Killing us softly with their songs

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Late evening. A young man is strumming a guitar in a Connaught Place (CP) corridor, crooning the Ankit Tiwari love song Teri galiyaan. A small crowd swiftly gathers—see photo. Some start snapping the singer-busker. One woman is tapping her foot, in sync with the beats.

Elsewhere in CP, an elderly man is often seen playing flute in an Inner Circle corridor, beside a handwritten placard stating: “I’m not a beggar. I just want to touch your soul with the help of music.”

Live music in CP is a long-time tradition. The colonial-era commercial district was a jumble of pubs and restaurants as much in the 1960s as it is in the 2020s. The place then grooved to jazz. The young Delhiwale would hang out at Volga restaurant in Inner Circle’s F Block where the Hecke Kingdom Quartet presided over as the city’s most popular jazz band. Gaylord in the Regal Cinema building was as favoured, but it was more formal, and had a dance band. The restaurant’s musical ambiance was said to be so addictive that people carried on with it long after they had grown out of their youth. The glamorous Laguna in Janpath was known for its fountain and saxophone player Rudy Cotton. Alps, which too was in Janpath, was patronized for saxophonist Braz Gonsalves. Standard in Regal Building was famous for Frank Dubier, who was said to play the trumpet like jazz great Miles Davis. Wenger’s, the cake shop, had a restaurant on the first floor that hosted chamber music. York in the Outer Circle was known for the cabaret.

Today, many of these landmarks no longer exist. A multinational denim outlet stands where the much-loved Volga was. But then with the changing time, old places disappear, new places appear. Then it was jazz, now it is mostly Bollywood. Last weekend, on Sunday evening in CP, it was a “sufi night” at Drama restobar with performance by the Shifa band, Rishi was singing Bollywood gaane in Plum Coffee and Cocktails, Vidhu was singing Bollywood gaane at Lord of Drinks, DJ Swag was singing Bollywood gaane at My Bar Headquarters, and Tonish Kumar—everybody calls him Mister Tony— was playing the piano in Kwality Restaurant.

Music at CP goes on and on.