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Born in 1911 in Pune, Cawas Lord came to the city to learn music. Apart from joining Chic Chocolate, which was one the most famous Jazz bands, as a drummer Cawas Lord was also the part of the British touring party for their troops during World War II before his Jazz journey. As a part of the Jazz group, Lord would play at several clubs in the city including the Taj Mahal Hotel where C Ramchandra spotted him, and took him along for recordings.
During prohibition, Lord worked full-time in Bollywood. Every third song had Lord playing an instrument or the other, which also paid him well. “There was a group called Gagimbas, who was brought down to play at the Taj from Paris by a member of the Tata family. Cawas Lord bought instruments such as the bongo and the congo from the band when they were leaving; thus these instruments were introduced to the Hindi film industry,” he says.
Just 13 then, his son Kersi, accompanied him to recordings. Thus the next generation entered the industry. “Naushad saab would send a car so that Kersi would go to school, but that didn’t happen,” reveals Bhattacharjee . Kersi earned repute for accordion pieces (Roop Tera Mastana from Aradhna), he also introduced the glockenspiel to the industry. He played the minimoog (monophonic analog synthesizer), which was one of the few electronic instruments played. “On one occasion, Kersi was unwell and someone asked Cawas to bring his other son instead; that’s how Bujji Lord came in. He was a great drummer. Once, while on tour to the West Indies, people checked his arms after the show as they couldn’t believe how he played so well!” he chuckles.
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