Jazzing it up!

All of 27, Pranati Khanna from Hyderabad is an entrepreneur by day and a gifted singer by night.

The young singer is leaving no stone unturned to educate the populace of city about jazz music. "Jazz is a dying art, and everybody listens to Rock, Bollywood, etc and all of that music has come from the genre of jazz. Jazz is the father of every other genre that has come," she says.

Pranati informs that there is no jazz scene in Hyderabad. "The only scene that is there is like maybe 50-60 people, who know jazz and appreciate jazz they come for all these events like World Music Day, etc. And they themselves are mostly musicians.

We all meet up for dinner and jam together and that's about it. That's why I want to create some scene where it is not just the enthusiasts, but people who do not know jazz, but they might actually like it."

"I am a partner with pub Giggle Water in Hyderabad. I started Jazz Nights on Fridays, where I sing music from the 20s and 30s era and beyond that, and lots of people were coming in and slowly started to love the vibe and started to learn about music and the songs."

Talking about her first tryst with jazz she shares, "I have always into music since I was a child. My parents listened to a lot of rock and roll, blues, jazz. However, I ended up singing a lot of rock, in fact, I have a band 'Spell Check' that is a hard rock band.

I got inspired by a gentleman named Dennis Paul, who is a very famous pianist in Hyderabad and was a teacher at HPS for 40 years.

I got in touch with him through friends and started performing with him. He introduced me to the genre jazz. I just picked it up and I fell in love with it completely and I only wanted to sing jazz."

About her influences in jazz, she says: "From all the old singers like Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holiday, down to Indian blues artistes.

One of my biggest inspiration is Tipriti Kharbangar, a female vocalist of the band 'Soulmate', which is India biggest Blues band. Then there are other singers like Sonia Saigal and all the old jazz singers whom I listened to while growing up."

"I write and compose for my band Spell Check. For jazz I have not written yet; I have never penned a jazz ballet till now. Because I am still trying to educate the city about jazz.

I have been covering old time singers so that I can introduce them through me to this generation," Pranati signs off.