SaReGaMa student concert

On Saturday I attended and performed at the SaReGaMa School of Indian Music concert, held in the West End Club. SaReGaMa is Indian vocalist Rahim Zullah's music school, and I was very happy to see the quality of his students. I especially want to mention 12 year old Vivek Narotam, who was very impressive with his classical performing style, very much inside the music and obviously enjoying it too. I'm really looking forward to seeing him develop in the future.

I do have to complain about the length of the concert though. Four hours was very taxing for the audience. I think it would have been better to restrict each performer to only one song, regardless of how good a singer they are.

Well done to Rahim though, and also to his wife Fawzia for preparing an excellent dinner for so many people.

12 year old Vivek Narotam (vocal) accompanied by Ravikesh Singh (tabla) and Rahim Zullah (harmonium)

Rahim Zullah (vocal) accompanied by Shen Flindell (tabla) and Sudha Manian (sitar)

Mbira session with Fabio @ Forest

We had one of the best Forest Wednesday sessions ever last night, as we were joined by master mbira player Fabio Chivhanda, up from Tasmania for a week and staying at our place. He is a great musician.

Even the songs without Fabio - Ravi and my Indo-Jazz explorations - came together really well. Ravi's been listening to some Shakti lately and is really starting to get the way to fit into Indian rhythms. The future is bright.

Fabio Chivhanda (mbira)

Shen + Fabio

Ravi, Fabio, Shen

Ravi, Shen, Tony, Fabio, Sam - what a great jam.

Hilary's happy retirement

It's been ages since I've blogged, mainly because I'm between cameras. My old one broke, I bought a new one, then the battery doesn't work so now I'm waiting for a replacement to come my way. Soon I'll be able to get back to regular snaps with little stories, and at some stage I'll report on what's been happening in these camera-less days.

In the meantime, one tale with accompanying photo. I took my old van Hilary for her final drive a couple of weeks back. She's found a happy retirement in the back yard of the Olsen family, where she'll be a cubby house for their 3 kids. It's perfect. I was so worried about finding someone who wanted to keep her on the road - a major fund-sucker. This is so much better. Everybody happy. (And nice to put some money back into my bank account too...)