle de Decker (founder of Gatecrash) for kick-starting a project called Music Mulakatein–a series of free concerts & workshops in collaboration with local and foreign artists as well as Indian NGO’s to host Music Mulakatein at various locations like slums, old age homes, hospitals etc. Under this avatar, Music Mulakateinwas launched in September 2018 at the After School of Hip-Hop in collaboration with The Dharavi Dream Project, and since then Gatecrash has hosted 15 such concerts/workshops in various parts of Mumbai.
Akash from The Dharavi Dream Project 
Afzal from The Dharavi Dream Project 
Alexandre Herer Trio, Photo by Stephanie Knibbe
The universe has a funny way of working sometimes and here we are almost 20 months later where Gatecrash is hosting Music Mulakatein’s 1st artistic residency in collaboration with Alexandre Herer Nunataq, an experimental jazz trio from Paris and The Dharavi Dream Project, an after-school of hip-hop nurturing, mentoring and empowering under-resourced hip-hop talent from Dharavi.
The residency will delve into Alexandre Herer’s trio’s jazz music and infuse it with rap, slam, and dance. Through this collaboration the residency aims to establish a common ground for both sets of artists to work together to learn, un-learn, experiment, deconstruct and create new music resulting in the vision set out by the artist. The residency will then be followed up by gigs in Mumbai & Pune.
•November 14, 15& 16| Residency & Presentation at the After School of Hip-hop, Dharavi
•November 17| Pecos, Pune
•Wednesday, November 20 | Tete a Tete at Alliance Francaise de Bombay
•Thursday, November 21| FLEA Bazaar Café, Mumbai
Gatecrash is a music agency organising concerts and promoting the live music scene in India. They curate live music for venues, festivals and events, set up tours for international bands across the country, promote the jazz scene through jazzinindia.com and develop social initiatives
Alexander Herer Nunataq explored new musical concepts, with written repertoire and improvisation techniques. For Nunataq, Alexandre Herer offers an open, aerial and almost cold music, partly inspired by wide iced landscapes like Groenland, places that witnessed a passed climate threatened by modern man.
The Dharavi Dream Project is a trust set up for the After School of hip-hop with the aimto discover, nurture and promote the Hip-Hoptalent from Dharavi and to initiate a Hip-HopMovement to encourage young minds from all over the world to express themselves by giving them a platform for it.
