Tabla in Hand: July 2016

Monday, July 25, 2016

9th Annual Ashu Babu Memorial Tabla School Concert

On the Saturday before Guru Purnima ("Guru's full moon"), 18th July 2016, we held our 9th annual tabla school concert at Queensland Multicultural Centre (aka BEMAC). We continued the trend of each and every student improving year by year, as well as the arrangements and presentations of all the group performances. This year we had 24 students performing, including 2 groups of 7 tabla students! A first this year was the inclusion of a short instrumental section presented by Murali Ramakrishnan (bansuri), accompanied by my senior student Sanjey Sivaananthan.

As always big thanks to our regular sponsors Brisbane Indian Times, our stalwart harmonium accompanist Joseph Nand, and dilruba accompanist Adarshbir Singh. Thanks to Brian Sullivan and Bappi Hussain for the photographs, to Susmitha Ravi for coordinating the meals, to all the students and parents for their tireless efforts, and to all the other supporters who came along to listen.

Opening bhajan by Rhea Ravi, with Sivamsan Senthilvasan on tabla

Beginners group: Guhanesh, Ashwin, Aarav, Rishab, Rohan, Pyara and Enan.

Juniors group: Ben, Ashwin, Aaryan, Aditya and Josh.

Varun Lal was my best student back in 2008, when he had a tragic car accident which left him unable to use his left side. He has been learning tabla again for the last few years and is doing great.

Tabla solo in jhaptaal by Rhea Ravi.

Bansuri recital by Murali Ramakrishnan, with Sanjey Sivaananthan on tabla.

Intermediate tabla group incorporating Chermside, Gold Coast and Westlake students: Bipro, Ishaaq, Arun, Siva, Sivamsan, Ayngaran and Hari.

Senior tabla group performance in Jhaptaal: Sanjey, Tito and Jesinthan with Adarshbir Singh (dilruba) and Joseph Nand (harmonium)

Presentation of certificates by chief guest Sri Umesh Chandra of Brisbane Indian Times.

Tabla solo in Basant Taal (9 matras, in honour of our 9th annual concert) by Shen Flindell, with Adarshbir Singh (dilruba) and Joseph Nand (harmonium)

There are lots more photos in the Facebook albums of Brian Sullivan and Bappi Hussain (The Picture Hub).

Pt Kushal Das in Brisbane

As mentioned in my previous post, June 2016 was a milestone month for me in terms of playing with high level Indian classical musicians. After suddenly being called to accompany South Indian vocalist OS Arun's devotional concert, the following week I had two shows with brilliant young sarangi master Sangeet Mishra. But the definite highlight was my concert with sitar maestro Pt Kushal Das from Kolkata.

Kushal-da was in Australia to perform with Pt Kumar Bose in a concert in Sydney, so while he was here the organisers asked me to help out with a concert in Brisbane. It was a golden opportunity and great honour for me to accompany such a wonderful artist, as well as to host him at our home for a few days. We got to know a genuine artist with sincere devotion to his art, who was very encouraging to all he met. The concert left everyone present feeling clear and uplifted.

Many thanks to Brisbane Indian Times, Sangeet Premi Club, Sitar Restaurant, and the rest of the consortium of Indian classical music lovers who got behind me to underwrite the concert, giving me confidence to go ahead without the worry of a big loss in the event that the audience didn't turn up in big numbers. In the end the concert was a success and the underwriters all got to enjoy the concert for free, as well as the feeling of having helped to create something magical in Brisbane. This system of underwriting big classical concerts by a team of supporters is something I'm keen to continue in the future, so if you are prepared to take an active stake in promoting Indian classical music events with me, please do get in touch!

Many thanks to Brian Sullivan for these photos. You can find many more on his Facebook album, "Kushal Das Concert". The Picture Hub also has a nice selection of Bappi Hussain's photos in their Facebook album, "A Melodious Sitar Evening by Pandith Kushal Das and Shen Flindell".

Various events April-July 2016

Since returning from our trip to India Feb-April 2016, things have really been picking up in my professional life. A lot of new tabla students joined my lessons and they are all learning very well, and almost all the older students have shown greater enthusiasm too. June in particular was an amazing month in which I got to accompany 3 separate international artists: Carnatic vocalist OS Arun in a devotional concert, sarangi master and regular musical partner Sangeet Mishra, and amazing sitarist Pt Kushal Das. More on the Kushal Das concert in my next post...

Sun Apr 10 Helena Joshi Kathak workshop - I was invited to accompany Helena's Kathak dance class.
Sat Apr 16 Cairns: Spirit of Bhakti - Another little trip for the wonderful Spirit of Bhakti.
Fri Apr 22 Festival of Tibet: Bardo Songs - Tenzin Choegyal and friends - An amazing collection of improvising musicians plus an old Tibetan painter creating a masterpiece on the spot makes for a sensational show. The justaposition of Tenzin Choegyal with Yeshe Reiners' rough voice and sweet kora and Peter Hunt's smooth jazzy vocals, guitar and trumpet, along with Tenzin's usual Tibet2Timbuk2 team of Marcello (guitar) and myself (tabla) really did click magnificently. There was a nice wide range of songs and a great improvisational chemistry.
Sat May 14 Chinatown: Tabla Tarrango! @ Buddha's Birthday Festival

Tabla Tarrango! - Thejan, Jesinthan and Shen with Adarshbir Singh on dilruba
Sat Jun 4 St Lucia: Sounds of India - OS Arun (devotional songs)
I was called up on the day of the concert to join in with these top level South Indian musicians. The concert was part of a very big classical programme entitled "Sounds of India" also featuring Ganesh and Jayanthi Kumaresh (violin/veena) and Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (Mohan veena). OS Arun only found out the day before that it had been promoted as "devotional" and so tabla would be needed. I got called up to come and meet the guys at sound check. I had lots of fun following Bhupi on the mridangam.
Sat Jun 11 West End: Kathak dance workhop with Helena Joshi
Sat Jun 11 West End: Spirit of Bhakti featuring Sangeet Mishra - a really wonderful concert!
Sun Jun 12 Mullumbimby: Sangeet Mishra, Shai Shriki, Shen Flindell
Sat Jun 18 BEMAC: Pt Kushal Das – Sublime Master of Sitar - More on this in a separate post. It was amazing.
Sun Jun 26 Mt Gravatt: Baithak featuring Murali Ramakrishan (bansuri) and Shen with students - I was very happy that two of my senior students, Sanjey and Jesinthan came along to join the concert. We gave a tabla demonstration focusing on recognising various thekas, then we accompanied Murali Ramakrishnan (bansuri) and his wife and daughter (vocal).

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

India 2016

From late January to early April 2016, Yuki, Saraswati and I had a grand old time in India, beginning in Kolkata, spending most of our time in Varanasi before having a little holiday in Rishikesh and our final few days in Delhi.

In Kolkata we stayed with our friend Supriyo Dutta, an excellent classical vocalist. He invited us to his concert while we were there and Yuki played tanpura. We're very happy that we can bring Supriyo to Australia for Woodford Folk Festival later this year!

We arrived in Varanasi shortly before Saraswati Puja, and I performed in a tabla group and then vocal accompaniment for the annual Basant Panchami concert in my old guru-ji's house.

Pt Pooran Maharaj came to perform at Sangeet Mela 2015 last September, and he reciprocated by inviting me to perform tabla solo at his house for his annual Sangeet Sabha Kashi concert. Pt Pooran Maharaj learnt a lot from his grandfather, Pt Kanthe Maharaj, also the guru of my principal guru-ji Late Pt Kaviraj Ashutosh Bhattacharya. So I was very blessed and honoured to have the opportunity to take lessons from Pooran-ji, and to perform in his historical home.

Also while in Varanasi, we attended many concerts including those of Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma, Sakhi (Kaushiki Chakraborty's all-female classical based group), and the annual Dhrupad Mela. I also participated in a couple of workshops with pakhawaj players - Tetsuya Kaneko's introductory pakhawaj workshop, and Sukhad Munde's taal workshop. We really enjoyed meeting Sukhad-ji and he was certainly one of the bright lights of the Dhrupad Mela.

I had a few more concerts while in India. The big one was joining the Kathak dance group of Smt Malti Shyam, at the annual Ashu Babu Memorial Concert on Tulsi Ghat. She had her established tabla player there of course, but I got to play along where I could and had a small solo as well. I had tabla tuned in Pancham to add to the tonal quality of the music, and mainly just tried to play Dhas in the right place rather than make a mess trying to catch difficult compositions!

I also had fun playing with bansuri player Shyan Kishore in Vegan & Raw Restaurant, a much more casual and fun gig.

From Varanasi we went to Rishikesh and enjoyed 12 days of sunshine and spare time. We spent a lot of time with Shivam Rath and Mico Sundari, who play beautiful devotional music based on Indian classical music with their own rock sensibilities infused. We played a concert on the Parmath Ashram ghat by Ganga which was quite a treat.

Various events Sep 2015 to Jan 2016

This blog is like a record of all the shows and special events I'm up to. I notice that just like this time last year, I'm about to post photos of my annual tabla school concert, and find I haven't blogged in yonks. So here's a list of what happened between Sangeet Mela 2015 and our 2016 India trip:

SEP 2015

Sun Sep 20 Oxley: Tabla Workshop with Pt Pooran Maharaj - Following Sangeet Mela 2015, we hosted a tabla workshop for my students with the festival's featured tabla master, Pt Pooran Maharaj. In the morning the young students came for a short lesson which was mainly in the way of getting blessing and meeting a great master in our lineage. Then the intermediate students had a couple of hours before lunch, and then more advanced students after lunch. It was a great experience for the students to get a flood of knowledge from a great master, and to sit for a long time.

Sep 24: Flew to Japan for my sister-in-law's wedding. It was a beautiful event. Also while in Japan I got to meet a few old friends which was very nice.

OCT 2015

Oct 2-4: Yuki and Shen - Nada yoga concert/workshop tour of Nagano, Niigata and Kanazawa. Along the way we were treated to some amazing Japanese cuisine too!
Oct 7-11: Spirit of Bhakti in Sydney - Spirit of Bhakti got flown down to perform at "Super Retreat" in Govinda Valley, south of Sydney. The star treatment!
Sat Oct 17 Nerang: GCHCA Navaratri function featuring Ashu Babu Memorial Tabla School - Sanjey and Thejan, two of my senior students performed at this event.
Oct 23-25 Stradbroke: Island Elements with Sufi Soul Sangeet - A beautiful weekend away at Stradbroke Island playing great music with Tahir Qawwal! This was the view from my tent:

NOV 2015

Sun Nov 1 Morningside: SpiritSong CD Launch - Check out the CD " Mantra Immersion" here - Western mantras and instrumentation along with my tabla and Shyan Kishore's bansuri, and beautiful harmonies by Rob and Angela of SpiritSong.
Sat Nov 7 Mt Gravatt: From Sitar to Shayari - Dr Indranil Chatterjee (sitar), Rahim Zullah (vocal), Shen Flindell (tabla)
Sat Nov 14 Byron: Spirit of Bhakti Byron CD Launch - feat. Shai Shriki
Sun Nov 15 Ravi Welsh, Zac and Shen free jazz impro - guitar, double bass and tabla fun.
Sat Nov 21 Powerhouse: Spirit of Bhakti - A big happy audience at the Powerhouse Stores Building, many thanks to YogaFest's Jonathan Murphy for organising this one.
Sun Nov 22 Bardon: Vinod Prasanna (Indian classical bansuri) - Thanks to Merv at Magda's Community Artz in Bardon for hosting in their old church hall and bringing a lovely audience to hear Vinod's beautiful bansuri.
Sun Nov 29 Mullumbimby: House of Bliss with Tahir Qawwal and Shen

DEC 2015

Sat Dec 5 Eight Mile Plains: North Meets South - Saikat Bhattacharya (sitar), Shen (tabla), various Carnatic performers
Sat Dec 12 Toowoomba: Nepal benefit - Spirit of Bhakti and many more - A huge lineup including Tenzin Choegyal, Mzaza, and Dheeraj Shrestha. We all had fun up in Toowoomba and managed to collectively raise over $10000 for Nepal earthquake relief. Well done to Moyalia for all her work!
Sun Dec 13 Ravi Welsh, Zac and Shen free jazz impro - more guitar, double bass, tabla fun.
Sat Dec 19 Chenrezig: Tibet2Timbuk2 with special guest Taro Terahara (bansuri)

Tibet2Timbuk2 sound checking at Chenrezig Gompa
Sun Dec 20 Moorooka: Tahir Qawwal + Taro Terahara + Shen
Dec 27 - Jan 1 Woodford Folk Festival - featuring Tenzin Choegyal, Taro Terahara and Shen Flindell, Dr Helena Joshi (Kathak dance), Dr Namita Mehta (vocal)