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Music

The Owner of the Piano Man Jazz Bar Has Had It with Audiences

Arjun Sagar Gupta talks tantrums, talent, and that time Honey Singh came by for a drink.
Image: Arjun Sagar 

In 2012, musician and restaurateur Arjun Sagar Gupta founded Delhi’s Piano Man Jazz Club—arguably one of the most influential entertainment venues—order to create an intimate space for emerging musicians to perform. Three years and a couple of iterations later, the bar opened in quiet Safdarjung Enclave.

In a city with relatively little mainstream exposure to jazz, Piano Man has been instrumental in introducing new artists and engendering a new listenership. Perhaps its most notable contribution is the enforced quiet time during a set: the bar shuts down and waiters stop serving, putting the spotlight on the music itself. We caught up with Gupta recently for a chat about the highs and lows of running a bar like Piano Man in a city like Delhi, and some of his favourite musical discoveries.

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VICE: Jazz isn’t Delhi’s most popular genre. Why open a jazz bar?
Arjun Sagar Gupta: I wanted to create a space for artists where they are under their own control. Once an artist has the freedom over their own music, they go out and kill it. I want my customers to come for the music first, and then the restaurant.

How do you compete with the bars in nearby Hauz Khas Village, which thrive on EDM, Sufi, and Bollywood music?
There is no correlation between us and the other bars. They do what they want and I do what I want. A lot of times people have demanded I play Honey Singh. I’ve told them, sorry we don’t do that stuff. You won’t believe—even Honey Singh came to Piano Man.

Did he enjoy it?
Frankly, I don’t know. His manager made a last minute reservation and we could only offer him a corner table. He came, had a few drinks, and left in less than 15 minutes. I just politely went and greeted him and that’s it.

"You’ve not come to a bar, you’ve come to my bar."

What are the challenges you faced setting up?
A lot of times it’s customers, simply due to the kind of ideology Piano Man runs on. They expect it to be another bar in Delhi. Just because they’ve bought a drink they’re obliged to do whatever the fuck they feel? No. I have been very particular about no talking during the performance. They say “we’ve come to a bar,” to which I reply “you’ve not come to a bar, you’ve come to my bar.”

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Last June, there was public outcry over the caste-insensitive name of a band then called Bhangijumping in the line-up. How did you handle the situation?
It was a very unfortunate incident, and it took a lot of time to die out. A large part of the problem was ignorance. We did not understand the significance of the word. People say you’re an Indian so you should know. It doesn’t work like that. You know what you’re taught and exposed to. Anyway, we apologised and that’s it. After that, I had to cut off from social media because everything you say is interpreted by each person the way one wants to do it.

How do you select the bands at Piano Man?
I only critique music as a musician and not as an owner. There are some genres we avoid. We don’t do Bollywood or electronic. Raggabund was a reggae-punk band, but they were strong musicians so for me it worked. There are some bands who are sort of veterans and some who are upcoming. But we’ve given a chance to newcomers—like a 19-year old girl, Aashna Gupta. She was excellent.

What are the most ignorant things you've heard about jazz?
Saxophone! [People think] if no there is no saxophone, it's not jazz, which is bullshit. Second is ethnicity. One might presume ethnicity helps. To an extent—maybe because you’re exposed to it at an early stage, but to me, it's the time and effort you put towards anything. I think the third will be stereotyping. I’ve been told by a Russian that her friends back home couldn’t believe we have jazz in India. To me, that level of ignorance is absurd. Now, I have to really think hard. A lot of times people think jazz is only about improvisation, but if someone does a solo during the show, you'll see after the show they can go and write it down—it's thought out to that degree.

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What five Indian jazz artists everyone should have on their playlist?
The first who I think creates the most original sound, and is an incredible musician out of our country is Utsav Lal. One of my absolute favourites, and very underrated, is a guitarist Pranai Gurung. He has a band called BLU which plays blues. There is Vasundhara Vee who has one of the most powerful voices coming out of the country. There is a sax player Abhay Sharma, he is also good. We spoke about fusion, there is a band who became more popular lately, they’re called Bollyjazz. They also produce some unique sound.

Image: Arjun Sagar Gupta

Do the musicians ever throw any tantrums?
I’ve had a couple of difficult artists. It’s usually about the payment. We have a standardised payment policy; so there was a guy who was not an Indian musician, he was traveling and said: “I am the best drummer in the country, you got to pay me more.” But I don’t do that shit—international artist or Indian artist, you get the same. Tantrums comes down to ego, and we’ve been lucky. Seven hundred shows and no tantrums of that sort, because everything is mentioned in the mail we send.

I’ve had it with audiences, problems dealing with audiences, I can tell you that.

What’s the most memorable one?
This young, phenomenal singer Sanjeeta Bhattacharya was here. At the end of the night, she’s like “I wanna dance.” She was chilling with a couple of friends and I was outside for a smoke. My guy runs out and tells me, “Sir please come inside, someone is playing bhangra.” Without asking, she had plugged in her phone and was playing Bollywood dance songs. I lost it! I shut the system down and told my audience no more music today. I shouted at her, and for the next one hour, she tried to figure out how to say sorry. Eventually, we both laughed.