Tabla in Hand

Woodford 2011-12

2012-01-21T15:21:00.009+10:00

The weather-gods smiled on Woodford Festival patrons and organisers this year, and we had one of the most enjoyable festivals in quite a while. I was performing there with bansuri player Taro Terahara and also accompanying sitar player Saikat Bhattacharya in a couple of performances. Taro and I had 7 performances, mostly in the Folklorica stage but also including the special hilltop New Year's sunset and sunrise concerts. For those of you who don't know, Woodford Festival runs from Dec 27 to Jan 1 every year and has over 20 stages and music and entertainment of all varieties. I'll be uploading these and many more photos to my Facebook Australia 2011 album.

Tashi Lhunpo Monks

Taro and Shen with Yuriko (tanpura) in the first of our 5 concerts in Folklorica. Fantastic stage with the talented Siri on sound, making it so easy for musicians of all ethnic varieties.

One of my festival favourites: Hanggai - Mongolian rock music. Very entertaining, especially the lead singer with frontless studded leather jacket, talking enthusiastically in Mongolian between songs.

Taro was invited to join Tenzin Choegyal, Michael Askill (gongs) and Stuart Ransome (shakuhachi) for a beautiful morning meditation concert.

Fantastic Flamenco dancer with Gerard Mapstone (guitar). Some of the most musical Flamenco tapping I've seen.

Another festival favourite: Tuba Skinny - old-time New Orleans jazz

And the dream band: EarthSync Collective - ghatam, sarod/guitar, bass, samples/drones, Carnatic male vocal/morsing, Hindustani female vocal, violin, tabla. We had a lot of fun hanging out with the EarthSync folks, especially tabla player Chiranjit. I had to help Chiranjit out with an emergency tabla repair at the festival, so thanks to Australian Quarantine for helping seal our friendship.

After Taro and Saikat's solo sets on Dec 30 we joined together in a trio jugalbandi.

The crew for the New Year's Eve Sunrise Concert - Stuart Ransome (shakuhachi), Carla Thackrah (flute), James Coates (poetry), Michael Askill (gongs, samples), Jonny Ng (violin), Shen (tabla), Yuriko (tanpura), Taro (bansuri)

The last sunset of 2011

We enjoyed Die roten Punkte - intentionally bad comedy music in German industrial pop style. Unfortunately I couldn't see the whole set as I had my own set...

I accompanied both Saikat and Taro as part of the Sacred New Year programme in Folklorica stage on New Year's Eve night.

As the clock ticked over to 2012, some of the festival-goers were sitting in contemplation in Folklorica, while Trikaya performed "... in the Between - The Tibetan Book of the Dead"

The New Year's Dawn concert - Yuriko, Shen, Taro, Tenzin, Tashi Lhunpo Monks, Jonny Ng (violin)

First sunrise of 2012

Taro and I had a set immediately followed by Tenzin Choegyal, which gave us the perfect opportunity to play along together. This was New Year's Day, and our 4th show in 24 hours, but despite the brain-daze it was a beautiful set.

The Tashi Lhunpo Monks made this sand mandala during the festival.

And had a Dissolution ceremony at on the last evening.

The Farewell Ceremony in the Amphitheatre.

On tour with Taro Terahara (part 2)

2012-01-18T22:18:00.006+10:00

For Taro's second weekend in Australia this summer, we had a 3 stop tour of NSW with Tibet2Timbuk2. We were hosted in Bellingen by Roots Records, who were celebrating their 1st birthday. Then the Wauchope Arts Council welcomed us back after our show there in January, and we closed out the weekend with an afternoon show at Sphinx Rock Cafe near Mt Burrell, NNSW.

Tenzin and I have toured Japan with Taro a couple of times now, but this was our first chance to have both Marcello and Taro playing with us for a series of really good shows. The chemistry that developed was really fantastic, and these were some brilliant concerts. (Here's a review of the Bellingen show.)

日本語のブログは、Yukiのブログを見てください。

Bellingen:

Wauchope:

Sphinx Rock Cafe:

This is a U-Stream (live internet stream) archive of our Sphinx Rock Cafe concert. The sound is not the best!

Brisbane:

After the Tibet2Timbuk2 tour, I had Taro help some of my students with accompaniment. We had a little student Christmas party and 4 of the students accompanied Taro.

On tour with Taro Terahara (part 1)

2012-01-18T21:48:00.003+10:00

This summer we were lucky to have our old friend, bansuri master Taro Terahara returning to Australia, this time with his wife Yuriko. (Click here for an index of blogs on Taro's previous Australian tours.) As you'll see in the coming episodes, we had a great summer with lots of good times for all. Unlike previous years, the weather was fine most of the time, though not too hot with the occasional afternoon shower to cool things down.

We kicked off the tour with a couple of classical shows, firstly in the Sri Saileshwara Temple in Brisbane and then the next day at Awakening Centre in Maleny. On the Sunday we were joined on the Sunshine Coast by Tibet2Timbuk2 for a concert in the splendid gompa at Chenrezig Tibetan Buddhist Community, on the anniversary of HH the Dalai Lama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

Yuki opening our concert at Sri Saileshwara Mandir.

These two members of the temple congregation treated us to a beautiful devotional song at the end of the evening.

Yuki opening our concert at Awakening Centre. There was a storm just before the concert, which resulted in a blackout and a candle-lit performance.

There was a lunar eclipse that night. After the storm the sky was quite clear.

Tibet2Timbuk2 with special guest Taro Terahara, at Chenrezig Gompa.

Many thanks to Yuriko for the following videos of the concert:

And thanks to Lesley for the following videos of the concert:

Various concerts with Tenzin and Tabla Tarrango

2011-10-28T21:31:00.001+10:00

Since my hectic Japan tour (including two weeks with Tenzin Choegyal) in August and September, I've been enjoying the relaxing space at my Highgate Hill home and getting back into lessons with my tabla students, along with a few concerts on the weekends. Once again, I've been doing a few shows with Tenzin Choegyal, including a 3 show weekend in the countryside inland from Brisbane doing small concerts fundraising for Tibetan Children's Village. We've also performed at Gold Coast and Queensland Multicultural Festivals, along with my tabla student performance group Tabla Tarrango. I'm missing some photos from a few recent concerts, notably Tibet2Timbuk2 with erhu player Nicholas Ng at Crystal Waters on Friday 14th October, a really lovely gig.

Tenzin Choegyal accompanied by Shen (tabla) and Peter Hunt (guitar) at Kaivalya Meru community, 17 Sep 2011

Accompanying Tenzin at Gold Coast Multicultural Festival, 18 Sep 2011

Tabla Tarrango performing at Gold Coast Multicultural Festival
L to R: Sanjey, Jesinthan, Shen, Thejan, Tito

Tenzin with Jacqui and Shen in Glamorgan Vale, 8 Oct 2011

Glamorgan Vale, 8 Oct 2011

Tabla Tarrango performing at Queensland Multicultural Festival, 16 Oct 2011

Brisbane Family Success in Tabla Exam

2011-10-03T21:44:00.001+10:00

Rhea Ravi (7) and Ritvik Ravi (13) achieved distinctions in PRSSV tabla exam

A brother and sister in Parkinson have achieved distinctions in a London-based tabla exam. Ritvik Ravi (13) and Rhea Ravi (7) received top marks among 12 tabla students from Brisbane and Gold Coast who took the exams held by Pandit Ram Sahai Sangeet Vidyalaya (PRSSV). Rhea Ravi also studies Carnatic vocals under her mother, well-known vocalist Susmitha Ravi, as well as Bharat Natyam dance. Ritvik Ravi has also taken his mother's singing lessons and currently also plays drumkit.

All the other students of the Ashutosh Bhattacharya Memorial Tabla School who took the exams achieved merits. The exams are available in 8 grades equivalent to AMEB or Trinity music examinations. The students have to study a range of practical and theoretical material including classical tabla repertoire, Hindustani classical music theory, music writing system, biographies of famous musicians, and the history of tabla gharanas.

The top Brisbane tabla students, Tito Basu (15) and Sanjey Sivaananthan (15) successfully completed grade 6 and will attempt grade 7 when the exams are next held in Brisbane next February. PRSSV are currently applying for recognition by the Qld Studies Authority, so that from next year exam results will be included in the students' school certificates.

For enquiries about PRSSV tabla exams, tabla lessons, repairs and instrument sales, please contact Shen Flindell on 0415106428 or email shen@ethnosuperlounge.com

CONCERT DATE
Sunday October 16: Queensland Multicultural Festival, Roma St Parklands. Tabla Tarrango will perform on the Children's Stage from 1245 to 1pm.

(to be printed in Brisbane Indian Times Oct 2011 edition)

Indian Classics Tokyo 2011 - A first class Indian classical concert

2011-09-26T17:41:00.000+10:00

My last concert of this year's Japan tour was a really first class event held in Densho Hall in Shibuya, bringing together some of the top Indian classical artists in Japan at the time. The 9/11 event marked 6 months since the Fukushima tsunami and 10 years since the New York attacks. The hall was packed full of attentive listeners creating a fantastic atmosphere for great music. Many thanks to organiser Yuriko Terahara and congratulations on a great job for Indian music! The after party was loads of fun too - the biggest I've ever been part of!

These photos were taken by Akiro Io and there are many more on his blog.

Fumie Negishi (vocal) with Ayako Ikeda (tabla)

Taro Terahara (bansuri) with Shen Flindell (tabla)

Steve Oda (sarod) with Ty Burhoe (tabla)

Amit Roy (sitar) with U-Zhaan (tabla)

14th and Final Gifu Sangeet Mela

2011-09-26T17:29:00.000+10:00

I've been lucky enough to participate in the annual Gifu Sangeet Mela 6 times - the first time as an audience member and then 5 times performing, culminating in this year's final instance of this wonderful event. (Here are my blog posts for the last three years'.) It really is great to gather so many musicians to perform together and see each others' performances, give feedback, discuss music and just hang out all night. This year I was blessed to play twice: first accompanying Taro Terahara (bansuri) and second accompanying Koki Yoshida (sitar). Unfortunately a few of us Tokyo musicians had to leave at 4am to return for a concert the next day, and so weren't able to see the final two performances nor enjoy the feeling of having experienced the whole night together. The next day's after-party is always a blast too; so sad to have missed that. Many thanks to Jimi-san for inviting me to join in again, and we'll miss the Sangeet Mela in future years.

Event organiser and wonderful santoor player, Setsuo "Jimi-san" Miyashita

This image of Saraswati-maa, goddess of music, has looked over Sangeet Mela for 14 years!

Baku Hirakawa (sarod) with Ayako Ikeda (tabla)

Rahul Acharya (Odissi dance)

Taro Terahara (bansuri) with Shen Flindell (tabla)

Sachiko Murakami's Odissi dance group


Live accompaniment for Sachiko Murakami's Odissi dance group

Jai Bajrang - Tetsuya Kaneko (pakhawaj) and Takaaki Kuno (ghatam)

Scene from the green room

Koki Yoshida (sitar) with Shen Flindell (tabla)

Atsuko Maeda and her Kathak dance group

Steve Oda (sarod) with Ty Burhoe (tabla)

Yukie Satou (Odissi dance)

Shree (Dhrupad vocal) with Tetsuya Kaneko (pakhawaj)

EthnoSuperLounge @ Magokoro Vol 2 with Aoyamaguchi

2011-09-26T17:13:00.000+10:00

For the second Friday EthnoSuperLounge at Magokoro, I was joined by bansuri buddy Taro Terahara and Japanese folk song duo Aoyamaguchi. Aoyamaguchi had joined Taro, Tenzin and a for shows in Fukushima and Sendai earlier in my Japan tour. Their combination of Japanese folk singing with Tuvan throat singing and open-tuned guitar is very beautiful and emotive. As always, we finished the show up with a jam session. I think Taro and I make a great accompaniment team!

A couple of Tokyo shows

2011-09-26T17:09:00.001+10:00

After the Magokoro Kamakura show I had a couple more events in Tokyo city itself. First up I accompanied Yuki in our concert after her workshop at Sun and Moon Yoga in Meguro. The following night I joined Taro Terahara (bansuri) and June Chikuma (ney) for an exploration of Indian and Arab flutes at Saint-Jacques Bistro, Nishiogikubo. We did some wild free improvisations in joining to two kinds of music!

EthnoSuperLounge @ Magokoro Vol 1 with Mbira Zvakanaka

2011-09-26T17:05:00.002+10:00

The last few years we have done concerts with Tenzin Choegyal at Kamakura hemp cafe, Magokoro ("Hemp Heart"), but this year things didn't work out. So instead they offered me a couple of concerts on the first two Fridays in September, with whomever I wanted to invite! The first week I invited Mbira Zvakanaka to join Yuki and I in a lovely show. The final jam was lots of fun and really melded our music together in a very fun way.

Fukuoka

2011-09-26T16:58:00.000+10:00

For the last weekend of August Yuki and I went to Fukuoka, where Yuki was giving Nada Yoga workshops all weekend at Yoga Limt. I joined her for a small concert on the Saturday evening, where we did our now usual programme of mantras, kirtans and tabla solo. I didn't do much else while in Fukuoka except for eating at the delicious Daiichi Udon, the best eating place within walking distance of our accommodation courtesy of our old Fukuoka friend Amigo-chan. Thanks Amigo! Also thanks to sitar player Hide Iwai who came from Kumamoto to see us and practise together.

Concert with Yuki at Yoga Limt, Fukuoka

The udon king at Daiichi Udon, Ikinomatsubara, Fukuoka

Goubouten bukkake udon - yum yum yum!

Yatsubuchi Falls (八ツ淵の滝)

2011-08-24T13:51:00.000+10:00

While staying in Kyoto I went on a fantastic hike with my two Aussie brothers in Kyoto, Alex and Andy. We went up Yatsubuchi no Taki ("Eight deep-pooled waterfalls") in Shiga prefecture about 90 minutes drive from Kyoto. We set out from the car at 12 noon and returned 6 hours later after some perilous climbs, refreshing dips and waterfall showers, and some magnificent scenery. We didn't see another person all day. We finished up soaking our sore limbs in an onsen (hot spring) on the way back to Kyoto.

Osaka & Kyoto concerts

2011-08-24T13:07:00.001+10:00

I had two very enjoyable concerts with talented sitar players this weekend. Firstly in Osaka, I joined Tadao Ishihama for Calcutta Night Vol 77. Yes that's right, the 77th edition of his monthly concert at Cafe Amanto, in a 120 year old house in central Osaka. Tadao is playing really well and we had a lot of fun. Not only that, but we got to enjoy Tadao's fantastic Indian cooking. Then the next afternoon we headed up to my old home Kyoto for an afternoon concert with Yasuhiro Minamizawa in famous world music shop, Koizumi Gakki. In both cases we played together without rehearsal for the first time in 2-3 years, and it was fantastic - that is one of the big pluses for Indian classical music. We can always play together and create something new within the improvisational framework. It's such a pleasure for me to come to Japan and play with many talented and varied Indian classical musicians.

Performing with Tadao Ishihama in Cafe Amanto, Osaka

The delicious meal Tadao whipped up for us - channa masala, potato shimeji (mushroom) curry, cucumber broccoli raita, and lots of puris!

Afternoon concert at Koizumi Gakki, Kyoto, opened with Yuki's mantras

Accompanying Yasuhiro Minamizawa in Kyoto

Tenzin in Japan part 7 - videos

2011-08-14T18:12:00.002+10:00

I promised to upload some videos of my Japan tour with Tenzin Choegyal and Taro Terahara, but the Teraharas have done it for me. If you'd like to see the full report (in Japanese) including these videos, please visit the official tour blog here.

Nomad song and flute duet @ Gokokuji

"Tso Marpo" @ Gokokuji

"Heart Sutra" @ Inawashiro Ski Resort

"Agu Tadak" @ Pangaea, Sendai

Aoyamaguchi - "Furusato" @ Pangaea, Sendai

"Olo Chung Chung" @ Chakra, Osaka

Flute duet and Nomad Song @ Chicken George, Kobe

Many photos on my Facebook album.

Tenzin in Japan part 6 - Izu and west Japan

2011-08-13T00:14:00.002+10:00

Following our concerts in Touhoku and visit to a tsunami affected area, there were still 5 more concerts to go! 14 concerts in 14 days, what an epic journey - Taro informs me that we covered 3121km. In this last part of the tour, we didn't have much time to visit scenic areas, though we did have quite a few nice baths in various super sentos. The weather was really very hot! I think by this time we managed to settle on a semi-regular set list too. We've taken quite a few videos so I may yet post one more blog from this tour... (You can read the Japanese tour wrap-up including videos here.)

In the meantime, while Tenzin has returned home I will be in Japan until September 13 and have another 10 shows to play, much more firmly in Indian classical music field.

Sat 6 August Izu, Organic Cafe Chant

Afghan folk duo Chalpasah drove down from Tokyo to see our show, so we simply had to ask them to play as well. Really wonderful music!

Tenzin and Keiichi Satow of Chalpasah had a little instrument swap session - rabab for dranyen

1000 year old tree in a Shinto shrine in Itou, Izu

Sun 7 August Nagoya, Alphaville

Mon 8 August Osaka, Chakra

Tue 9 August Osaka, Avalon

Wed 10 August Kobe, Chicken George - not a KFC copy as the name might indicate, but in fact one of the biggest most famous live houses in Kansai, since 1980. Wonderful sound system!

Many more photos on my Facebook album.

Tenzin in Japan part 5: Tsunami zone

2011-08-12T23:46:00.000+10:00

After our Sendai concert we had a day off, in a manner of speaking - just a 9 hour drive south to Izu! But first we visited Matsushima, a beautiful seaside area just north of Sendai. Low-lying areas of central Matsushima were "merely" flooded, because it was largely protected from the March 11 tsunami but the offshore islands, but nearby areas were suffered massive destruction. Touristic central Matsushima was fully restored to normality and we enjoyed a delicious seafood lunch, but 5 months after the tsunami the areas we saw nearby are far from clear. I am posting these photos because there is a lot of discussion and fear about the nuclear disaster, and I feel everyone is forgetting the terrible suffering caused by the tsunami along 800km of east Japanese coastline. This area is quite far from the radiation zone.

Tenzin in Japan part 4 - Touhoku

2011-08-12T23:25:00.003+10:00

From Nagaoka, on to Inawashiro and some very special concerts. Inawashiro is in Fukushima Prefecture, unfortunately best known now for the Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster after the tsunami on March 11. Much of the coastline was destroyed by the tsunami and then of course the area within 30km of the nuclear reactor was evacuated. Many of these refugees are staying in hotels in the skiing and lake resort town of Inawashiro, which is protected from the radiation zone but a mountain range. We played 3 free concerts in Inawashiro for refugees, before heading on to Sendai city in Miyagi Prefecture.

Wed 3 August Inawashiro, midday hotel concert: We were joined for all of these concerts by Eri Yamaguchi (vocal) and Masaaki Aoyama (throat singing, guitar), who combine to be "Aoyamaguchi", singing traditional and original Japanese folk songs.

Wed 3 August Inawashiro, afternoon garden concert

Thurs 4 August Inawashiro Ski Resort. This was a very emotional concert, especially Aoyamaguchi's song "Furusato" (homeland), which had many people sobbing.

Aoyamaguchi joined us for our still unrecorded finale, the very beautiful "Aum Mani Padme Hum"

Lake Inawashiro

Background radiation reading in Inawashiro. This level is typical of many places around the world. We can't be sure about soil and hence vegetable contamination though...

Thurs 4 Aug Sendai, Pangaea

Many more photos on my Facebook album.

Tenzin in Japan part 3 - Niigata

2011-08-12T22:50:00.006+10:00

After Saitama the Snow Lion gang moved on to Nagaoka City, Niigata, where we had a concert in Gallery Mu-An for the opening of an exhibition by our friend Kie who has some wonderful paintings of Dharamsala and Varanasi. The following day we attended the Phoenix Fireworks Festival, said to be Japan's biggest fireworks festival, started 6 years ago after Niigata suffered a massive earthquake. You can find the official (Japanese) blog report including this time in Niigata here.

Mon 1 August: Gallery Mu-An, Nagaoka City, Niigata.
Yuki Taniguchi opened the concert with some Sanskrit mantras.

This painting by Kie was based on a photo of Yuki-chan.

Tenzin in front of Kie's award-winning painting of Tenzin's home town in India, Dharamsala.

Gathering at the Phoenix Fireworks Festival - we were joined by Masaaki Aoyama and Eri Yamaguchi who performed with us in the next few concerts.

While waiting for the fireworks we had a big 90 minute practice session.... until "please stop playing music now" was announced over the loudspeakers.

Many more photos on my Facebook album.

Tenzin in Japan part 2 - Saitama

2011-08-12T22:27:00.003+10:00

From Tokyo the Snow Lion crew headed north to Oppe Gallery in country hills of Saitama. Those funky country Japanese know how to party and we had a lot of fun with Kin-chan and the gang up there. You can find the official (Japanese) blog report including this time in Saitama here.

Sun July 31: Saitama, Oppe Gallery - In most concerts, Taro and Tenzin performed a beautiful flute duet along with Tibetan nomad song. (Check out "Tibet: Awakened Heart" to hear both kinds of music.)

Megumi is a big fan of Tibetan music and learnt some songs from Tenzin.
(Please correct me if I've got the name wrong!)

This party was actually the night before the Saitama concert. Lots of Japanese chang and silly dancing until 4am! After this Tenzin promised not to drink for the rest of the tour!

Many more photos on my Facebook album.

Tenzin in Japan part 1 - Tokyo

2011-08-12T21:54:00.004+10:00

I've just finished a packed 2 week, 14 concert tour around Japan with Tibetan singer Tenzin Choegyal and bansuri player Taro Terahara, which kicked off with 3 concerts in Tokyo. You can see many more photos on my Facebook album. You can find the official (Japanese) blog report including these Tokyo concerts here.

Thurs July 28: Otoya-Kintoki, Nishi-Ogikubo. We were joined by Tenzin's old friend Nanaco, who is featured on the track "Semchok" on Tenzin and Taro's album "Tibet: Awakened Heart"

Fri July 28: Gokokuji Temple, hosted by Tibet House Japan.

Sat Jul 29: Nirmal Yoga, Meguro
Read Nirmal Yoga's blog on the concert here.

In most of the concerts, Taro and I presented a short Indian classical piece in the middle of each concert. Here we performed Raga Puriya Dhanashri.

Tibet2Timbuk2 with Menaka

2011-08-06T13:56:00.000+10:00

On Sat July 16 Tibet2Timbuk2 played a concert in The Basement, Gold Coast Arts Centre, with a very special guest - South Indian vocalist Menaka Visvanathan. She really added a wonderful flavour to our music with luscious high vocal solos and harmonies. If you're on Facebook you might be able to see this video of us accompanying her in a bhajan.

4th Annual Ashu Babu Memorial Tabla School Concert

2011-07-13T22:53:00.001+10:00

My annual tabla school concert on (or near) Guru Purnima has become one of the definite highlights of my year. This year's event was held in Sunnybank Community Hall on Saturday 9th July, 6 days ahead of Guru Purnima. Guru-ji's magic was evident in the atmosphere as always, and more and more each year I feel we are cultivating the energy passed down from guru to student through several generations including Benares Gharana originator Pt Ram Sahai and my late Guru-ji Pt Ashutosh Bhattacharya.

In this year's 4th annual concert (click the links for 1st, 2nd and 3rd concerts) we had 11 students performing. Four of the students had performed at previous concerts but happily we had a lot of new students performing this year. The concert always brings out the best in the students, with lots of extra practice in the weeks beforehand and a lot of inspiration to keep practising in the weeks afterward. Everyone put in a great performance but special mentions must go to youngest and only girl tabla performer Rhea Ravi, naal solo by Vraja Dhama, fine accompaniment in bhajan by Tito Basu, and excellent all-round playing by Sanjey Sivaananthan.

Many thanks to Joseph Abhay Nand for patient harmonium accompaniment as always, and of course to all the parents and friends for helping out with the concert and throughout the year. Special thanks to super volunteers Darshil Shah, Vraja Dhama, Yuki Taniguchi and Feridun Avar, and to Brent James for these splendid photographs and other assistance.

An altar to Guru-ji

Our distinguished guest, Smt Vijaya Visvanathan, inaugurated the proceedings

Yuki Taniguchi (Sanskrit mantras)

Darshil Shah (bansuri) accompanied Yuki's mantras

Sulagna Basu presented some bhajans in honour of goddess Saraswati and the Guru. She was accompanied very well by her son Arka Tito Basu on tabla, and Joseph Abhay Nand on harmonium.

Diptanu Debroy (11) started the tabla solos

Bipro Hussain (9) and Ishaaq Jamil (8) (see them on youtube!)

Rhea Ravi (7) played in a tabla duet with her older brother...

Ritvik Ravi (13)

Nitin Niranjan (12)

Vraja Dhama - naal solo

Thejan Elankayer (11)

Arka Tito Basu (15) gave tabla solo in Jhaptaal (10 beats) and Teentaal (16 beats)

Jesinthan Ketheeswaran (17) and Sanjey Sivaananthan (15) also performed in Jhaptaal and Teentaal

Joseph Abhay Nand gave patient accompaniment on harmonium throughout

The students received certificates, presented by Smt Vijaya Visvanathan. The certificates feature the lineage of Benares Gharana guru-shishya parampara starting from gharana founder Pt Ram Sahai.

Finally I gave a tabla solo, also in Jhaptaal and Teentaal. If you play something twice, you should make a tihai and play it three times!

Soumya Chakraverty sarodia

2011-07-13T22:07:00.001+10:00

I was recently lucky enough to have two weekends of concerts with visiting sarod player Soumya Chakraverty. Soumya used to live in Brisbane for a few years and I actually spoke with him once on the phone at that time, just as he was about to leave for USA where he has been living ever since. He and his wife Michelle returned to Brisbane to visit Michelle's family, and while here to play some music, luckily for me!

While discussing possible concerts I mentioned Soumya to Brisbane resident sitar player Saikat Bhattacharya, who commented that he knew a sarod playing Soumya Chakraverty in high school, and it was indeed the same Soumya! They graduated from Calcutta Boys School in 1986, making the concerts we had together a kind of 25 year reunion, and a very enjoyable reunion it was too.

Sat June 25: "Strings of India" concert hosted by Swara Mohini
Shrabani Choudhury (sitar)

Sat June 25: "Strings of India" concert hosted by Swara Mohini
Soumya Chakraverty (sarod)

Fri 1st July @ Temple of Melodious Sound, Ocean Shores
Soumya Chakraverty, Shen Flindell, Saikat Bhattacharya
A 25th year school reunion with a difference

Sat 2nd July Brisbane Powerhouse

Sun 3rd July Morning Ragas Concert hosted by Swara Mohini

Sun 3rd July, Awakening Centre, Maleny
Yuki opened the concert with Sanskrit mantras

Sun 3rd July, Awakening Centre, Maleny

Tibet2Timbuk2 - 2 fun gigs

2011-07-13T21:47:00.001+10:00

On Sat 4th June, Tibet2Timbuk2 had a couple of fun gigs in one day, firstly at Zillmere Multicultural Festival in the afternoon. It was a lovely afternoon for a festival which also included Tenzin's solo performance and other music and dance performances from local communities from around the world. Unfortunately we couldn't enjoy much of the other music because we had to rush off to New Farm to play a benefit concert for a school in Tabo, Spiti, north India. We played some very peaceful improvisations in the evening concert.

Our next show will be on Saturday 16th July at The Basement in Surfers Paradise, with special guest Menaka Visvanathan. This will be our last show before Tenzin and I head off for a Japan tour, July 28 to August 10. I'll be staying on in Japan for a month after that.

Tibet2Timbuk2 at Zillmere Multicultural Festival

Tibet2Timbuk2 performing in Merthyr Uniting Church

Caboolture Sacred Music Festival

2011-05-30T15:14:00.001+10:00

Sunday 22nd May saw a bunch of us EthnoSuperLoungers in the van together up to Caboolture for their Sacred Music Festival. Feridun Avar, Tenzin Choegyal and I performed at the same event last year, and this year we were joined by the beautiful Yuki Taniguchi. All the performances were 15-20 minutes each and at the end we had an impromptu jam session in which Tenzin, Feridun and I were joined by didjeridu player Lyndon Davis. Many thanks to Nooreen Harris and the Moreton Bay Regional Council for inviting us.

Lyndon Davies welcomed us to country and shared some didj sounds with us.

Hello Africa got things pumping.

Tas Savusa and girls

Feridun Avar with Shen on tabla

Yuki and Shen performing mantras and kirtans

Tenzin and Shen doing their Tibet 2 thing

A very fun jam session!

The musicians who were able to stay until the end

Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre Fundraiser

2011-05-30T14:59:00.001+10:00

On 14th May I was invited to give tabla accompaniment in two performances at the 7th annual Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre Fundraiser. It was a lovely evening and very well organised, with a number of excellent South Indian student performances including the vocal students of Vijaya Visvanathan. The final item was a sitar recital by Dr Indranil Chatterjee - raga mala in keherva taal. This was my first opportunity to even hear Dr Chatterjee's sitar, and I was very surprised how lovely he played. Unfortunately for us music lovers he is too busy as a medical doctor to give many performances! I look forward to the next chance to play with him.

Students of Vijaya Visvanathan (accompanied on tabla by Shen)

Dr Indranil Chatterjee (sitar), accompanied by Shen (tabla)

Sugata Marjit

2011-05-30T14:48:00.001+10:00

On 7th May I had the opportunity to take part in the Bengali Society of Queensland's celebrations of Rabindranath Tagore's 150th "birthday". The concert opened with performances by Namita Debroy and her Kathak dance school, and concluded with a vocal performance by visiting artist Prof Sugata Marjit, whom I accompanied on tabla. Sugata-ji has a most magnificent voice and it was a very enjoyable performance of khayals in teentaal and ektaal.

Parvati Valley

2011-04-25T14:04:00.001+10:00

In our last couple of weeks in India we stayed in beautiful Parvati Valley in Himachal Pradesh. It had been 9 years since I'd been to the Himalayas and I was really committed to going up there while in India this year. It's such a healing experience to be up in those mountains, surrounded by the immensity of nature's power. We were mainly based in Manikaran, a temple town with many hot spring baths where we had a good soak twice a day, sampling the different baths around town. From Manikaran we took a few day and overnight trips to different places in the valley - Kasol, Tosh and Malana. There are so many photos, I can't post them all here, so please visit my Facebook India 2011 and mobile uploads albums for more.

Shiva Temple, Manikaran on the banks of the Parvati River. Notice the steam rising on the left where the hot spring water meets the river.

View from Tosh

Natural slippery-slide in Tosh

Tosh

Walking back from Tosh

Malana village, a bit over 3000m

Malana school

Parvati River

View from Tosh

Varanasi 2011

2011-04-25T13:04:00.001+10:00

Since blogging just after Saraswati Puja I've been neglecting this blog in favour of quickly uploading my mobile phone snaps to Facebook. Very sorry about that! So here's a quick wrap up of my 7 weeks in Varanasi.... This year wasn't exactly my best trip to India, with a bit too much low grade sickness resulting in a lot less practice and music in general. A lot of my energy this year was focused on obtaining Indian government certification for my tabla imports to clear Australian quarantine. While in U.P. I had a quick trip to Kanpur and a couple of days with a friend in Lucknow, who put me onto someone back in Varanasi who is continuing to work on this problem on my behalf. Anyway, on with the photos...

Baha-ud-din Dagar performing on rudra vina in Ganesh Mandir

Japanese folks in Benares gathered to pray for speedy and safe resolution after the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Miyagi-ken.

My good friend Jimi Miyashita also dedicated his concert in Ganesh Mandir to relief from suffering in Japan and around the world.

On March 17 we had the 7th annual Ashu Babu Memorial Concert in honour of my late guru-ji. This year I MCed in English.

The main performer was tabla solo by Subhankar Banerjee. Brilliant stuff, so much practice.

A couple of days after the memorial concert was the festival of Holi, where the whole town (whole country for that matter becomes waterbomb and water pistol battleground. Here's the aftermath on one shopfront in Dasaswamedh.

Just a couple of days after Holi my guru-ma (wife of my late Guru-ji) passed away suddenly. I took this photo at the burning ghats to remind me of that moment.

Saraswati Puja

2011-02-11T18:32:00.001+10:00

After 3 flights from Brisbane via Kuala Lumpur and Delhi (where I managed to reach check-in 5 minutes before closing), I arrived in Varanasi the day before Saraswati Puja, in honour of the Hindu goddess of music and learning. There has been a home concert for Saraswati Puja each year for more than 50 years and it has hosted many great musicians including Pt Ravi Shankar, Pt Nikhil Banerjee, and Pt Kanthe Maharaj, who used to play 2-3 hours' tabla solo each year.

Guru-ji's students Manishankar and Gautam

Guru-ji's youngest son Debabrata

This year the puja coincidentally fell on the 7th anniversary of Guru-ji's passing.

I opened the concert with tabla solo in basant taal (9 beats). Saraswati Puja is also known as Basant Panchami (5th day of spring), so this was the perfect chance to play the material I'd learnt in basant taal last year from Sri Govinda Chakraborty, a senior student of Guru-ji.

From the day after Saraswati Puja, people take their statues of Saraswati from the previous year down to the Ganges River and throw them in with much ceremony. The most exciting processions are organised by various student groups who play loud pop music and dance crazily, feeling the spirit in a big way.

Taro in Oz 2011 (part 2)

2011-02-11T18:27:00.001+10:00

On the second weekend of Taro's tour we performed twice in the Festival of Tibet at Brisbane Powerhouse. In the late afternoon Taro and I collaborated with Dva (Linsey Pollak and Tunji Beier) in a free concert entitled "Dva Ragaspace", as part of BEMAC's The Planet series. Linsey and Tunji are brilliant musicians and it was an honour to perform with them. Firstly Taro and I performed a 20 minute Indian classical piece, then Dva performed a couple of their pieces on reeds and South Indian percussion. We then improvised together for 20 minutes which was lots of fun! This was our first chance to play together and having really enjoyed Dva's improvised sessions at Woodford Folk Festival I'd really looked forward to this chance, hopefully the first of many.

Taro and Shen

Linsey Pollak

Tunji Beier

Dva Ragaspace jam session

In the evening we had the "Tibet: Awakened Heart concert for flood relief". In the first half we got to hear 4 Tibetan ladies singing traditional Tibetan songs. Taro was asked to play with 3 of them, and did a great job of accompanying the Tibetan melodies after hearing them only that afternoon in soundcheck.

The concert opened with chanting by this monk.

This is Pema who is 13 years old and was born and grew up in Australia but obviously loves Tibetan songs because she played excellently.

Taro with Jamyang Dolma

Tibet2Timbuk2
with special guest Taro Terahara

The following day, we were joined by sarangi master Sangeet Mishra, with whom we toured Australia in 2009. We were hosted by the wonderful folks at Sri Saileshwara Sai Baba Temple in Virginia, north Brisbane. We played Raga Puriya Dhanashri in jhaptaal and teentaal, followed by a dhun. Straight after the concert we had dinner and zipped off to the airport so I could catch a flight to India in time for Saraswati Puja two days later.

Taro in Oz 2011 (part 1)

2011-02-01T18:19:00.001+10:00

I've been enjoying the sounds of beautiful bansuri, as brilliantly played by my friend Taro Terahara over the last couple of weeks. As you may have seen on these pages, Tenzin and I have toured with Taro in Japan the last couple of years, and they've just released a beautiful duet CD entitled "Tibet: Awakened Heart". To celebrate its launch, Tenzin invited Taro over to do a big concert along with Tibet2Timbuk2 at the Festival of Tibet which is on at Brisbane Powerhouse next weekend. In the leadup to this concert, Taro and T2T2 did a little tour down to NSW which also included a session at our good friends Elliott and Josie's celebrity wedding.

The tour opened with a small Indian classical concert hosted by Swara Mohini at Garden City Library.

Yuki opened with Sanskrit mantras

Taro played Raga Marwa in vilambit and drut teentaal, followed by Desh and Bhairavi

The following weekend we all drove 8 hours down to Wauchope, near Port Macquarie on the central NSW coast, where we were hosted by Krissa Wilkinson of the Wauchope Arts Council. Krissa had seen us play at Bellingen Global Carnival in October and invited us to come. We were happily surprised when the hall filled up to overflowing full of lovely people keen to go on a musical journey together. It was a brilliant night, one of our best shows ever. To top it off this was our first proper Tibet2Timbuk2 concert to include Taro, who recorded on our CD at a distance in Tokyo a few years back. Magic!

After enjoying our friends Elliott and Josie's massive wedding on the Saturday, where we played after the second ceremony, on the Sunday we had a nice little acoustic concert at Ganesa Gallery in Byron Bay. Many thanks to Garry and Kei who invited us to play after our show in Byron in December. Thanks also to Tahir Qawwal who came and jammed with Taro and I for a lovely Bhairavi ghazal.

Tabla Tarrango and Tibet2Timbuk2 at Woodford

2011-01-17T11:24:00.001+10:00

As you may have read in my previous post, Woodford Folk Festival was huge as usual. As well as playing with Tibet2Timbuk2 (our first time at the festival), this year I was honoured and excited to have my tabla school invited to perform. We performed under the name "Tabla Tarrango" which is also the name my first guru Debu Bhattacharya used for his tabla group performances. My two best tabla students, Tito Basu and Sanjey Sivaananthan, joined me to perform a number of compositions in jhaptaal (10 beats) and teentaal (16 beats). We were joined on harmonium by Joseph Nand and vocals by Sulagna Basu, in a style somewhat inspired by Pt Suresh Talwarkar's new style of tabla solo, incorporating vocal performance in between tabla compositions. The performance was well received and I'm hopeful it will become a yearly event for us. We'll put on an absolutely brilliant show in a few more years!

Tabla Tarrango at Woodford 2010

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Tibet2Timbuk2 at Chai Tent

Tibet2Timbuk2 at Bazaar Stage, where we had brilliant sound, thanks Bazaar sound crew!

Woodford Folk Festival 2010-11

2011-01-17T11:10:00.001+10:00

After a gap of three years, I was back at Woodford this year, thanks to the participation of Tibet2Timbuk2 as well as my tabla group Tabla Tarrango. I'll report on my shows in the next post, and here just post a bunch of photos of other stuff I enjoyed at the festival. If you don't know, Woodford Folk Festival is the biggest festival in Australia and one of the biggest in the world, running over 6 days from Dec 27 to Jan 1 with 23 stages and a whole lot going on. This year we had a lot of rain in the leadup to the festival, so it was very muddy and gumboots were just about mandatory. Given that the alternative is intense heat, the rain wasn't so bad, and we even had a couple of fine days. On with the highlights...

On the first four nights, Dva (Linsey Pollak - reeds; Tunji Beier - South Indian percussion) were joined by 6-8 friends for improvised sessions on the Folklorica stage, which has one of the best sound systems and engineers in the festival. This photo is from the first session which had a Middle Eastern flavour, though for me the best jam session was on the last night, featuring Dya Singh, Dheeraj Shrestha and Tenzin Choegyal.

Butoh dance performance by Yumiko Nii, entitled "Pillow". She did lots with that pillow.

Some street scenes

The Hare Krishnas brought their big Jagannath mobile temple and got the crowd to pull them around the festival.

Vinod Prasanna (bansuri) and Glen Kniebeiss (tabla)

Noriko Tadano (tsugaru shamisen)

We jumped on the Mystery Bus which actually consisted of 3 phases. The first two phases were a bit of interactive comedy entertainment until we finally got on the bus and got a very enjoyable song from A French Butler Called Smith.

Rasa Duende - Bobby Singh (tabla), Adrian McNeil (sarod), Damian Wright (flamenco guitar)

We took in a bit of circus, and actually one comedy/juggling segment was our absolute top highlight; we laughed so hard. Wish I'd gotten that guy's name...

On New Year's Eve there were lots of choices but the best lineup for us was at the big Amphtiheatre stage, a show leading up to midnight called The Big Bang. Here our good friends Spankinhide jam with Ali Baba and Ben Walsh from The Bird on drums.

After The Big Bang, Spankinhide headed over to the Chai Tent for the first African drum jam of the year.

On the final evening, Jan 1, there's the Fire Event Closing Ceremony, which begins with a local indigenous person starting a fire from scratch...

After the Fire Event, we headed to the Chai Tent where Yeshe had a set with some special guest musicians.

L to R: Tunji Beier, Josie Kurukulie, Elliott Orr, Yeshe, Laura Targett, Avishai, Cye, Peter Hunt, Tenzin Choegyal

Nada Yoga workshop with Yuki in West End

2010-12-07T14:11:00.001+10:00

The day after our Tibet2Timbuk2 concert in Byron, I accompanied Yuki Taniguchi in a Nada Yoga workshop at Zen Central in West End. Yuki began with warmup exercises such as mandra sadhana (meditation on low octave notes) and some Sanskrit mantras. She then sang some mantras solo for about 30 minutes, followed by some kirtans with tabla and a little tabla solo at the end. Let's hope Yuki's workshops continue to grow in Australia!

Tibet2Timbuk2 at Byron Community Centre

2010-12-07T14:06:00.001+10:00

On Friday Dec 3rd Tibet2Timbuk2 had a concert at Byron Community Centre, with special guests Peter Hunt (trumpet) and Armando Ornano (bansuri). Yuki Taniguchi opened with some beautiful mantras, followed by bansuri alap by Armando and then a slow bhajan with tabla. Yuki had just arrived from Japan, and her flight was delayed so that rather than arriving in the morning and having a rest, she arrived just in time for soundcheck! Well done, Yuki!

Apart from a very small home concert in Ocean Shores in winter, this was our first proper show in Byron. I think we got a few more fans this time so hopefully we've got something to build on there now. The new songs, especially "Snow Lion" were absolutely beautiful, and Peter and Armando added some luscious textures on trumpet and bansuri.

Japan tour pt 7: Fukuoka

2010-11-27T19:09:00.001+10:00

After all those concerts with Tenzin and Taro, I took the chance to go somewhere else in Japan before returning to Australia, and headed west to Fukuoka with my partner Yuki Taniguchi, who was doing nada yoga workshops all weekend. We stayed with Amigo Sato, who I met when I first went to Fukuoka with sitar player Hide Iwai in 2007. Like in 2007, Amigo's family hosted a home concert for us on our first night (photos below). Yuki opened with some meditative Sanskrit mantras then I joined on tabla for some kirtan (group devotional singing). We closed with a short tabla solo, Yuki playing lehera on a melodica the family had in the house! (We managed to find a harmonium for the main concert a few days later.)

I've created a facebook album with all the photos from this tour, including a few not on this blog.

Snow Lion Japan tour pt6: Saitama

2010-11-27T18:55:00.001+10:00

My last concert of the tour with Tenzin and Taro was a charity show held in an art gallery in a quiet village in the hills of Saitama, raising funds for a new Tibetan university in India. Tenzin had to leave before the night was through so that he could catch up with HH the Dalai Lama in Nara the next day, but the rest of us got up to some good country style partying... This was my last concert of the tour because I was to head to Fukuoka with Yuki while Tenzin and Taro still had a couple more shows in Tokyo.

The event was also the closing party for an exhibition by local potter, who opened proceedings with an all-inclusive "kanpai!"

Tenzin's cousin Dolma Tsering is a leader in the Free Tibet movement in Japan.

After the official proceedings we sat around the fireplace, chatted and jammed...

I've created a facebook album with all the photos from this tour, including a few not on this blog.

Snow Lion Japan tour pt5: Niigata

2010-11-27T18:33:00.001+10:00

We had another beautiful temple concert on our Snow Lion tour, thanks to Rie of Niigata, who was originally not going to organise the concert until she heard Tenzin and Taro's new CD. As well as having a great concert captured on video (hence no photos, but check out Tso Marpo video below), we also took a couple of walks on the nearby mountain along mossy and ferny pathways. Coming from dry old Australia, the moist forests of Japan are particularly attractive.

I've created a facebook album with all the photos from this tour, including a few not on this blog.

Snow Lion Japan tour pt 4: Tokyo again

2010-11-27T14:40:00.001+10:00

Having been to Gifu and Kansai and back, Tenzin, Taro and I now had a few shows in and around Tokyo. First up, Cafe Slow in Kokubunji, sold out just as it was last year, purely acoustic and candle-lit. On the night of our next concert in Cafe Olimpico, Azabu, a small typhoon hit Tokyo and kept our audience at home. Three folks came along for a very intimate concert, followed by dinner and wine courtesy of the very hospitable bar owner.

On Tues 2 Nov, we returned to Joenji temple in Shinjuku, where Tibet House Japan hosted us once again for another very successful concert.

On the Friday, we had another return concert, where we followed up last year's Magokoro ("Hemp Heart") concert with another full house and some really beautiful music.

After this concert we set off at midnight for Niigata, arriving at 330am at a 24 hour onsen and dormitory! Next stop, Niigata...

I've created a facebook album with all the photos from this tour, including a few not on this blog.

Snow Lion Japan tour pt3: Kyoto/Osaka

2010-11-27T14:23:00.001+10:00

On the drive to Kyoto, Tenzin came up with a beautiful melody for a new song, "Snow Lion" - look out for that on the next Tibet2Timbuk2 album.

Our tour sponsors Perfect Potion organised a beautiful concert for us at Taizo-in temple in west Kyoto. The monks served frothy macha tea to all the guests in a tea room next to a really wonderful garden, and then Tenzin, Taro and I played some really beautiful music in the temple's main room. It's been my dream for many years to have Tenzin performing in a Kyoto temple, so many thanks to Perfect Potion for making that possible.

We had a few days free in Kyoto including a walk over Mt Kurama and hot spring bath in Kurama Onsen in the north of Kyoto.

After these restful few days we had a concert in Chakra, Osaka. Chakra is a big centre for the Tibetan independence movement in Japan. Yuki opened our concert with some Sanskrit mantras.

I've created a facebook album with all the photos from this tour, including a few not on this blog.

Snow Lion Japan tour pt2: Sangeet Mela

2010-11-27T13:59:00.001+10:00

Off to the annual Sangeet Mela, the 13th time this event has been held in Horado village, Gifu. Please search for Sangeet Mela on my blog for reports on previous very impressive events. Once again the lineup was packed dusk til dawn with accomplished Indian classical artists from Japan and around the world including Steve Oda (sarod - Canada/USA). This year there were a few non-classical items - Baul singing by Satyananda Das, Tibetan music by Tenzin and friends, and some fusion with santoor, hang drum, tabla and Odissi dance late in the night. Many thanks to Jimi-san for inviting us to perform there and for continuing to organise this conference every year. I'm sorry I didn't manage to get photos of all the acts this year. I was having a bit more relaxed time, including taking a one hour Thai massage between my two performances.

I've created a facebook album with all the photos from this tour, including a few not on this blog.

Snow Lion Japan tour part 1 - Tokyo, Fuji

2010-11-27T13:41:00.001+10:00

From Oct 19 to Nov 16 this year, Tenzin Choegyal and I toured Japan with our good friend, brilliant bansuri player Taro Terahara. Our first concert was in famous Tokyo world music venue, Otoya-Kintoki in Nishi-Ogikubo. We were joined by guest vocalist Nanaco, who sings on Tenzin and Taro's new album "Tibet: Awakened Heart".

On the way to the concert...

The next day we headed off to Gifu for the Sangeet Mela. On the way we had our first ever view of Mt Fuji!

I've created a facebook album with all the photos from this tour, including a few not on this blog.

Tibet2Timbuk2 Qld Multicultural Festival + Queen St Mall

2010-11-27T12:38:00.001+10:00

On the weekend of Oct 16/17 Tibet2Timbuk2 had a couple of shows; firstly in Queen St Mall on Saturday afternoon then at Queensland Multicultural Festival (QMF) on Sunday. We were joined on both occasions by regular guest artist Peter Hunt from the most excellent jazz reggae band, Kooii.

I was quite busy at QMF, where I also accompanied sitar player Saikat Bhattacharya in the morning, then had two sets with Turkish musician Feridun Avar and storyteller Tom Lipscomb performing Nasruddin stories. No photos of the set with Feridun unfortunately... The first set had tuning disasters and was hard work, but the second set was really great. Hopefully we'll be doing this show again.

Nabanita Chowdhury + BSQ Durga Puja

2010-11-27T12:25:00.001+10:00

On Oct 15 I was invited to accompany Indian classical vocalist Nabanita Chowdhury at a home concert in St Lucia. Rahim Zullah organised the concert, gave accompaniment on harmonium, and also sang a couple of ghazals at the end of the night. Many thanks to Rubina and Mervyn for providing their home as the venue for this lovely concert.

The following evening I attended the Bengali Society of Queensland (BSQ)'s Durga Puja cultural function, in support of two of my students who performed. Young Diptanu Debroy gave a short tabla solo, for which I accompanied on harmonium. My senior student Tito Basu gave tabla accompaniment for many of the other acts.

QUT Indian Independence Day

2010-09-05T13:30:00.001+10:00

A couple of my students are starting to reach the level of being able to accompany Indian classical music, and my student Arka Basu recently had his first concert accompanying bansuri, at the QUT Indian Independence Day celebrations where he was invited to accompany Darshil Shah, a QUT student and upcoming bansuri player. Here are some snaps from the programme:

Nritya Bharati School of Dance concert 2010

2010-09-05T13:29:00.001+10:00

On Saturday 5th August I attended the Nritya Bharati School of Dance 2010 student concert. This annual event is one of the largest in Brisbane's Indian classical cultural calendar, as Kathak dance teacher (and mother of two of my students) Namita Debroy presents the best of her many students of all ages, performing Kathak, folk and Bollywood dances. Here are some photos from the first (classical) half:

Kathak dancer and teacher, Namita Debroy

Yuki's mantra workshop in Maleny

2010-09-05T13:27:00.001+10:00

A while back I contacted Andy Copeman at the Awakening Centre just outside Maleny about doing some events, and we started off with a mantra workshop and concert with my partner Yuki Taniguchi. Awakening Centre is a beautiful space and Andy gathered a lovely group of participants to learn some vocal techniques and Sanskrit mantras from Yuki. This event also served to launch Yuki's new CD, "Nada Yoga", which you can download or order from ethnosuperlounge.com.

Practising "humming bee technique"

After the workshop we did a little kirtan concert

3rd Annual Ashu Babu Memorial Tabla School Concert

2010-09-03T00:02:00.001+10:00

I've had numerous incidents and delays over the past few weeks - not least of which was pouring a cup of tea into my (old) laptop - but at last I can tell the story of the 3rd Annual Ashu Babu Memorial Tabla School Concert, held on Guru Purnima (Guru's full moon), July 25 at Progress Hall, Mt Gravatt. All the students worked very hard, especially over the month preceding the concert, to prepare a 5-10 minute tabla solo, and they all did wonderfully. Among the VIP guests, Brisbane Indian Times editor Umesh Chandra and sitar player Saikat Bhattacharya awarded certificates to the students. Each certificate showed the lineage of the Benares Gharana of tabla, from founder Pt Ram Sahai down through the generations to my gurus and finally myself and the students. Finally I gave a little report on tabla school activities and my own tabla solo, in char taal ki sawari (11 beats) and teentaal (16 beats). Many thanks to Joseph Nand for harmonium accompaniment and for providing the sound system, and to Mohit Lal, Dhiresh Singh and Darshil Shah for their tireless efforts. Thanks also to all the families and friends who came along.

The event was held in honour of my guru-ji Late Pt Ashutosh Bhattacharya (and all gurus)

Yuki opened the evening with mantras dedicated to the Gurus

My student Arka Basu accompanied his mother Sulagna Basu in a couple of bhajan, while the other students offered flowers to the altar.

Krishanu and Diptanu Debroy opened the tabla proceedings

One of my adult students Jivan just started along with his 8 year old son. Hopefully next year they can perform together.

Bhavik Barot (10)

Prashaant Ram (14)

Thejeswaran Elankayer (10)

MC Balu and I watching from side of stage

Sanjeyan Sivaananthan (14) won 2nd prize for his excellent solo in jhaptaal (10 beats) and teentaal.

Arka Basu (14) won 1st prize for his expressive and enjoyable solo in vilambit and madhya lay teentaal.

All the students received certificates from judges Saikat Bhattacharya (left) and Umesh Chandra

Finally, I gave a tabla solo in char taal ki sawari (11 beats) and teentaal (16 beats)

Vinod Prasanna tour (part 1)

2010-08-05T23:28:00.001+10:00

Vinod Prasanna is an old friend of mine from Varanasi, where we both lived in Munna House at the same time. He comes from the famous bansuri Prasanna family, and now lives in Melbourne with his wife Lisa. He had a little tour of Brisbane and NNSW last month and it was a pleasure and blessing for me to accompany him. We played concerts in Gold Coast, Byron Shire and Brisbane - I'm waiting on photos and video from the Brisbane concert so I'll put that in a later post. In the meantime here are some snaps from the first part of the tour.

First up we had an accompaniment workshop for my two top students, Sanjey (pictured here) and Arka. It was a great experience for them to have to remember all their kaidas and tihais in a snap, and to see how fast they should be playing nadhindhinna.

As usual Yuki opened all our concerts with her beautiful Sanskrit mantras. This is from our Gold Coast concert.

On Gold Coast we played in Gecko House, Currumbin, thanks to organiser Sara Shakti who was about 8 and a half months pregnant!

Back to the Temple of Melodious Sound in Ocean Shores for my third concert there this year. Many thanks as always to Paul Kimmel for providing such a great space for Indian classical music.

Our friends Tahir Qawwal and Barbi came for a beautiful jam...

...which grew to include Tarshito and Paul as well. A beautiful concert.

T2T2 in Hervey Bay + Refugee Day Festival

2010-07-07T11:33:00.001+10:00

Tibet2Timbuk2 took the monk van on tour up to Hervey Bay for a Tibet Earthquake fundraiser last Saturday 26th June. The Z-PAC Theatre was fully decked out in Tibetan flags and art, and a full house gathered to view a screening of documentary "The Sun Behind the Clouds - Tibet's Struggle for Freedom", telling the story of the uprising in Tibet and protests in India and around the world leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Local singer Alena Eden played a few personal and political songs before Tibet2Timbuk2 hit the stage for another fun night of acoustic Tibetan fusion. We had great lighting and got some nice video too! Big thanks to Kirsty Chenery for pulling together such a successful event and raising around $3000 for Tibetan earthquake relief.

Tibet2Timbuk2 playing "Lotus Born"

Tibet2Timbuk2 playing "Himalaya"

Alena Eden

Tibet2Timbuk2

Refugee Day Festival (Annerley)

After a long night drinking and playing Jenga with Kirsty in Hervey Bay, we got up early and shlepped back to Brisbane to join the Refugee Day Festival in Annerley. Most of the recent refugee population in Brisbane is from Africa and so African culture is a really big part of this fun festival, as are the "international" soccer and volleyball tournaments that run through the day to an African hip-hop sound track from the main stage.

Tibet2Timbuk2 at Refugee Day Festival, Annerley

Sacred Music + Winter Solstice Festivals

2010-07-07T10:50:00.001+10:00

Tenzin, Feridun and I headed up to Redcliffe to take part in the Sacred Music Festival there on Sunday June 19, organised by Moreton Bay Council. The event brought together musicians and dancers from the major world "faiths", including "Australian Aboriginal Faith". Reading the event publicity, it looks like my faith is "Fusion." :-)

Michael Connolly - Australian Aboriginal Faith

Michael Knopf - Bahai Faith

Namita Debroy - Hindu Faith

Tenzin Choegyal - Buddist Faith

Feridun Avar - Sufi Islam Faith

Feridun and Tenzin with Shen Flindell - Fusion

Northey St City Farm Winter Solstice Festival

After the Sacred Music Festival we zipped off to Northey St City Farm where Tenzin and I were joined by Tibet2Timbuk2 regular guest Peter Hunt for the Winter Solstice Festival. The City Farm's solstice and equinox festivals bring loads of community together to eat the delicious veggies they've grown and enjoy great local music, winding up with a ceremony to light a big bonfire and dance to Spankinhide's African drum grooves.

Tenzin, Shen and Pete at the Northey St Winter Solstice Festival

Winter solstice bonfire

Tibet2Timbuk2 acoustic concert in Ocean Shores

2010-06-17T22:00:00.001+10:00

Tibet2Timbuk2 had a lovely little show at my regular Ocean Shores home concert venue, Paul Kimmel's "Temple of Melodious Sound" last weekend. Unfortunately due to a number of factors - the cold weather, many people going to the Dreaming Festival, late organisation and lazy promotion - the audience was shall we say "exclusive", but regardless the natural sound in Paul's place is marvellous and that exclusive audience were very appreciative of our music. It was also a really nice chance to jam with some of my Indian classical friends, Armando Ornano (bansuri) and Tahir Qawwali (vocal). Yuki (who prepared the atmosphere with some beautiful mantras to start) took a few videos too, so here's Crane Song: Sorry about the video quality - the lights were very dim.

Tahir and his partner Barbi treated us to some Punjabi geet.

Special guest bansuri player Armando really slotted in well.

Turkey2Timbuk2 @ Powerhouse

2010-06-01T14:14:00.002+10:00

Feridun Avar and Turkey2Timbuk2 filled in for Tibet2Timbuk2 once again last weekend, as Tenzin had flown off to New York to help raise an incredible $25000 for Tibetan earthquake relief. Back in humble Brisbane, the Powerhouse was host to the Human Rights Arts & Film Festival (HRAFF), which included an evening of free bands on the Turbine Platform - Kooii, Jumping Fences, African drumming and dance, Turkey2Timbuk2.

Kooii featuring the vocal and songwriting talents of T2T2 regular guest Peter Hunt

African Drum & Dance with Linda, Yenenesh and Michi

This girl knew all the moves.

Shen, Feridun, Peter, Marcello

Tibet2Timbuk2 home concert earthquake fundraiser

2010-05-26T22:58:00.001+10:00

Following our busy Saturday, Tibet2Timbuk2 had another home concert on Sunday, this time in West End. My friends Elliott & Josie, well known around town for their African drumming and dance work, have a lovely spacious patio next to the Brisbane river that is perfect for home concerts. We were a little worried about the cloudy weather but there was no rain and the atmosphere was just fine. We raised $540 for the victims of the earthquake in Kyegundo, Tibet.

Spankinhide opened up the space with some traditional West African drumming

Yuki brought stillness with Sanskrit

Tibet2Timbuk2 rocked as usual

Eric Mandala and Will I Am had an impromptu acoustic ngoni session while things wound down

T2T2 @ Arana Hills and amazing Eumundi home concert

2010-05-26T22:46:00.001+10:00

Tibet2Timbuk2 had a big weekend this week, kicking off with a brief Saturday afternoon set at The Hills Carnivale in Arana Hills - where they liked us so much they requested us to extend our set from 15 to 25 minutes - and then heading up to Eumundi for a beautiful home concert at The House With No Walls, hosted by Hemi and Linda and organised by Harii Bandhu who has been organising these home concerts for the last 2 years. On Sunday afternoon we had another home concert, but I'll leave that for another blog post. Meanwhile, check out these great photos... Many thanks to Harii Bandhu, Hemi and Linda for having us. It was an amazing concert, as you'll see.

Tibet2Timbuk2 @ The Hills Carnivale - a 15 minute set which became 25 because we're so good :-)

Yuki opened the Eumundi home concert with some meditative mantras

Harii Bandhu and Chris Lane did a set of beautiful spiritual music

Tibet2Timbuk2

Harii joined us for a jam in Daway Wola

Get down to that chunky Lhasa Beat

Turkey2Timbuk2 @ West End Carnivale

2010-05-19T13:42:00.001+10:00

Last Saturday Tibet2Timbuk2 spinoff band Turkey2Timbuk2 opened the West End Carnivale. During the process of booking the show we discovered that Tenzin had another engagement, so we decided to rehearse a few songs with our good friend, Turkish musician Feridun Avar. All the acts were supposed to wear masks but as the day wore on it became clear no one was bothering with that too much. It's quite hard to communicate while wearing masks! Anyway we were first up and as you can see from the photos we took a mixed approach.

We opened with a short mantra session from Yuki with ambient sounds from Marcello (guitar) and Pete (trumpet).

Feridun, Shen and Marcello, with a bit of butoh-inspired exit dance from Yuki.

We started at the same time the festival gates opened, so thanks to this extra-keen supporter.

World Music Afternoon @ The Shire

2010-05-19T13:30:00.001+10:00

A couple of weeks back my friend Feridun Avar organised a "World Music Afternoon", pulling together a bunch of friends to play outside The Shire Cafe in West End, culminating in a big jam session.

Yuki opened the proceedings with an extended mantra session, accompanied at the end by Peter Hunt (trumpet)

Feridun asked me to play tabla solo so I gladly obliged, having a go at the Basant Taal (9 beat) stuff I've been practising, plus a bit of teentaal to finish off. Thanks to George for accompanying me on harmonium, and for coming over to practise from time to time.

Feridun Avar (Turkish music) with Shen

The Tibet Three - Tenzin, Shen, Pete

World champion whistler Asim Gorashi (Sudan) led the final jam session.

Tibet2Timbuk2 @ Crystal Waters

2010-05-05T13:38:00.001+10:00

This Sunday Tibet2Timbuk2 got back into concert mode with a very special concert at Crystal Waters Permaculture Community near Conondale in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. A month or so back I'd put out a request on our Facebook page for people to organise some shows for us, and Scott and Rosie at Crystal Waters offered to organise a show there - big big thanks to you guys! We were all really happy with the night, which gave T2T2 an opportunity to really stretch out and play all our songs including a few new ones we're working on.

Yuki opened the night with her beautiful Sanskri mantras, joined by Peter and Marcello adding some subtle tones

Special guest Peter Hunt (Kooii) sang some beautiful jazzy songs, accompanied by Shen on tabla

We played our slower songs in the first half of the set, culminating in our epic journey "Lotus Born"

Things got dancey in the second half of our 100 minute set. Everyone was getting down to that funky Lhasa Beat by the end.

We wound up with everyone singing "Aum Mani Padme Hum" together - a new melody we are working on.

Sangeet Mishra 2010 tour

2010-04-27T15:01:00.001+10:00

I've just completed part 1 of a round of concerts with 8th generation sarangi player Sangeet Mishra. I first met Sangeet in Varanasi when I went to practise with his uncle Sukhdev, and last year Sangeet, Taro and I went on a big tour down to Melbourne and back. This year we're just doing a few shows around the Brisbane-Byron area.

Thurs Apr 22 - Tabla Student Concert

I had my best 3 students Indi, Arka and Sanjey each get together a half hour tabla solo to take advantage of the great opportunity to be accompanied by a professional sarangi player. The boys did really well; I'm so proud of them. Our tabla school's next big event is our annual concert on Guru Purnima, July 25 in Mt Gravatt.

Fri Apr 23 - Caloundra

We headed up to the Sunshine Coast where my friend Matt Earsman had offered to get something together for us at late notice at the Yoga and Dance Cafe in Caloundra. On the way we picked up my partner Yuki Taniguchi, who opened all of the concerts with her beautiful meditative Sanskrit mantras. Sangeet presented Puriya Dhanashree in vilambit and drut teentaal and after a break I played tabla solo in Basant Taal (9 beats) and we concluded with a bhajan - Ragupathi Raghava, and a little kirtan with Matt.

Sat 24 Apr - Home concert in Fig Tree Pocket

Rahim Zullah organised a home concert for us at the home of Mahesh and Varsha Narotram - many thanks! This became quite a mehfil, opening with Yuki's mantras and the main item, Sangeet performing Raga Vachaspati in vilambit rupak taal and teentaal and Thumri Manj Khammaj. After a break young Vivek Narotram presented Raga Yaman, Rahim some bhajans and ghazals, and Tahir Qawwali some Punjabi Geets, all accompanied by me on tabla and Sangeet on sarangi.

Sun 25 Apr - afternoon recording, evening concert in Byron Shire

On Sunday we headed down to Byron Shire and first up went to Tahir Qawwali's place in Goonengerry, where he wanted to record Sangeet on a song for his new album.

Then in the evening we went to our regular Ocean Shores home concert venue, Paul Kimmel's Temple of Melodious Sound. As always the audience were numerous and attentive, creating an excellent atmosphere for some powerful musical journeying. After Yuki's opening mantras, Sangeet presented Puriya Kalyan in vilambit ektaal and drut teentaal, followed by Thumri Khammaj. We were joined by Tahir and his partner Barbi for some Qawwali-influenced Pakistani songs. Fantastic!

Mon 26 Apr - afternoon home concert with Swara Mohini

Brisbane Indian cultural association Swara Mohini organised a small home concert for us in the afternoon. Local sitar player Shrabani Choudhury opened the programme with a very sweet Madhuvanti and a light piece in Desh based on Rabindra Sangeet. After Yuki's mantras, Sangeet performed Hemavati in vilambit ektaal and drut teentaal, and a Thumri.

ConcertWatch: Kala Ramnath + Yogesh Samsi, Djan Djan

2010-03-24T16:13:00.003+10:00

I've attended a couple of excellent concerts in the last few weeks. On Sunday March 14 I attended a program by amazing violinist Kala Ramnath, accompanied by Yogesh Samsi on tabla, a senior disciple of Ustad Alla Rakha. The program was to introduce Australian audiences to Yogesh-ji's student Iyngaran Kantharajah from Sydney, and the concert opened with a tabla duet by Yogesh-ji and Iyngaran, accompanied on sarangi by Sandeep Mishra, a friend of mine from Varanasi. Iyngaran's tabla broke on the way to the concert so he was very lucky that I'd come from my own afternoon concert with Tibet2Timbuk2 and could lend him a tabla. We tuned my tabla to Pa so the two tablas together in Sa and Pa sounded excellent. I felt especially fortunate to see this concert because in Varanasi, Kala Ramnath's aunt N. Rajam would soon be performing at my Guru-ji's Memorial Concert on Tulsi Ghat. So in a sense this concert was a kind of substitute for that Tulsi Ghat concert for me. The day after the concert I went to visit Yogesh-ji where he was staying with one of my students, and we had a very nice chat about tabla and Indian music.

Tabla duet by Pt Yogesh Samsi and his student Iyngaran Kantharajah, accompanied on sarangi by Sandeep Mishra

Kala Ramnath (violin) accompanied by Yogesh Samsi (tabla). Kala-ji performed Raga Shuddh Kalyan in vilambit ektaal, madhya lay ektaal, and drut teentaal, followed by Raga Bhairavi in dadara. A most excellent performance!

Later in the week I attended a concert at Judith Wright Centre by Djan Djan, a group consisting of kora master Mamadou Diabate, slide guitarist Jeff Lang and tabla player Bobby Singh. The group's sound was excellent, with the instruments slotting together easily. All the musicians were technically excellent, with Mamadou really shredding it up. On the critical side, I found vocals lacking - only two songs were not instrumental - and the rhythm and song structures were all very similar 4/4 pieces. I had a very interesting discussion with my good friend Bobby Singh after the show - it's nice whenever we can get together. Hopefully next time with tabla as well!

Djan Djan - Jeff Lang (slide guitar), Bobby Singh (tabla), Mamadou Diabate (kora)

Mar 17 Varanasi: Sixth Annual Ashu Babu Memorial Concert

2010-03-08T11:08:00.000+10:00

Kaviraj Late Pt. Ashutosh Bhattacharya ("Ashu Babu")

Sixth Memorial Classical Music Evening

Date: 17 March 2010
Venue: Dhrupad Tirth, Tulsi Ghat, Varanasi
Time: 6.30 evening

PROGRAMME

Dr N. Rajam (violin) with Smt. Sangeeta Shankar, Smt. Ragini Shankar and Smt. Nandini Shankar (violin), accompanied on by Sri Kuber Nath Mishra and Sri Siddhant Mishra (tabla)
Pt Anindo Chatterjee (tabla solo) with Sri Anubrata Chatterjee
Vadhyanjali -
- Sitar: Dr. R. N. Goswami (Musical Director)
- Guitar: Sri Shivnath Bhattacharya
- Sarangi: Sri Kanhaiya Lal Mishra
- Bansuri: Sri Hari Prasad
- Santoor: Shiva-ji
- Tabla: Sri Ram Chandra Pandit, Sri Rajneesh Tiwari

Saniya Patankar concerts

2010-03-03T11:42:00.001+10:00

I had the opportunity to accompany Pune vocalist Saniya Patankar at the Brisbane Hindu Shree Laxmi Narayan Temple on Friday night, and then again at 8am on Saturday morning in a home concert organised by Swara Mohini. At the temple programme Saniya-ji sang a selection of light classical and bhajans, whereas on Saturday morning it was more bara khayal and chota khayal, plus some tarana and thumri. A very accomplished singer and very shanti person. The temple's Pandit invited me to come and perform a tabla solo there some time in the future, which will be a wonderful blessing.

Brisbane singer Sulagna Basu opened the evening with a couple of devotional songs.

Saniya Patankar at Shree Laxmi Narayan Temple, Burbank, accompanied by Shen (tabla) and Diwakar Mothay (harmonium)

Saniya Patankar in a Morning Ragas home concert, accompanied by Shen (tabla) and Joseph Nand (harmonium)

Melting Pot Festival - Tibet2Timbuk2 and more

2010-02-19T11:35:00.001+10:00

I had loads of concerts this week: After playing with Jai Uttal in Byron on Thursday, I was very busy at BEMAC's Melting Pot Festival at Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC). Melting Pot is on the afternoons of one weekend a month for the next few months, and the first two editions are focusing on Indian and Tibetan music. While I'd known I would be playing with Tibet2Timbuk2 for a while, just a few days beforehand I was surprised to be invited for 2 more performances on the same day. So except for the opening act (Bollywood dance), I was on stage all day. And it was hot! Thanks to Vijaya Visvanathan and Shrabani Choudhury for inviting me to accompany them, and also to Menaka Visvanathan for joining Tibet2Timbuk2. A wonderful afternoon of music - and I hope no one got tired of hearing my tabla!

Shen accompanying Vijaya and Menaka Visvanathan (Carnatic vocalists)

Shen accompanying Shrabani Choudhury (sitar), in Raga Madhuvanti, Teentaal Madhya Lay and Drut Lay

Tibet2Timbuk2 : Tenzin, Shen, special guest Menaka, and Marcello

On the second day, Tenzin Choegyal had a solo show, which he invited me to play in as well.

Tibet2Timbuk2 minus Marcello - would that be "Tibet 2"?

Jai Uttal concert in Byron

2010-02-19T11:19:00.001+10:00

I came back from India a bit earlier than planned especially because I was invited to accompany kirtan singer Jai Uttal in his first ever Australian concert. The Byron Bay Community Centre was sold out as Jai Uttal and his "Shire Love Orchestra" led the audience through a couple of hours of singalong kirtans mixed up with Jai's original solo songs on devotional themes. Jai is one of the biggest names in the field of Westernised kirtans and it was a big honour and great opportunity for me to play with him and the musicians he gathered. The atmosphere on the night was thick with love and joy. Many thanks to tour organiser Amir Paiss for all his work in bringing Jai Uttal to Australia.

Delhi concert with Taro Terahara

2010-02-05T01:44:00.001+10:00

In my last days in India I intended to go and see my good friend Taro Terahara play in Delhi at a concert organised by The Japan Foundation, who invited him and Kathak Dancer Masako Sato ("Miyabi") from Japan to perform there. Taro was to be accompanied by my guru-bhai Govinda Chakraborty, but as fortune would have it Govinda-da had to pull out and recommended me for the show. This was my first show in India outside of Varanasi. Thanks to Taro for the opportunity!

Shen and Taro performing at The Japan Foundation in New Delhi.

Kathak Miyabi at The Japan Foundation

More concerts in Varanasi

2010-02-05T01:36:00.001+10:00

I saw a bunch more concerts by high-profile artists while in Varanasi: Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Baha-ud-din Dagar, Fazal Qureshi, Dhananjay Mishra and last but not least Gundecha Brothers.

Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia accompanied by Rashid Mustapha Thirakwa. Hari-ji is getting old now, and was visibly shaking. Still it's always great to see a great master, and young Thirakwa's accompaniment was very sweet.

Ustad Baha-ud-din Dagar on the rudra veena - a very deep (bassy) instrument from the Dhrupad tradition. Sublime.

Baha-ud-din was accompanied on pakhawaj by our friend Tetsuya Kaneko of Nagoya. The concert was part of the annual winter series at Ganges View Hotel in Assi Ghat.

Fazal Qureshi, younger brother of Zakir Hussain. The setting was beautiful - an old haveli on Raja Ghat. Fazal-ji played very nicely, although it's hard not to compare with the greatness and beauty of his older brother's playing.

Tabla solo by Dhananjay Mishra, son of Pt Ishwar Lal Mishra.

Gundecha Brothers with Shrikant Mishra at Ganges View Hotel, Assi Ghat. A great performance, and the perfect farewell to Varanasi for me before running to pack for my 1am train trip to Delhi...

Ramakant Gundecha in expressive mood

I like this photo of Toon-ji. He has great chemistry with Gundecha Brothers.

Anwar Tabla Maker

2010-02-05T01:22:00.001+10:00

My tabla maker Mohammed Anwar is the son of the famous old Varanasi tabla maker Shamsuddin. Anwar has been making me great tabla for several years now, and over the last year has helped me especially, in producing tabla especially made to pass Australian Quarantine's high standards, and packing and sending me numerous parcels, a big job in itself. I spent my last few days in Varanasi with him, checking tablas, bayans, puris (skins) and various accessories off of the lists of orders I had for myself and a few friends around the world, and then packing them into parcels. Sending the parcels from the post office was very frustrating: after being told by the postal clerk to wait in the queue for an hour, he then processed only 3 of my 7 parcels and asked me to join the queue again! Anyway, we gradually got the job done... Many thanks to Anwar and his sons Salman and Imran for all their help!

Anwar at his tabla shop in Aurangabad, Varanasi

Anwar and son Salman. I've been teaching Salman how to send and check email, and various other computer skills, over the last couple of years. This year we got him a Skype account and I showed him where to get wi-fi on his new laptop.

Anwar's eldest son Imran with some of the drums I'd ordered.

The master at work.

(For those interested in buying tabla or tabla skins especially in Australia, please get in touch.)

Sand sculpture island on Ganga

2010-02-05T00:54:00.001+10:00

A sand island appears in the Ganges a little south of Varanasi in winter and there is a sand sculpture competition each year. Here are some snaps from our visit, 2 days after the competition, so slightly wind-blown.

A scene from the boat trip to the sand sculpture island.

Saraswati Puja 2010

2010-02-05T00:50:00.001+10:00

The annual Saraswati Puja in my guru-ji's house has been running for 65 years and has featured such greats as Pt Ravi Shankar, Ud. Mushtaq Ali Khan and Pt Kanthe Maharaj. This year it was my honour to open the concert, accompanying my good friend Hiro Minamizawa who played Raga Marwa. Then followed young vocalist Priyanka Bhattacharya, and finally the highlight was Dr Sanjay Verma on mohan veena (slide guitar) with guru-ji's son Dr Debabrata Bhattacharya on tabla. Priyanka and I shared the MC duties for the day. This concert is always a very special event for me, as I fondly remember Guru-ji sitting next to Saraswati and enjoying his students' music.

Goddess Saraswati-ma and Guru-ji.

The family and students gather for the puja in the early afternoon

Guru-ji's grandson Abhishek ("Babun") in the puja. Babun and I had a lot of classes together with Guru-ji when Babun was a young 'un.

Prasad receiving blessings from Saraswati-ma. A big lunch which I always look forward to.

Yasuhiro Minamizawa (sitar) playing Raga Marwa, accompanied by Shen Flindell (tabla)

Priyanka Bhattacharya (vocal) accompanied by Jaydev Mukherjee (tabla) and Ashish (harmonium)

Dr Sanjay Verma (mohan veena) accompanied by Dr Debabrata Bhattacharya on tabla.

Newspaper clipping from Amaar Ujaala, 21 Jan 2010 about our concert.

Pt Nayan Ghosh and Brahmandanga village

2010-01-11T19:43:00.001+10:00

This year I had my first ever lessons from someone outside the family and students of my main guru-ji, Late Pt Ashutosh Bhattacharya. I came to Kolkata to meet with Pt Nayan Ghosh, as recommended to me by my senior guru-bhai, Govinda Chakraborty of the Kathak Kendra in Delhi.

Here is a sample of Nayan-ji's wikipedia page:

Nayan Ghosh was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra to the legendary Tabla Maestro Padmabhushan Pandit Nikhil Ghosh, the founder of Sangeet Mahabharati.[3]

He was trained by his father, and practiced under the watchful eye of Ustad Ahmedjan Thirakwa, who lived with them for many years towards the end of his life in Mumbai.

Nayan Ghosh is regarded by many as the greatest performer of the traditional tabla repertoire of the Farrukhabad style.

He has accompanied many of the all-time greats, such as Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, Ustad Vilayat Khan and Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta.

It doesn't mention that he is also an accomplished sitar player! Unfortunately my train was 5 hours late so I missed his sitar concert in Kolkata.

In all I had 3 lessons with Nayan-ji, who took me in with open arms and started me off with some material from Delhi, Ajrara and Farrukabad Gharanas. Having been trained exclusively in Benares gharana, my third and fourth fingers are used to being stuck together, so I've had a bit of work getting them to work independently as required by Delhi style. I received quite a number of beautiful kaidas, tukaras and gats but more than that some new techniques which have instantly expanded the scope to practise all my repertoire.

I was lucky enough to be invited to stay with Nayan-ji in his "nephew"'s village Brahmandanga, outside Kolkata. The "nephew" was actually Aneesh Ghosh, the son of a senior student of his father who was a very important figure in the area. Nayan-ji told me that when in Kolkata he often goes to this village secretly to do riaz for coming concerts undisturbed for a few days.

Pt Nayan Ghosh performing tabla solo in Kolkata.

Scenes in Brahmandanga village

Aneesh Ghosh, son of one of Nayan-ji's senior guru-bhai, took me on a tour of his farm. The freshly picked peas and cucumber were so sweet! All the food we ate at his house was grown on his farm.

Pt Nayan Ghosh and Shen

Kolkata: Debapriya-Samanwaya

2010-01-11T19:29:00.001+10:00

I recently stayed a week in Kolkata, in order to have some lessons with Pt Nayan Ghosh (more on that in the next post). I was lucky enough to be well looked after by singer Debapriya Adhikary and sitarist Samanwaya Sarkar, who form the Indian classical duo Debapriya-Samanwaya. I did some concerts with Deb-Sam when they were in Australia in October. They put me up in an apartment near Debapriya's place in Narendrapur, south Kolkata, where I stayed with their other guests, Thamo and Gowtem Sridharan, Sri Lankans from Canberra. 16 year old Gowtem is learning sitar with Samanwaya and looks to be getting an excellent foundation. He was practising for hours every day. I'm looking forward to seeing how he develops over the next few years.

Practising with Debapriya Adhikary

Practising with Samanwaya Sarkar

My flatmates in Narendrapur, Thamo Sridharan and his son Gowtem, from Canberra.

NYE Boat jam with Tahir

2010-01-11T19:15:00.001+10:00

To celebrate the end of 2009, we braved the cold and went on a little Ganges boat trip with singer Tahir and a bunch of friends. Tahir is an American well-trained in Qawwalli singing and studying khayals etc in Benares, who sings with great enthusiasm and enjoyment. He will be in Byron Bay this year so look out for his concerts and workshops in the area. Hopefully we'll be playing together in Brisbane too.

We went along to Kashika Music Ashram's New Year's Eve concert that night.

Dr Shrabani Biswas, who happens to be the sitar guru of our friend Hiro Minamizawa.

Sukhdev Mishra (violin) accompanied by Gyan Swarup (tabla)

Panoramas

2010-01-01T14:01:00.001+10:00

Some more panoramic shots from my new camera (a Sony Cybershot DSC-TX1)... The first is on my balcony in Brisbane, the rest Varanasi.

Ganges River boat ride

2010-01-01T14:00:00.001+10:00

Some snaps from a morning boat ride on the River Ganges... Check out the panoramic shots my new camera can do! - click on any photo for a bigger version (as usual).

Christmas Day in Varanasi

2010-01-01T13:57:00.001+10:00

Christmas in India is always a bit strange, without all the media hype and commercialism that we're used to in the west. Being far from family and being wintertime (Christmas in summer down under, in case you didn't realise) add to the un-Christmassy-ness, and it usually feels like an ordinary day. But this year I heard about some great free food on offer the River Ashram on Shivala Ghat. It was an unusual Christmas gathering of hippies far from home, shyly singing Sanskrit and traditional songs about Jesus and listening some stories of Jesus' healing miracles. Many of us are in India escaping mainstream reality so it was strange for me to have that feeling of being back in church as a kid. I believe in Jesus as a holy and enlightened individual but I shirk at the twisted dogma which organised religion has introduced to his teachings, which I should hasten to add didn't seem overly entrenched in the folks from the River Ashram that day. Many thanks to them for the beautiful food, convivial atmosphere, and reminder of the meaning of this holy day. (Or one of the meanings, anyway.)

"Om Yeshu Namo Namah"

The food was absolutely fantastic - home-grown veggies and salads, lasagne, and much more. Quinoa and cashew nut salad in Varanasi?! Good enough to take a photo of.

Certainly a lot better than this looks... Dinner with mucus?

日本語でユキちゃんのブログポスト、「クリスマスとボートライド」。

United Nations of Indian Classical Music

2010-01-01T13:55:00.001+10:00

On Monday 21st December I had a concert which I organised with the assistance of Kashika Music Ashram, principally so that Canadian tabla player Shawn Mativetsky and I could see each other playing. With participants from Japan, Canada, Australia and India we entitled the event "United Nations of Indian Classical Music". Held in a simple room in a lane just off Bengali Tola, the venue was quite small - capacity around 40 - and by the time Shawn was presenting his tabla solo the room was packed and half the audience were watching through the doors from the lane outside. Choute Lal Chaurasia of Kashika Music Ashram has plans to organise a large-scale, well-sponsored concert featuring foreign ICM artists, so this was a highly successful first step in test-marketing the concept. Good on us!

A few days before the show we did a newspaper interview and publicity shoot.

L to R: Shen Flindell (tabla) , Yuki Taniguchi (mantra) , Yasuhiro Minamizawa (sitar) , Shawn Mativetsky (tabla)

Yuki opened the night with a selection of Sanskrit mantras from her extensive repertoire, creating a serene atmosphere for the appreciation of Indian Classical Music.

Shawn performing tabla solo accompanied by Aneesh Mishra (sarangi). It was a very enjoyable performance featuring very typical Benares Gharana Sahai-baj compositions.

Pooran Maharaj (son of Late Pt Kishan Maharaj) made good on his promise to come, adding to the excitement and complimenting Shawn profusely.

Minamizawa-san (sitar) and I performed Raga Puriya Kalyan, as we did at Guru-ji's Memorial Concert in 2006.

All the gang after the show - thanks for a great night!

You can read Shawn's report on this concert in his blog post Benares Chronicles, Part 3 - The United Nations of Indian Classical Music. Many thanks to him for the comment "Shen played an uthaan that I would describe as being 'deep'. His time-feel is right on, and his baya playing is very smooth and melodic; a very sweet sound overall."

日本語で、ユキちゃんのブログポスト、「United Nations of Indian Classical Music」。

Life on the ghats

2010-01-01T13:52:00.001+10:00

Staying in Assi Ghat, I've had about 30 minutes' daily walk along the ghats each way between home and Guru-ji's house. Here are some snaps of life on the ghats...

This baba would ask us to take his photo for 10 rupees every day, so we couldn't miss the chance for a freebie. :-)

Mass rituals for deceased relatives

Gotta throw in some ghat cricket...

Life and death - cricket next to the Harishchandra cremation grounds