MUMBAI: In an attempt to attract the non-jazz loving music fans, the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) is presenting ‘Jazzification’.

Two shows held earlier showed the power of the genre to pull audiences.

The talented lot that will be performing in the third night are Rajeev Raja (Flute), Sanjay Divecha (Guitar), Karl Peters (Bass), Kurt Peters (Drums), Rahul Wadhwani (Piano/Keys), Shirish Malhotra (Saxophone), Ramon Ibrahim (Trombone) and Bosco Monserrate (Trumpet).

Rajeev Raja, one of these stellar jazz musicians, told Radioandmusic.com that “NCPA was interested in promoting Jazz and spreading its reach to a wider audience. So I came up with the idea of 'Jazzification', which involved taking popular tunes which everybody knew and adding elements of Jazz to them. This way the lay audience would understand jazz better.”

On moving away from the usual jazz format in lure to attract audience, Raja said, “Taking popular Hollywood soundtracks and 'jazzifying' them is the latest edition of the 'Jazzification' series. In the past we've jazzified the Beatles, as well as a whole list of classic rock and motown tunes.”

This time they will be jazzifying, ‘Favourite Things’ - themes from James Bond, ‘The Godfather’, ‘The Good, The Bad, The Ugly’, ‘Saturday Night Fever’, ‘Mission Impossible’, ‘Chariots of Fire’, ‘Lion King’, and many more.

Incorporating film tracks into jazz is nothing short of trying to moon walk to Jackson’s songs. But, Raja and team have been putting their heart and soul into Jazzifying these tunes. “There’s a lot of hard work involved, since we have a big band with an entire horn section,” explains Raja.

The team puts the interpretations borrowed from blues, funk, latin and other jazz influences.

Looking at the bigger picture, the future of Jazz in India, the flutist asserts, “Well Jazz will always be music for the discerning, but we wish to reach as many of those discerning folks as possible. So we view the future with optimism.”

Don’t forget to catch up on this amalgamation of movies and Jazz.