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Profession: Playback Singer, Bollywood.
"I am an entirely self-made and self-taught man. From my days as a chorus singer and a jingle singer later, I would take interest in the musical aspect, because from childhood my interest lay in intricacies of composing and arranging music. I would consult and pester arrangers and musicians and attempt to write notations on my own and gradually I succeeded."
Mukherjee is one of the most important musicians of India, having worked in more than 150 sonorous tracks for films produced for the Bollywood - the cinematographic industry Indiana, located in Bombain and whose name comes of the junction enters the name of this city and of Hollywood.
Jolly initially worked with airways and even got an opportunity to work with British Airways. But he was always interested in the intricacies of arranging and composing music.
He started his career in the music industry in 1978 as a chorus singer with R. D. Burman and later sang for him in Indrajeet ( reshmi zelfen) and Tum Karo Vada .Laxmikant-Pyarelal gave him a playback break in Dayavan the song being ‘Chahe meri jaan tu lele’ which was a hit.Jolly does concede that Pancham even made him sing under his baton in a style similar to Pacham's own.And the journay began , he did get to sing in films like Chaalbaaz, Narshima, Insaaf Apne Lahu Se, Aadmi, Agnisakshi, Judge Mujrim, Raja Babu, Aatish and several others. Then Shahsi Gopal of Magnasound gave him a break as arranger in Haazir, the Hariharan album. Both the friends formed a team since then and Jolly has arranged all the successive albums of Hariharan like Gulfam, Paigham and Jashn. He has also teamed up with Chandan Das and Manhar Udhas.
Being a music arranger he has done selective work. The memorable songs include ‘Chaandni meri chaandni from Chandni, Loveria from Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, Kaise Jeeoonga Mein from Sahibaan, Goriya Re Goriya from Aaina and the eponymous song from Aar Ya Paar. He gave the background score for Dushmani, Bambai Ka Babu and Zameer. With Magnasound’s Kasak he turned composer. He again scored a hit as an arranger with the item number ‘Dekho 2000 Zamana Aa Gaya’ from the film Mela.
Jolly Mukherjee also scored background music with Kishore Sodha for Dushmani, Bombai Ka Babu and Zameer and turned composer with the Magnasound album Kasak. His jingles include the famous Lifebuoy number, "Tandurusti ki raksha kartaa hai Lifebuoy", as well of those of other products like Ponds, Red Label Tea and Apollo Tyres. His latest film songs include his frothy number with Hariharan and Kamal Hasan in Hey Ram .
Jolly’s ardent desire is to compose and be innovative like his idol R. D. Burman. His background of Western classical with his traditional roots gives him the unique position to collaborate with different styles and yet arrive at a unified whole. For him the composer is supreme whereas the singer is a tool just as an actor is the director’s instrument to achieve the distinction of honesty.
Jolly is now exploring his greater horizons. He has done or has been signed for several international albums wherein he will work as an arranger for the strings section. Jolly did four songs for Underwolves, a Polygram International Album. He is doing two songs for a singer called Bjork from Iceland. He is also working with Khaled of Didi fame. Finally there is Ethnic Melodies, which he signed with Palm Pictures, USA, which is a division of Island Records. This is an instrumental album composed, conceived and arranged by Jolly.
One of his latest projects is "Fusebox" whose musics gain remixes of projects of the new go-English scene of electronic music as State Of Bengal , Badmarsh and Shri and The Underwolves , that add drum'n'bass in the cinematographic music of Mukherjee, as in "Kirwani". Already "Bhairav" and "Puriya Dhanashri" had been deliver to the orchestra The Madras Magician , that conserves the classic essence Indiana of these songs.
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