Artistic Director of Copenhagen Jazz Orchestra with projects as composer, conductor, saxophone-player with leading orchestras in Europe, India and Brazil, Lars Møller tries his best to make time to visit India. It is not just its beauty but the richness of the Indian music especially the Ragas which invites him. A leading Scandinavian jazz musician, Lars has been music on the world stage since his 20s and moved from Europe to New York, playing with a number of legendary jazzmusicians.
Lars has been visiting Indian since the 1980s. However, it was only 2023 when he first arrived in Goa for performances and workshops. “It's ironic, that in decades of me travelling to India, it was not until last year, that I for the first time visited Goa, where by chance a family vacation was expanded. Helped by my old friend Nitin Chandy from the Future School of Performing Arts connected me with Vinesh Iyer from The Live Music Project (TLMP) & Art Escape experience, on short notice, I did different really fine concerts and workshops in Goa.”
Coming from Europe, what attracted him to Indian music especially Ragas? “My story with Indian music and Ragas goes back a long time.As a jazz-saxophone player, I got off to an early start, living in and playing with the great jazz musicians in New York in my early 20's. Including the band of legendary drummer Jimmy Cobb, who played on Miles Davis' iconic album ‘Kind of Blue’. After getting my initial "jazz licence", I realized I needed something else in my music and life, and got interested in Indian music, particularly, the Indian tradition of learning and mastering the arch-typical human emotions ‘Rasa’ embedded in the ragas to seem to complement the more technical elements of jazz that had played a big part in my musical life until then. I was extremely lucky to hear the great Shehnai player,Bismillah Khan, and realized how his sound was the inspiration for the modern saxophone sound created by my musical hero, John Coltrane. By luck, I had the chance to study shehnaiwith the great masters,AnantLal and his son Daya Shankar in Delhi. You could say I was adopted into the family,” says Lars.
A major part of his musical life has been about making a meeting between Jazz, western music and the Indian musical heritage, and he keep coming back for inspiration and to learn from and to play with musicians here. “It really feels like coming home. Particularly playing in both Europe and India with my Indian half-brothers, Sanjeev and Ashwani Shankar - who are now India's leading Shehnai-players,” adds Lars.
Lars has performed in different parts of the world, and there have been musical instruments that blend well with the saxophone. “There are instruments around the world, whose sound are designed to resonate with the body and mind in a way that goes beyond music. Amongst these, I was inspired by the ceremonial wind-instruments of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and the Didgeridoo of the Aboriginals of Australia. Both traditions seems to carry some ancient knowledge expressed in their use of overtones in their sound, something I try to also be incorporate in my approach to the saxophone.”
One music album which shot him to fame and eventually the Danish Grammy is ‘Kaleidoscope’. “My early band ‘Lars Møller group’ with pianoplayer Jacob Christoffersen, bassplayer Thomas Ovesen and drummer and tablaplayer Ole Theill, was my first go at mixing an American and Scandinavian jazz sound with Indian influence. We were really fortunate to perform all over the world from Beijing to Blue Note in New York, and of the five albums we released, the album ‘Kaleidoscope’ seemed to capture the sound of the first band really well, and perhaps helped by the Danish Grammy was exposed the most internationally. Earlier this year, I played a gig with the British saxophone-player Gary Plumlyat the beach in South Goa, and it was really heart-warming that so many years later, he mentioned this album as a source of inspiration,” says Lars with joy.
Speaking about his experience in Goa and the jazz scene, he says, “I absolutely love to be here. People are really friendly and relaxed people and compared to the somewhat dark and cold Scandinavian winter, the climate, nature and food in Goa is absolutely beautiful.In the decades of coming to India, it has been my pleasure to see how musicians have developed in the field of Jazz. In particular, the musicians and other artists in Goa seem to be on a very high level and with an open view to the world & understanding of music.” Lars will be conducting a music workshop, ‘Embodied Rhythm’ on November 12 to 14 in Goa.