Taro in Oz 2007 tour photos

The first part of bansuri player Taro Terahara's tour is now complete, and the electricity situation at home has been resolved, so I can now post some photos of all the fun we've been having:

Home Concert with Pinaki Bose
I was invited to accompany touring Indian classical singer Pinaki Bose at a home concert on the Gold Coast the day after Taro arrived. He is a very talented singer, reminiscent of the great Rashid Khan. I was very honoured to play with him and to receive his warm compliments on my accompaniment, especially for vilambit ektaal.

Pinaki Bose (vocal), accompanied by Shen (tabla) and Joseph Nand (harmonium)

We were joined in the second half by Taro Terahara on bansuri. It really was a wonderful concert.

From left to right: Joseph Nand (harmonium), Taro Terahara (bansuri), Pinaki Bose (vocal), Shen Flindell (tabla), Ambika Nand, Mahendra Singh (tamboura)

Bamboo Bliss @ Brisbane City Hall
This was the main event of the tour. Many thanks to Shikara Design for sponsorship, support and the most beautiful decorations for the stage and foyer.

Shen and Taro performing at Ithaca Auditorium, Brisbane City Hall

Temple of Melodious Sound in Ocean Shores
After the big Brisbane concert, and with our house without electricity for a few days, it was a welcome break to go and stay with flute player Paul Kimmel in Ocean Shores, near Byron Bay. On the way, we went for a swim at Tugun Beach and Taro forgot to remove his glasses before swimming! He is pretty short-sighted but luckily he has some magnifying swimming goggles. He had to wear these goggles for most of the week until we managed to get back to Brisbane and get some new glasses. He even played a few concerts with them! Pretty funny, pretty cool. :-)

Taro with his goggles in Ocean Shores

Taro jamming on tabla with guitar player Tarshito, who joined Paul Kimmel, Taro and myself for a home concert there.

Taro in Ocean Shores

Bansuri lessons for Indian kids
Today we went to give my weekly tabla lessons in Sunnybank, and one of the families also requested flute lessons from Taro for their kids. So cute!

Taro teaching flute to Navdha (my youngest tabla student)
(note the new spectacles!)

My tabla students

I've been back in Brisbane for 5 months now, and I've managed to accumulate a really nice bunch of tabla students, both kids and adults. Most of them come to my home but I also have a weekly kids class in Sunnybank (southern Brisbane).

Here are the kids, from smallest to biggest:

Navdha (5 years old)

Kanhaiya (7 - Navdha's brother)

Thejan (7)

Sanjay (11 - Thejan's cousin)

Krishanu (11)

Shane (11)

And here are the adults, beginning with the most recent additions to the family:

Megan

Faheem

Atul

Rob (now learning more than 2 years)

Brent (now learning more than 3 years)

Life without electricity @ Rosecliffe

Rosecliffe St is without electricity for the foreseeable future, so this could be my last blog for a while... (or they'll be much less frequent anyway)

3am Saturday morning, after Taro & I had returned from a fantastic home concert on the Gold Coast with singer Pinaki Bose, a really strong storm passed through Brisbane. I was jerked awake by a shower of sparks above me, which went on for a few seconds before stopping abruptly. All our electricity was out, and has remained so since.

The electrical cable to our house passed through a tree which was blown about by the storm, pulling the cable-attachment on the house out. The landlord has been incredibly negligent with our house and there's now considerable repair to be done before Energex will re-connect us.

That same day was the day of Taro & my big concert at City Hall, so the after-party back home was a candle-lit affair, depending on ice in an esky to keep drinks cool. Any music was made by real people and a lot of the conversation revolved around the possibilities for life without mains electricity. Pedal-power generators for 12V batteries?

Many postulate that the current economic system will inevitably collapse and so we will have to return to a much lower energy usage lifestyle. We're leading the way, you see.

It's very peaceful without electricity, actually.

Bamboo Bliss - photos on DivineArts.net

Sheri of divinearts.net has kindly posted her excellent photos of Taro Terahara & my "Bamboo Bliss" concert at Brisbane City Hall on Saturday night.

There are also loads of other photos of my recent concerts on the divinearts.net site. (Please note that you have to register on the left of the page to see the gallery images.)

Taro Terahara in Australia

My good friend and one of my favourite musicians, Taro Terahara arrives in Australia on Thursday. We had a really fun tour last year and I'm really looking forward to this year's tour, which will take in Brisbane, Byron, Maleny, Noosa, Melbourne, a drive across Australia via Canberra and Sydney, Woodford Folk Festival, and finally a couple of home and temple concerts back in Brissie. Full schedule below... Concert info can be found via our tour info page.


Current schedule:
Thu 6: Taro arrives in Brisbane
Fri 7: Home concert on Gold Coast with Pinaki Bose
Sat 8: Main concert Brisbane City Hall
Sun 9: Go to Ocean Shores near Byron Bay (Paul's house)
Tue 11: Home concert @ Paul's "Temple of Melodious Sound" including jam with Paul and guitar player Tarshito
Wed 12: Jam session at The Forest in West End
Thu 13: Maleny UpFront Club (Daniel)
Sat 15: EthnoSuperLounge Xmas Party @ Core Yoga with many world music friends
Sun 16: Tibet2Timbuk2 @ The J in Noosa (Daniel)
Wed 19: Fly to Melbourne
Thu 20-Fri 21: meet some people in Melbourne including my guru Debu
Sat 22: Melbourne concert
Sun 23-Mon 24: Drive back to Brisbane 1800km, Yuriko arrives
Tue 25: Christmas
Wed 26: Go to Woodford
Thu 27-Tue 1: Woodford
Wed 2: Jam at The Forest (maybe)
Thu 3: Yuriko returns
Sat 5: Ty and Steve's Brisbane workshop and concert
Sun 6: Home concert for Indian community
Tue 8: Concert at Sai Baba Temple with Ty and Steve
Wed 9: Taro returns to Japan

Wow... すごいね。

Pinaki Bose

On Saturday night I went to see Indian classical vocalist Pinaki Bose performing at a Swara Mohini concert in Sunnybank. Pinaki Bose is quite young (24 years old), but he definitely impressed at this concert - a very capable singer, following in the footsteps of his Ustad, the great singer Rashid Khan.

Pinaki Bose, accompanied on tabla by Dheeraj Shrestha and harmonium by Joseph Nand

Pinaki-ji's hosts have invited me to accompany him at a home concert on the Gold Coast this Friday night. Taro will be around, so while I can't guarantee anything I hope he will also get a chance to play.

West End Moment

Walkin' down Boundary St in West End the other day I heard strange beautiful jazzy horn sounds, and found some happy folk sitting out front of the new cafe, Pedro's @ West End.

Regular Forest session participant, trumpet player Sam and friends