Manose - Bansuri player from Nepal

Last Friday I accompanied Nepali bansuri player Manose in a home concert in Ocean Shores near Byron Bay. Manose is currently touring Australia with satsang stars Deva Premal and Miten. This was the first time he and I had played together and it went quite well. That is the beauty of Indian Classical Music - we could meet and play immediately without rehearsal and there was good chemistry. His style is very sweet, playful and both healing and entertaining. Thanks very much to Paul Kimmel for hosting us and organising such a lovely concert!

Manose and I are playing again this Friday in the Sri Saileshwara Sai Baba Temple, Virginia (north Brisbane), before he returns to Nepal on Saturday.

Rehearsal with Cia, Asim & Saikat

This coming Saturday I have a great gig coming - Global Soul Music Vol 5, featuring Saikat (sitar), Asim (Sudanese music) and Cia (Persian music). I'm really looking forward to the next few of these monthly gigs - take a look at the fliers below. You can get advance tickets at a discount at the EthnoSuperLounge Shop here.

Bengali Society Saraswati Puja

On Saturday I took part in the Bengali Society of Queensland's celebration of Saraswati Puja. Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of learning and music, and so a very important deity for musicians and students, especially in the Bengali community. My guru-ji's family (also Bengali) have held Saraswati Puja home concerts for more than 50 years, and so this is also a very important day for me.

Pujariya Bapi Bhattacharya performing the puja for Saraswati-ma

Sulagna Basu singing songs devoted to Saraswati-ma, accompanied on tabla by Mortuza Huq

Tito Basu performing Bengali songs on guitar

Saikat Bhattacharya (sitar) accompanied by Shen (tabla) - our performance was very well received!

Saraswati Puja cultural evening audience

At the end of one of my best solos my bayan broke! Luckily Mortuza's bayan was right next to me and I could continue with that.