Live music to Goa’s ears

For those that grew up in the little villages of our fine state, on ‘balcaos’ listening to their grandfathers, or were restrained and bathed by their mother to lullaby’s and folk songs, Goa will always stand out as India's music capital. The days of yore were a time when almost everyone in Goa used to be a singer, musician or just a passionate music aficionado. Life in Goa was centered around song and dance and
having a good time was quite simply a way of life. 'Boas festas' (or happy feast) was a greeting that was almost as regular as 'good morning' and you can bet it is music that actually makes any festival a 'boa festa.’

Over the years, the local music scene slipped downhill, where singers and musicians in Goa have lost the respect they used to command. It's was always a thrill playing to Goa's music loving audiences. The thrill is gone and B B King has had nothing to do with it. I believe that the onus of this lies with two parties.
First, with our own event organisers who have stopped looking at local talent as acts adequate to grace a large stage. On the other hand, there has been a complete lack of interest in raising the bar among local artistes who are quite content to play cover versions of other artistes’ songs, merely for weddings. Most local organisers feel they can attract sponsors only if the event has performers from out of Goa on
display. It does not really matter how good the act is. As long as it is an outstation act, it will do.

Local talent just doesn't seem to be big enough for a big event in Goa. The few who do get invited to perform at these events are offered a fraction of what their outstation counterparts are paid. Where is the incentive for local artistes to raise the bar and reach for international standards then? One way out would be to set up a musicians union that could address this issue with local event organisers. Also,
through musicians organisations, it is advisable to have some sort of tentative wage structure, or an agreed base fee, in place. Musicians need to have a certain amount of financial security.

The Goa Entertainment Association has been formed as a registered union but so far they still have not addressed the issue. The other way, which is also my way, is to bypass local event organisers completely and use the ‘world wide web’ to promote local acts to the rest of the world. However, for that to happen, local musicians needs to start looking beyond the conventional and start experimenting with
new forms and new styles of music.

Simple methods of doing this are generating a decent amount of platforms for artistes to showcase their music talent. It is acceptable (to a miniscule extent) to say that they may not be tested enough to hold their own on the stage for the entire event, but there is no harm in at least letting them open the show for the main acts.

Another roundabout way of nurturing younger talent is this. When giving away prizes for any event, gift them musical instruments or classes that will help hone their talent. A cash prize will usually not find itself re-invested into music at a young age. Taking little steps like these will see the music industry take a huge step forward over the next decade.

All is not lost though. Goa's amazing music talent keeps shining through some of the most unfair deals, and will doubtlessly continue to do so.

With a career that spans over 35 years, Colin has worked inliterally every avenue in the music industry. Though he had neither formaltraining nor any musically inclined family members to guide him, he has had anincredibly successful musical journey. Starting off as a musician in a bandthat played at hotels on a nightly basis, he moved on to playing bass guitarfor some of the biggest names in the Indian music industry such as Sonu Nigam,Asha Bhosle, and Shuba Mudgal. Today, Colin D’Cruz works out of his home-basedstudio and produces local talent. He invites aspiring artists, irrespective ofage, to drop by his studio, and record their compositions for free in order togive back to a community that has believes has given him everything