T + S 2009 pt 6 - Melbourne

After the Theatre Royal in Castlemaine, Taro, Sangeet and I stayed 5 days in Melbourne, starting with a concert at Prana House in Thornbury with tabla player Glen Kniebeiss. While in Melbourne we stayed at our friend Vinod Prasanna's place - thanks Vinod and Lisa! Vinod is a bansuri player from Varanasi who was in Munna House at the same time as me a couple of years ago.

Glen and I took turns accompanying on tabla at the concert.

Shen, Taro, Sangeet and Glen Kniebeiss at Prana House, Thornbury
Glen is playing really nicely and I'm always very happy to play with him. It's quite rare for tabla players to get along musically.

Vinod Prasanna at Magpie House, Upwey

Glen, Taro, Vinod and Shen in a double bansuri, double tabla extravaganza on the coldest night of the tour.

Two Aussie tabla devotees - Glen Kniebeiss and Shen Flindell

Sangeet and Taro with Melbourne tabla player Sam Evans.
Sam had Sangeet accompany his tabla lessons for a couple of days. Taro and I had a couple of rest days so we went about town meeting a few Indian music folks.

Shen, Taro and Denis Phelan. Denis is currently learning sitar from Sugato Nag of Kolkata.

A beautiful sunset view of Melbourne from Vinod's place.

Vinod, Shen and Sangeet jamming at Vinod's place.

On our last day in Melbourne we gave a lecture/demonstration at Box Hill TAFE Music School - many thanks to Jonathan Dimond for having us!

We discussed the differences between Ragas Todi, Multani and Madhuwanti, then presented a few taals and a tabla solo in teentaal, then presented a 20 minute raga.

Finally we invited Jonathan to join us for Raga Bhairavi

... and then drove back to Wangaratta

Next stop on the Taro & Sangeet tour, Canberra...

Taro Tour Part 2 - Bris and Melb sessions

It's been ages since I've blogged, because I've been touring the country with my good friend, a great bansuri player, Taro Terahara. Now at last I can share some of the great moments we've had...

Brissie Sessions:

Taro joined in my weekly session at The Forest, along with ney player (and in fact all-round Persian multi-instrumentalist) Cieavash Arean. This was during Taro's "goggles phase" (see the last post for that story).

Pictured L to R: Marcello, Taro, Tenzin, myself
I have a monthly event called "Global Soul Music" at Core Yoga Studios in West End. For December I decided to make it an "EthnoSuperLounge Xmas Party" and invite all the musicians I've been playing with this year. It was a great night, including: Yani (vocals, harmonium), Marcello (vocals, guitar), Taro (bansuri), Tenzin (vocals, dranyen), myself (tabla), Asim Gorashi (vocals, oud, violin, whistling), Robert Wells (jazz piano), Ravi Wells (jazz guitar), Alicia (mbira) and Velvet (vocals)

Melbourne:
My sister Jacki invited us to Melbourne, mainly to see my family just before Christmas, and also so that I could buy her car. She organised a small concert to help pay our way - unfortunately I don't have any photos of that gig... It turned out to be a rainy day and 3 days before Christmas is always going to be a difficult time to draw a crowd. Anyway, it was nice to show Taro Melbourne, introduce him to a few people there, and share a genuine Aussie family Christmas.

We visited tabla player Glen Kniebeiss and had a great session. Glen's wife Norina is Japanese and they will visit Kyoto in March-April 2008 - I recommend my friends in Japan to check Glen out.

After weeks with the mostly vegetarian folks of Rosecliffe St, Taro really enjoyed the meaty fare of a Flindell Christmas dinner!

St Andrews Market, Glen Kniebeiss' Temple of Tabla

Some photos from last Saturday, when I went with my sister Jacki and her fiance Darren to St Andrews Market about 50km from Melbourne.

Me in the chai tent at St Andrews Market

Shen, Jacki and Darren at St Andrews Market

Shen & Glen Kniebeiss practising at Glen's place in Eltham.

Glen's house has pictures of all the gurus of tabla all around, and is a veritable temple of tabla. Glen plays tabla very nicely and is a lovely fellow - I hope to play with him much more. His wife is Japanese, and her mother came to one of my concerts in Osaka and bought my CD! When they visit Japan next year, I hope they can meet my musician friends there.

Sydney/Melbourne snaps

Practising with Sarangan Sriranganathan in his home in Sydney. Very enjoyable. :-) Sarangan is from Sri Lanka and can apparently play South Indian percussion, sing both Carnatic and Hindustani classical vocal, and as you can see play sitar! He's also a busy dentist.

Glen Kniebeiss and Sarita McHarg performing in a church in Melbourne

I've been having a luvverly time in Melbourne with my sister Jacki and her fiance Darren, and meeting various folks around town almost every day, notably tabla players Sam Evans and Glen Kniebeiss, sitar players Sarita McHarg and Dennis (sorry I've forgotten your surname!), a bunch of drummers at St Andrews Markets, bass player and former Brisbanite Jonathan Dimond (we have a show/lecture/interview at Box Hill TAFE on Wednesday), and most importantly of all my first tabla teacher, Debu Bhattacharya. A few more people to meet yet...

Coming up: Shen returns to Brisbane and settles down for a while from August 11...