Live music in Doha

Sick of DJs? Tired of your iPod? There are some fantastic bands making beautiful music all over town, if you know where to look. Thankfully, Team Time Out does! We’ve rounded up the top bands in Qatar: from jazz and tango to rock, the gangs all here and ready to get you on the floor! Plus, if you’re looking for some jazzy star power, we catch up with jazz great Wynton Marsalis, set to bring his band for the opening of Jazz at Lincoln Center Doha this month!

Doha Jazz
Catch them: They play at Friday brunch at Market by Jean-Georges at the W Hotel and Residences (4453 5353) and at Jazz Up on Friday nights at the Movenpick Hotel Doha (4429 1111). Check out dohajazz.com.

Doha Jazz may be one of the busiest bands in town. Like their name suggests, they do mostly small and medium group jazz, but have sprouted out for the Doha Blues Brothers, the Doha Jazz Big Band, and most recently a combo platter they call Jazz-Arabesque, mixing Arabic styles with jazz. Their motto is ‘Real Live Music’, and that’s a credo trumpet player Chris Coull is passionate about enforcing.

‘People love hearing good live music and we get great responses when we play. Unfortunately a lot of places in Doha use taped music, DJs or bands with backing tracks,’ he says. ‘We take pride in having qualified and experienced musicians delivering high quality music.’

Over their time in Doha, they’ve played venues big and small. They’re also coming out with a new CD soon, to raise funds for cancer research (you can check out a sneak preview on iTunes).

‘We also play at a lot of private parties and corporate events and the occasional festival and jazz concert,’ says Chris. ‘There’s an energy and vitality in live music. The musicians and the listeners are sharing an ‘in the moment’ experience. Even if you’re not always actively listening, you’ll always remember a night where there was good live music being played.

I love jazz – real jazz – not some half way rock package that pertains to be something that it’s not. Improvised, swinging music is the heart of what it means to be a jazz musician and for me that’s the greatest honour you can have. It’s like the difference between a good meal at a restaurant and a microwave dinner. Live music is the real thing. When it’s done right, I love live music no matter what the type – rock, jazz, Latino, classical. As Duke Ellington said “There are only two types of music. Good music and the other kind.”