To many Blue is only a color, but for others, musically the blues is but a passion.

The Simply the Blues festival which in its third edition has spread out to include a Bangalore stop in addition to its Bombay outpost. This time we have Dana Gillespie the Queen of British Blues for two performances. Prior to her concert in Bangalore, Dana was at resto – pub Olive, Bandra in Mumbai at a meet and greet event organized by Star Konnect.

Also performing at Simply the Blues along with Gillespie in Mumbai is acclaimed Austrian boogie-woogie and blues pianist Joachim Palden. The Palden-Gillespie association goes back more than 30 years ago to the year 1980, when Gillespie joined the Mojo Blues band, an outfit Palden had formed at the age of 16. Together, they’ve performed shows all over the world including steps in Tunisia, Bahrain, Israel, and the Caribbean. Two albums, Boogie Woogie Nights and Big Boy, are testament to their collaborative genius, with a third titled Guilty on the way.

Opening the show will be local jazz and blues singer Samantha Edwards and instrumentalists Karan Joseph, Sanjay Joseph and Benny Soans, all well known in the Indian blues circuit. Simply the Blues promises to be one hell of a show and if you’re a fan of the genre (or even if you’re not), there aren’t many better places to spend your weekend.

Dana readily took on a volley of questions in her suave, tongue-in-cheek style. Verus Ferreira has the interview. Excerpts:

Is there is a similarity between the blues of today and the blues of the 60s?

Well I think the blues of the 60s was much more a serious kind of the blues, compared to that which is played now. The younger generation is more into the rock kind of blues than anything else. Talking about India, when I used to come here earlier and I was invited to perform by AD Singh who is a close friend of mine even now, the concerts used to be organized at a few small venues; there were very few people who really knew what the blues was. That was 25years ago when I first came here. I also remember playing at the Rang Bhavan and I really enjoyed myself there. We used to play at the small places, but I think there were people just relaxing and having a good time and that’s what the blues is all about. Unlike jazz, when you listen to the blues live, you can just wear a pair of jeans and a t shirt with a glass of whisky in one hand and a cigarette in the other and it’d be cool. As for jazz it has to be a more sophisticated affair and a more polished look, keeping with the genre. But in blues, you can dance to the music, as for jazz you cannot just dance to it, you have to be seated and listen to it.

So do you think Blues is more of the fun loving audience?

Blues music is the mother of all western music and if you did not have the blues, you wouldn’t have had jazz, rock, pop, rhythm and blues as they say, and all other genres of music. Many times I have been asked what the difference between blues and jazz is, and my take on it is blues music is so earthy and so sexual, jazz is more for a thinking brain. So you should enjoy yourself when you listen to blues, its lyrics are all about a personal side, about an old man who ran off with a younger woman.

Do you think there are many female singers taking up the blues?

There are a very few woman blues singer, because many get married and have children and that’s the end of the blues for them. If you are a woman you have to be dedicated and committed to what you are doing. You should be able to like to do with blues. The lyrics are all about having a good time. That makes you think about love. In the early 60s, I was very lucky to be growing up for at that time, bands like Led Zeppelin were around and they all started with the blues and that was the central idea of the blues.

Do you think you would go back to the stage once again?

Well I was playing Mary Magdalene every night for so many years and it would be like eating dal every night, so maybe not for the moment I think. At one time you get fed up of it

You were a follower of Sathya Sai Bbab.What were your experiences at this ashram?

I have always been in love with India. I have been coming here for 30 years and from the very first time I felt as if I was coming home. After the stage performances, I went over to India and went to the ashram. But I spent almost 12 to 14 years visiting Sai Baba, but he never noticed me. But for his 70 birthday he asked me to play and I thought he would be expecting me to play bhajans. I used to play with big time musicians and they are not devotees of Sai Baba but they heard about him. Once Bob Dylan came to my place and saw a picture of me with Baba and he said, I know that guy, so you see Sai Baba was well known all over the world and especially with the music guys. And you can see it all over in America. So I ended up playing there with my band with nearly a million people and I know perfectly well that we did blues and did woggie boogie. I know everyone must be surprised at looking at me something like a sex bomb, with a guitar in hand and drums and other instruments. This might have been something new for all of them. And when I was playing, I saw Sai Baba enjoying himself on a jhoola having a really good time. There were like 200 cameras from all over the world focused, with big screens at the sides The younger people might have liked me, but the older people who were watching me might have got pissed off. There was Sai Baba with his eyes closed having good time. The young ones were enjoying themselves. I also used to sing bhajans often like a Jagjit Singh song and rework it or a Mohammed Rafi song and rework it. I had heard this song Madhumati and I didn't know who Mohammed Rafi was then and I still don't know what the title of the song is. I called it `Move Your Body close To Me'. I went on and did an album, which had some melodies that I borrowed from Pankaj Udhas. I may not understand the lyrics so I use to put English lyrics to it so that the song remains the same.

You have been to India several times, then. Comment?

I usually come to India in November each year and even though Sai Baba is not actually there, I feel it’s like a pilgrim to come here. I met him four months before he physically left his body, and I am happy to say he listened to the blues. But his message was all about love; it does not matter what religion you are, where you are in the world, just go out and spread love, do good and see good and feel good. He once said to me, you want to ask me a question, and most go to him for philosophical healing. I never had a message for him or a question. I said to him, what point is it all and he said to me play the game, be happy. These five words, that is my motto, we forget to be happy, so wherever we go all over the world my beauty is to uplift souls and make people feel good. It is my duty to make people feel good. I take the blues to places where there is healing. I have been to pretty dark places; my duty is to make people feel good.

What do you think about live music nowadays, with CD sales dwindling?

Live music is the right way; artists get far too much money. If I was a Madonna, and I was selling tickets to a concert, I would give everyone a CD to all who came to the concert. I feel music should be given freely. Surely the record label would not be too happy about it. For a concert, this is good thing, if you are damn good at what you do, you can entertain people, you will get people coming to you. How long will Lady Gaga or Madonna, keep reinventing a persona. They are going to get old, but with blues, you can still do it when you are 99 plus.

Did you try to experiment with other genres of music before you took to the blues?

Well yes I did something other than the blues, though I was with a guitar and I did not have the blues power to sing it, I did a bit of folksy albums, but my heart was with the blues. I used to sing to a lot of blues records and so I learnt a lot from them. By 1973 – 74, a friend of mine helped me off with my third album, and by that time I was already doing a little blues, but a little pop kind of stuff. David Bowie management and I still have the same manager. We worked out something then to make a blues record. By 1980 I started making the right blues and that was it.

Have you heard of the EDM (Electronic Dance Music) scene?

EDMs are all morons. It is a beat, there is no melody in EDM, it is always electronically doctored, you can’t do this to the blues, you need to a little cleaning up. I do it with my work, maybe with a sax, and stuff like that. I try to minimize it; there will always be people who will not be interested in trending fashion stuff. I think it might survive, but what might not survive are record sales, CD sales, strangely the label I am with which is Ace Records, is selling well, because they are gone back to selling LPs now. I don’t’ think blues will go out of the window; there are people who love the blues, in Chicago, or London. If you are fan of Britney Spears, then in three years time you move to someone else. That does not happen with the blues, it stays with you till your dying death, you like the blues, you will have respect for the blues, it may not be on top of the charts, it will be there if people like Star Konnect (the event company who has brought Dana Gillespie) bring it to people. It’s not going to be huge crowds, but you never know, it might happen, miracles might happen. This EDM thing in my day did not exist; everyone just dropped the word LSD. Now I have to drop the word EDM. It has sell by date; Blues has no sell by date.

Why did you drop your name from Richenda Antoinette to Dana Gillespie?

By the way, how the hell did you know my real name was not Dana Gillespie, (Pauses) on the bloody Wikipedia it says, Dizzy Gillespie is my father. I do point out that our skin color is different. Gillespie is a very old English family name and if you look at today’s five pound note there is the Queen on one side and on the other side there is woman called Elizabeth Fry and there is also a man called Thomas Fallbuton, who is my great great great uncle and all this in the family line are often called Richenda. It comes from an old German gypsy name. At the age of 11, I said to my mother that one day I am going to be famous and I don’t want a non - family using the family name of Richenda. I wanted to be called Dana, so I changed my name. Now I heard that many Americans have used it and even the Israelis have used it. I thought I invented it. If I have really created anything really brave and unusual in my life, it is that the fact that I was able to get my name changed by my parents, by my school. I have a credit card which is in the name of Dana Gillespie, but my passport has my real name as Richenda Gillespie. So I have two names, really. Earlier it did not matter, but after 26/11, I have a few problems. But l love the name, and I think it has good flow to it. I am happy that I have invented my own name at the age of 11 and my own path as well.

Interviewed by Verus Ferreira