Jam packed

63 bands come together to play. It is a two-day, all-night event.

Bangalore’s version of Woodstock, Freedom Jam is rocking the city this Independence Day-weekend. Sixty-three bands — to coincide with 63 years of independence — are participating this year in this two-day, all-night event which ends today and has, as its motto, the grand objective: “To play, to let play, to listen, to let listen n then play n listen some more, without restrictions, without commercial constraints, without preconceived notions about what is and what isn’t Music.”

This is the 14th edition of Freedom Jam which began in 1996 when a few Indian bands gathered at the Ravindra Kalakshetra auditorium to celebrate 50 years of independence as well as to assert their freedom of expression through music. Primary among these was Siddhartha Patnaik of the reggae band Bharat Mata Nach Kud Baja, Gopal Navale of Guruskool Music, and blues-fusion player Michael Sorensons.

Actually, it goes even further back to the early 1980s, to the Sunday evening, open-to-the-public jam sessions at the Cubbon Park. That first Freedom Jam proved so successful that it became a monthly affair, held on the first Sunday of the month — hence called the Sunday jams.

Over the years Freedom Jam has grown in stature attracting thousands of music lovers and hundreds of musicians from all over. The bands in this year’s line-up include Sanskrit pop-band Maye!; Vinapra, which plays Hindi rock; the Carnatic rock group Agam; Infinite Spirit, which does fusion; Low Rhyderz, which plays hip-hop, and others such as Unknown Steve, Ram Nagraj, Alan Rego.

This year, there’s been a clear shift away from English to regional languages. While the emphasis on “original” compositions remains, heavy metal and hard rock have made space for Indian classical music this year in order to draw in the general crowd.

Also new this year are multiple venues dedicated to different musical styles — at Koshy’s Chill Out, for instance, there’s children’s music; Seva Sadan will have Indian classical, devotional and world music; while Tavern Inn will have classic rock and retro. The idea is to take the music to the people, rather than have them spend hours negotiating Bangalore traffic trying to reach a venue.

What remains constant is the fact that Freedom Jam is an entirely artists-led event.The artists do not charge anything to perform, only retaining their right to perform what they want. Since the event has no corporate sponsorship, they have to foot their expenses while volunteers manage everything from posters to administration.