Sing your heart out; Pune based jammers mesmerise with their live singing
Akash Dhanurkar
Street jamming, a popular culture in the foreign countries which has managed to flip the perception towards the artists performing on the streets, has been picked up by a Pune based group, who are music enthusiast working in various sectors respectively, but are united with every beat in the jamming sessions on the street. The group has so far performed on 60 – 70 locations in different states and the part of Maharashtra.
Vinit Deshpande, a 28 years old professional music director and a part of the group, while talking to Pune Pulse shared the brief idea behind the ‘Raasta4Street’ initiative that is earning accolades from people and passerby on the streets of Pune, specially. The group was formed through mutual links and a common interest in music. Upon coming together, the group, first, started jamming in the four walls of a house. It was becoming suffocating for the individuals, and hence they decided to throw a surprise performance on the FC Road, in form of a jamming session. Their performance, however, surprised the passerby, who in return, showered claps on the guts and the art of the group.
“It is usually believed that the artists performing on the road are beggar. We are here to change the perception. With our every jamming session, we earn supporters, which we think is a positive sign towards the change we want to bring.” suggested Vinit Deshpande.
While narrating an incident regarding their jamming sessions, Vinit recalls, “We (the group) has also earned compliments from the cops, who, once, came down to stop us from jamming in front of Good luck cafe, but ended up listening us after the stressful hours of work cycle. Eventually, they, too, enjoyed humming to our songs, but at the end they stopped us as we didn’t have any permission. At last, they did not resist themselves from complementing our art and performance.”
The group hasn’t stepped back since then, as the group has gone to perform in 60 – 70 different locations; with every location they earned their followers and performers. The group focuses mainly on bringing people into the stressbuster session that brings the memories of vintage oldies, pop, and child friendly songs.
“We want to encourage people to take up their art to the streets, without caring about the whirling negative perception. We have managed to encourage the crowd, mostly onlookers, to join us in singing or playing instruments. At the end, we are not a band, but just a group that loves to live with music.”
The group has requested people to join into their jamming sessions which are held in different parts of the city.
