by Daniel F. de Souza, Goa
The Desterro Ward in the jurisdiction of Vasco da Gama situated near the Our Lady of Desterro Church, has produced several well known personalities in the field of drama, music, sports, politics and the like. Some of the States best footballers had their first affair with football on the football ground near the Busy Bee High School at Desterro. My memorable earlier years of stay in Vasco da Gama after I took up a job at MPT and shifted here from Bardez, were spent in this small hamlet full of warm and talented people. The Lobo family which lives here in Desterro for many generations is well known all over for their contribution to music as well as to Konkani tiatrs. I am pleased to profile in this issue one of the members of the Lobo family from Desterro in Vasco da Gama who has rendered service to Goan music and the Konkani stage. He is none other than the 57 year old Zacarias Lobo, son of music Maestro the late Baptist and Anunciacao Lobo.
Zacarias Lobo began his tryst with music, singing and solfegio at a young age of 16 under the tutelage of the then well known music Maestro Manuel Rodrigues alias ‘Vhoddlo Bab’. He was a renowned violinist of that time. Learning the rudiments of violin under the guidance of his teacher ‘Vhoddlo Bab’ for nearly 4 years, young Zacharias horned his skill with the guidance of his father Baptist Lobo who incidentally was also a professional musician and had his own brass band under the name of ‘St. Andrew’s Orchestra’. Zacarias’ two other paternal uncles viz., Santan Lobo and Richard Lobo also formed an integral part of this group, which was more of a family band at that time. Young Zacharias would in the beginning accompany his father Baptist to sing and play the violin at the litanies in and around Vasco.
The reason why he preferred to take music lessons from another music teacher despite having a professional musician father at home was solely because he says “ I was very much afraid and terrified of my father, for there was no room for mistakes, for he was too fast and advanced. Being scared of him I thought I would be more comfortable learning the basics of music with some other teacher”. But once he got the basics right he had no hesitation in seeking guidance from his own father.
Having learnt to play the violin at a young age he was gaining more confidence with every exposure, and soon had a great desire to learn the Clarinet. Putting aside a little of his earnings then, he saved a sufficient amount of Rs. 300/- to purchase a second hand Clarinet from one musician Domnic Caetan from Merces. This was around the early seventies and the opportunities to join a band mostly comprising of blowing instruments was much higher then. His urge to learn the clarinet as early as he could took him all the way to Maestro Macedonio in Majorda, an exponent of Clarinet. Incidentally Macedonio was the band leader of the then famous beat group ‘Louis & his Melodians’ in South Goa.
Having already learned the Solfegio and violin, picking up the nuances of Clarinet was not a too difficult task for enthusiastic Zacarias. After having gained sufficient knowledge in blowing and confident of himself, Zacarias soon found an opening to play Clarinet in a professional group of Maestro Gregorio D’Gama from Vasco. And going back in time Zacarias recalled “ My first assignment to play Clarinet in a professional band with Maestro Gama was on my home turf, at a feast mass celebration at Our Lady of Desterro Chapel in Vasco. (It was a Chapel then and later elevated to a church in the nineties). This was the beginning of many more regular professional assignments that followed immediately. Do not forget, in the seventies, eighties and even mid nineties brass bands were in high demand at ‘Salves’, feasts, and as well as weddings. However, gradually the beat groups took over from us. ”
Bitten badly by the music bug, he dreamt nothing but music and more music. His passion with music did not end after learning the Clarinet. Zacarias’ ambitions grew much higher and bigger with passing years as he gained more skill and experience playing in professional group. Zacarias developed an affinity for the Saxophone and thus to satisfy his desire he purchased a Saxophone for a sum of Rs. 650/-. But, he did not have to go to other music teachers to learn this new instrument. Improvising on his already acquired skill, he learnt to play the Saxophone all on his own.
By now Zacarias was a musician to reckon with and had already made an impact on the blowing instrument scene. As such he had no difficulty in finding a free slot in the band ‘6 Fighters’ from Sanguem lead by Jack de Sanguem to play the Saxophone. He continued in this group for 3 years. ‘This group brought me more fame and popularity together with expereince’ recalls Zacarias.
After a three year stint playing with ‘6 fighters’ Lobo switched his fidelity to another group called ‘Mark 6’ from Cortalim, which was based much near to his home. Zacarias’ association with this group continued for almost 2 decades, before the other beat groups began making an impact on the music scene in Goa and blowing instruments were gradually fading into oblivion. Zacarias had by now stabilized himself permanently playing the Tenor Saxophone.
With the Brass bands facing a stiff competition from the conventional beat groups, and people preferring to engage beat groups Zacarias knew the time was up to switch over roles and the play field too. It was at this time he focused his eyes on the every growing ‘tiatr music’ segment, that was growing steadily. It was in the year 1995 that he first jumped into the tiatr bandwagon. His first assignment as a Music Maestro for tiatr was playwright F.D’Cunha’s ‘Sambhall’ followed by two more tiatrs ‘Gaie’ and ‘Jivit’ of the same director.
He has also provided the musical score for Sharon Mazarello’s ‘Cheddo’ and Cajetan de Curtorim’s ‘Maim tem amchem noxib’ Pal Soares’ ‘Mhaka Soeg Diat’, Maxcy Pereira’s ‘Hanv tuzo’ ‘Tumkam Ugddas ietolo’ and ‘Uzvadd Palloilo’. He continues with Maxcy Pereira for the ensuing tiatr season too.
Zacarias Lobo has also produced one konkani audio album ‘Zurica’ in the year 1994 with the lyrics and musical score for ten tracks being penned by him. As a professional musician he has played for several other audio albums including devotional hymns. Speaking about the love of music amongst the younger generation he retorts “ the present day generation seeks everything ready made and easy. They do not want to take pains and any trouble. I have even volunteered to teach music and solfegio free, but there are hardly any takers. My son who is 22 years plays the organ, but he has not joined any professional beat group. Neither does he show any inclination to learn the blowing instruments.” Mr. Lobo has provided music for a numerous musical programmes on the Goa Doordarshan and has in the past also did several programmes for the Mumbai Doordarshan. He is very passionate about his Saxophone and says he will play it professionally as long as he can. His one wish however, is to produce a video album of songs and jokes, and he has already started working on the same.
Having heard his fist Konkani audio album ‘Zurica’ whose musical score and orchestration is simply astounding, I have no doubt his next album will be of a much higher standard taking Konkani music to even greater heights. I wish him good luck.
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