The French Jazz band Hadouk Trio was in the city recently after touring five cities in India. The group has won the best French Jazz Band award and the members — Didier Malherbe, saxophonist and flutist, Loy Erhlich, on the keyboard, hajouj and gumbass (both traditional instruments somewhat like a bass) and Steve Shehan, the percussionist, were in city for the first time as a band.

On their Indian tour, Steve says, “The tour has been great; we have visited five cities and Hyderabad is the sixth and we have one more to go. We were very impressed with the welcome we got and this country is a new world for us.” Talking about the response they got in the city, Loy says, “Every city is different; but our first two gigs were tough as people came to just spend time and were talking during the performances. It was disturbing. The crowd in Hyderabad was nice and we got a good response from the audience.”

The trio, however, feels that Jazz is not given as much attention as other genres of music but the future seems hopeful. Didier says, “It is said that not much attention is given to Jazz music, but it is coming back and growing like never before.” The band is known for its habit of picking up instruments from every city it visits and using them in their concerts. During its visit to India, the trio picked up a flute in Bengaluru. As to their favourite Indian musicians, they name Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Anoushka Shankar among others.