Kathmandu is not the first place most people associate with jazz, but a band called Cadenza has spent nearly three decades changing that — one improvised solo at a time.
The group started out in 1998 at the Jazz Upstairs Bar in Thamel, Kathmandu's backpacker hub. Drummer and vocalist Navin Chhetri and his bandmates would jam every Saturday, working through rock influences like Thin Lizzy and the Allman Brothers before drifting through reggae, funk and finally jazz. The name is a nod to the improvised passage in classical music — fitting, since improvisation became the band's calling card.
The gamble paid off in an unexpected way. Nepali audiences, unfamiliar with jazz, grew curious rather than dismissive. Some even handed the band cassettes of John Coltrane and Billie Holiday, effectively schooling them in the genre. Chhetri credits those listeners with shaping the jazz-funk sound Cadenza became known for. As crowds grew, the band added Wednesday shows alongside their Saturdays, and the small bar became a fixture of the city's live music scene.
What makes Cadenza (now Cadenza Collective, after international musicians joined) genuinely distinctive is the fusion at its core. Alongside saxophones, guitars and Afro-funk grooves, the band weaves in Nepali folk traditions — damphu rhythms, Tamang selo and bamboo flute. As Chhetri puts it, jazz has always welcomed fusion, so blending it with Nepali folk and Eastern classical felt authentic rather than forced.
The band's reach extended well beyond one bar. A 2001 appearance at Australia's Palmer Street Jazz Festival inspired Chhetri, with Jazz Upstairs' Chhedup Bomzan, to launch Jazzmandu in 2002 — an annual Kathmandu jazz festival that is now a fixture on Nepal's cultural calendar. It grew thanks to long-running support from local media and sponsor Surya Nepal. And the scene's growth shows in smaller ways too: back when Cadenza started, bar-goers weren't used to paying for live music, so audiences were invited to pay on their way out. Most did.
For travellers, this is a reason to time a Kathmandu trip around the music. Cadenza performs its album 'Back to the Roots' at The Garden Project on Friday 24 October, and the band also plays at this year's Jazzmandu Festival. Chhetri reckons the present is a golden era for music in Nepal — and with a live scene this alive, a night in a Thamel bar might be the best concert ticket you buy this year.
Story via Nepali Times.
