BY CLARA A RODRIGUES
Jazz Goa has always been forthcoming in supporting and spotting upcoming talent. Persons who thought they were destined to sing their songs only at parties, balconies and so on and have got reason to dream and hope that their song will now reach millions around the world.

Started in 2001, Jazz Goa has majored from its low profile image. They are now actively involved in helping artistes record their songs at a recording studio started by Colin D’Cruz, founding members of Jazz Goa.
Tracks that are recorded here are then loaded onto the Jazz Goa web page, which has a teeming number of visitors. The artistes get an immediate world stage. Says Colin D’Cruz: “By uploading these tracks on U-Tube and the Internet, local musicians get immediate exposure. What happens when you sell the record to a music company is that they charge you a lot. They also do not promote the CD well, and therefore these CDs just lie on the shelf.  If your song is heard over the Internet, so many opportunities are created.”
“As long as it’s a good song, I do the recording for free,” says Cruz further pointing to the ironic situation that exists in Goa, “there are no opportunities for local artistes here. This is ironic because despite a lot of avenues in the state, artistes in Goa are the least paid artistes in the world, which is an insult.”
Many local musicians often complain that the incentives they earn for playing in Goa is far less compared to when they play outside Goa. To further aggravate the situation is the fact that local event organisers seldom sign local artistes for shows in Goa, instead they call foreign artistes to perform at events held in Goa.  “But to be frank, local artistes are as good as the ones called from outside to perform here,” says D’Cruz.
The most fascination feature of Jazz Goa is the circumstances in which those who have already recorded their songs were spotted. Take for instance Leo Vaz, who was singing Karaoke at a restaurant when Jazz Goa thought he would make a good pick to sing ‘Spell bound’, a song written by Goan musician, Paul Noronha from Mumbai, who sadly passed away before he could record the song.
Or take the case of Jazz Goa’s latest find, Minelli Pinto who has just come out with her single, ‘Falling Down’. The 17-year-old Minelli was discovered by accident. Her dad came over to meet D’Cruz and D’Cruz happened to hear her sing as she strummed the guitar. “From the living room, we went straight into the studio and recorded the song,” says D’Cruz.
“I produce my own radio show for FM rainbow where we do a Jazz Goa show. On the show we play different forms of jazz music like jazz rock, jazz pop, jazz country. Apart from that we cue up tracks sung by local artistes,” says D’Cruz. 
“I opened my recording studio at Sangolda to aid youngsters who do not know how to go about recording a song. My experience in the music field has helped me. Even if you have just one song, and sing it well, we help you record it. The song may be in any language,” says D’Cruz.
Would he call those who record at his studio powerhouses of talent or would he call them one time wonders? Ask D’Cruz and prompt comes the reply, “If Goan musicians had the opportunity to earn a living playing music fulltime, there will definitely prosper. But that is not the case. However, now we are trying to book shows for them outside Goa, which will give them the much needed incentives to help them raise the bar. What you see now is that local artistes are only content playing for weddings. You cannot build a career by playing at weddings. Outside Goa, in place like Mumbai there are so many avenues like films and advertising where musicians have tremendous scope to work fulltime”.