Louis Banks
| Louis Banks | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Dambar Bahadur Budaprithi |
| Born |
11 February 1941 Darjeeling, India |
| Genres | Jazz, film score, theatre, world music |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, record producer, music director, singer, instrumentalist, arranger |
| Instruments | Piano, trumpet, guitar, keyboard |
| Years active | 1982–present |
Louis Banks (born 11 February 1941 as Dambar Bahadur Budaprithi) is an Indian film composer, record producer, jazz musician-keyboardist and singer. Proficient in genres like Indipop, modern progressive and contemporary jazz and Indo jazz fusion, he has often been referred to as the Godfather of Indian Jazz.
Louis Banks was born to Indian Gorkha parents Sarswati and George Banks, a musician, in his hometown of Darjeeling. His early music education was at the hands of his father and neighbour Mrs. Myers. His father Pushkar Bahadur, a Nepalese trumpeter moved to Calcutta in the early 1940s to join a European Band in the city, subsequently he changed his name to George Banks. His grandfather, Bakhat Bahadur Budapirti, had composed the Nepalese national anthem Shreeman Gambhira Nepali which was the official anthem from 1962 to 2006.
He did his schooling at St. Roberts School, Darjeeling. Sensing Banks's interest in western music when at the age of thirteen he started playing the guitar and the trumpet, his father changed his name to Louis Banks in tribute to Louis Armstrong. This change of name gave the young Banks the confidence to make it big in the world of western music. He started receiving piano lessons from his father and also played in his band. Banks went to college at St. Joseph's College in Darjeeling, where he continued to study piano.
After college Banks moved to Kathmandu with his father's band and decided to become a full-time musician, it was there he discovered jazz music. In the late 1960s, as a band member of the legendary Weather Report band, he performed at the Soaltee Hotel in Kathmandu, for three years. During his stay there he rejected an offer from R. D. Burman to work with him in Mumbai. Not happy in Kathmandu, Banks moved base to Calcutta in 1971, where he met singer Pam Craine and saxophonist Braz Gonsalves and formed the The Louis Banks Brotherhood. The band began performing at the Hindustan Hotel which led to an invitation to play at the Blue Fox Restaurant, a popular night club famous for its patronage of live western music. From there on he was able to get work composing advertisement jingles and stage musicals.
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