Farewell Greenhouse, Dance of Shiva in Izu

Thanks so much to my host of the last month, Chris Case, a wonderful man and a good friend. Having had only one concert in May, I had a lot of spare time to fill and The Greenhouse was a great place to spend it. Lots of gardening, visits to onsens, late night philosophical discussions and documentaries and a fair bit of time on the internet too (please visit my new website!).

The Greenhouse - farewell to my home of the last month...

Chris and I drove along with friends Azusa and Mari to the Dance of Shiva event in Izu. I was really excited about this drive because the route looped right around Mount Fuji. I'd have a photo for you here except that Fuji-san was completely shrouded in clouds - pretty usual apparently. The peak poked out for about 10 minutes at one stage. Anyway, I can say that it's bloody big and conical.

Dance of Shiva : Takashi Kougo (esraj) and Junzo Tateiwa (tabla)

Setsuo "Jimi" Miyashita (santoor) and U-K-O Segawa (tabla)

Taro Terahara (bansuri) and Shen Flindell (tabla)

Koro Ito (sitar) and Dinesh Chandra (tabla)

The folks dancing on the final morning of Dance of Shiva

I've just gotten back to Taro's place after the weekend in Izu, a peninsula several hours south-west of Tokyo where Taro & I were performing at the descriptively titled "Dance of Shiva: Travel of Indian mind effect music" party, held in a remote camping ground high up in the mountains of west Izu. It was a fantastic event - combination mini-Sangeet Mela and Indian-influenced trance party. There were four pairs of Indian classical music performers (photos and names above), which made for quite a festive gathering at our cottage, and some very nice DJs. I've been to a few bush dance parties in Australia but this was my first in Japan. There was a lot more ambient and mellow music over the 2 days of this party than comparable events in Australia - much more my cup of tea.

After the event a band of us including Taro, Yuriko, tabla player UKO Segawa and wacky Indian music freak Akira (from Kyushu), visited a lovely little onsen perched on cliffs above the bay, dined on some delicious seafood bukkake and then took the long drive back to Tokyo in time to catch a tabla solo by the amazing U-Zhaan (Hiro Yuzawa), easily the best non-Indian tabla player I've ever witnessed.

I'm now resting up at Taro & Yuriko's place and enjoying a few days without gardening. :-)
Unlike May, June and July are looking really busy for me. Taro & I play at Otoya-Kintoki this Friday and then on Saturday I'll be jumping on the shinkansen (bullet train) for Osaka to play 2 concerts in one night with Mr. Action Sitar, Tadao Ishihama. Then June 16 in countryside Kyoto, followed by 13 concerts in 22 days starting from my birthday gig on June 23 in Kyoto. Please visit my new events page for details.

*** Please leave a comment if you got this far! :-) ***

New EthnoSuperLounge Website!!!

Hi folks,

I've been hard at work over the last few weeks on the new version of the EthnoSuperLounge website. Please take a look and let me know your comments.

I know there are problems with the site on Safari (Mac) but hopefully I can get those fixed up in the next week or so.

New features on the site:

• FORUM - Meeting place - Meet other folks with similar interests for jamming, etc
  - Discussions -Discussions about any world music topic
• ESL Shop - Buy CDs from ESL artists, plus tabla and tabla accessories from Shen
  
• Playlists - listen to the best ESL music - look out for the Best Of link on the front page
  
• Tibet2Timbuk2 - New music from the latest ESL world music group, featuring Tenzin Choegyal and Taro Terahara
• Taro in Oz - Info on Taro Terahara's Australian tour, including photos from last year
  
• Shen's Photo Gallery - photos from Australia, Japan, India
• Ashu Babu Memorial Tabla School - Tabla lessons in Varanasi, Brisbane and around the world with students of Late Pt. Kaviraj Ashutosh Bhattacharya
• New Links and People pages - re-organised to make it easier to search
• ESL Google Search - search all of the ESL pages (including blogs)
  

I especially encourage Brisbane-region folks to join the Meeting place forum and make a post.

Shizuoka with Dr. Chandrakant Sardeshmukh

Diamonds and Sitar
I've just returned to The Greenhouse after spending the weekend in Shizuoka for a performance with Dr. Chandrakant Sardeshmukh. We were performing at the Century Hotel as part of an exhibition showcasing Indian jewellery, organised by the Taj Group under the auspices of 2007 Indo-Japan Friendship Year. Quite a big do - diamonds everywhere. We played two 10 minute sets, and were followed by an Indian dancer. A bit of fun, a decent wage and a good experience with some nice people - Chandrakant and his wife Pooja. Had a reasonable "Viking lunch" - the Japanese term for a buffet - think Smorgasbord and it makes sense.

Dr. Chandrakant Sardeshmukh

Shen and Dr. Sardeshmukh perform in Shizuoka

Shen in Shizuoka

On the Chuo Line back to Takasitar's place in Hachioji, I became a pillow for both my neighbours. Omoshirokatta. 面白かった。

Kakegawa
Following the concert in Shizuoka City, I caught a local train to Kakegawa City in western Shizuoka, to meet sitar player Nobuo Sugimoto. He is a long-time student of Amit Roy, a major father-figure in Indian classical music in Japan. (Amit Roy is also Taro Terahara's guru-ji.) We had only previously met once, about 3 years ago at a Calcutta Night in Osaka, and I'd never heard him play although I'd heard his reputation. Very nice. I had a great time with him and his wife Shoko. 杉本さんとしょこさん、ありがとうございました！

Takasitar

On the way between Chichibu and Shizoka, I stopped off at my friend Taka Kurihara aka Takasitar in Hachoji. He is also a lovely sitar player and also a good singer, and not only that he's an excellent producer - in fact I like his music so much I'm selling his fantastic CD Jantar Night on my website. Lots of fun practice there, plus some great coffee at his wife Kei's shop, Khazana Coffee. (Actually I don't drink coffee but I want to give them a plug.) たかさんとけいちゃん、ありがとうございました！


COMING UP:
This weekend we're hoping to have a party at the Greenhouse before I leave for various travels around the country. Not sure how many will come though.... Next weekend I've got the Dance of Shiva party in the onsen area of Izu, after which I'll be back at Taro's for a week in Chiba. Then Osaka, Kyoto, Kyushu, Nagasaki, Kyoto, Tokyo,


---- ANY COMMENTS??? ----

Gardening and Fascinating Podcasts

Hi folks,

I'm up here in the hills of Chichibu, Saitama in Japan, at The Greenhouse where I'm staying for most of May with my host Chris Case. I've written quite a bit about The Greenhouse and Chris - check this post from last year, for example. For whatever reason, I have only one paid gig in May (with Dr. Chandrakant Sardeshmukh in Shizuoka) so I'm fortunate to be able to stay at The Greenhouse. As well as enjoying the Japanese countryside atmosphere and Chris' fascinating company, I have the opportunity to receive free food and accommodation in exchange for some work. Rather than staying with friends in Tokyo and taking over their cramped lounge-rooms, I can stay in the spacious Greenhouse and contribute at the same time. I've given Chris some help with website design and sound-system setup, but mainly I've been doing a lot of gardening work.

While pulling weeds, cutting grass and planting basil, I've been listening to some absolutely fascinating podcasts. If you're looking for some interesting listening, allow me to make some recomendations... (Warning - some controversial topics ahead!)

BTW The links on the podcast titles below link to the XML file you use to subscribe to the podcast. Put that link into your podcast aggregator (eg iTunes).

Starting off on the world music side, I've found a few world music podcasts recently, although most of them aren't very regular:

• SF Jazz - not regular, only 4 podcasts all posted last year, but the content is very interesting. Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain talks about his life and in particular his musical influences. I've only heard episode 1 so far - he discusses his childhood with his father, the legendary tabla-master Alla Rakha, Bollywood, The Doors, and starting to find his own style with Hariprasad Chaurasia and Shiv Kumar Sharma.
  
  
• Gongcast - also very irregular, only 2 podcasts in the last year. But you can hear some nice Gamelan there.
  
  
• Global Rhythm - monthly world music program. Very professional format, perhaps a little too mainstream for my liking. As usual with "world music" it's dominated by the more commercially appealing versions like Latin and African. But maybe I shouldn't judge too soon - I've only heard one episode so far.
  
  
• IMC OnAir - Indian Classical Music podcast from Germany. I haven't downloaded any episodes yet, as I already have a lot of what they're podcasting, but it seems this could be a good source of free Indian Classical Music.

Now for the really fascinating stuff. Music is great but I get much more of a buzz out of actually playing it or at least witnessing it live, so I'm enjoying interview and speech-style podcasts a lot more. I've actually been listening to these 3 podcasts for about 6 months, all three related to the possibilities of human consciousness.

• Psychedelic Salon - "Your source for cutting edge information about the exploration and expansion of consciousness. Featured speakers include Terence McKenna, Alex Grey, Daniel Pinchbeck, Erik Davis, Ann and Sasha Shulgin, Nick Sand and more."
  
  Hosted by "the podfather" Lorenzo Hagerty, I first found this podcast while searching for audio from the late great Terence McKenna, psychedelic thinker extraordinaire. Lorenzo is now up to episode 91 and it has been constantly fascinating. There are loads of talks by Terence, plus his Trialogues with Rupert Sheldrake (of the morpho-genetic field theory) and Ralph Abraham (chaos mathematician) where they discuss an enormous range of topics including the technological singularity, development of consciousness on the internet, "Chaos and Imagination", "Skepticism and the Balkanisation of Epistemiology" and so on.
  
  Apart from talks by Terence McKenna, there are a load of other talks and interviews featuring various urban shamans, psychedelic researchers and theorists. My favourite episodes so far have been "080-Pallamary: Adventures of an Urban Shaman" and "081-Siebert: Salvia Divinorum", both of which discuss shamanic experience. Absolutely fascinating. Favourite quote from Matt Pallamary: "The absolute best thing you can do for yourself, and for everybody, for the universe, for the cosmos, for the race, for humanity, truly the absolute best thing you can do for everybody, is to work on yourself and heal yourself. Because when you heal yourself you heal part of the collective, and you begin to realize that everybody around you is a mirror. Because we are all one"
  
  
• C-Realm - "Discussions on topics focused on the coming Vingean Singularity, Entheogenic Exploration, alternative agriculture and Individual Conscious Autonomy."
  
  My favourite episode so far was Episode 28: Building a Better Monster, an interview with Ben Goertzel in which he and host KMO discuss Goertzel's work in developing an artificial general intelligence and then branch off to discuss "kinds of minds; straight-laced and psychedelic, evolved organic and autogenous 'artificial' agents" and sci-fi visualisations of the technological singularity.
  
  
• Dopefiend - "Dopefiend.co.uk is The Web's Favourite Cannabis Podcast Network, supplying a wide variety of programming for every side of the International Cannabis Community."
  
  There are a number of different programs on this podcast, some of which I can take or leave but some are quite entertaining. The "core program" The Dopecast is always good for entertainment value and discussion of "our favourite sacred sacrament". However the fortnightly Psychonautica program is the really interesting program, hosted by C-Realm's KMO along with Max Freakout, it explores similar topics to C-Realm and Psychedelic Salon with a more practical approach.

As a musician, particularly in the realm of spiritual, devotional, transcendental music, I find such discussions on states of consciousness, exploration of metaphysical realms, changing the world for the better, developing creativity etc to be totally absorbing. And as Lorenzo says, "you don't need to be currently using these ancient medicines to have an interest in these topics." [Just to divert those disposed to prejudice...]

I recently had a great conversation with Chris and another musician in which we discussed some metaphysical aspects of music performance. Chris told us that the musician is in the same category as the yoga practitioner, in that we are both seeking for that connection with the Higher Mind (cosmos, God, whatever...). The difference is that the yoga practitioner takes that energy into him/herself, while the musician immediately shares it with everyone present. This makes the path of the musician much riskier, because we have to deal with the risks of ego and fame.

I really believe that this kind of path - that of the musician, the artist, the yogi, the shaman - is the most important work we can be doing for the development of human consciousness.

I'm going to repeat this quote from Matt Pallamary (from this podcast) - it's worth reading at least twice!

"The absolute best thing you can do for yourself, and for everybody, for the universe, for the cosmos, for the race, for humanity, truly the absolute best thing you can do for everybody, is to work on yourself and heal yourself. Because when you heal yourself you heal part of the collective, and you begin to realize that everybody around you is a mirror. Because we are all one"

- Please leave a comment if you got this far :-)

New paintjob for Hilary, the ultimate hippy-van

While I've been in India and Japan, my van Hilary has been in the care of my tabla student Brent. He's just sent me some photos of the new paintjob he's doing. Check it out!

More photos from Golden Week Gathering

Mia & Miki performing Balinese welcome dance @ Greenhouse Golden Week Gathering

Mia & Miki performing Legong Dance

Chris Case plays Bach

Tim Hoffman tuning his swarmandal, used for vocal accompaniment. He also performed Indian classical music on koto (pictured) and shakuhachi.

So the Golden Week Gathering has finished up, but I'll be here for all of May. Started work in the garden yesterday. My next concert is on May 20 with Dr. Chandrakant Sardeshmukh in Shizuoka, however that's not a public event. My next public concert is at the very interesting-looking "Dance of Shiva: Indian music mind effect party" with DJs and live Indian classical music at the hot-spring resort town of Izu, in early June.

Niigata temple concert, Yamaquito Family, Squid-Choco

Hi folks,

Thanks to everyone who's expressed concern about my headache. It's all OK now. After 5 quite intense days leading me to the hospital in Funabashi, it started to subside and 5 days later was basically gone. All well.

I've been having a lovely time with musical friends here in Japan. After a few days at Taro & Yuriko's house, we took a trip to Koide, Niigata, about 300km from Tokyo for a concert in Rin-Sen-An (Forest-Spring-Temple - spring as in fresh water). We were taking part in a yearly ceremony at the temple, and played after the monks performed their rituals including lots of chanting. We were also treated to a magnicifent lunch.

The night before the concert, we stayed at Bon-Jin-san's house - a friend of the organiser who is a trained monk but also works as a chiropractor and healer. During dinner he showed us an incredible video of a 90 minute performance in New York by 1000 Japanese monks, accompanied at times by Japanese flute, taiko drums and a Japanese jazz band consisting of sax, flute, keyboards, marimba, bass and drums. Imagine the cost and logistics of rehearsing and flying that many people to New York!!!

Rin-Sen-An temple in Koide, Niigata

Snowy mountain view in Koide, Niigata

Main altar at Rin-Sen-An

Part of main hall of Rin-Sen-An

Dragon panel at Rin-Sen-An

Ika-Choco (Chocolate coated squid): Found in a service area in Saitama on the way to Niigata. Even Japanese people I mentioned this to thought it was very strange. The sales blurb on the box describes it as "a rare collaboration between two special flavours, creating a new deliciousness." Also available, Ika-Choco-Kare (Chocolate coated curry squid). {Sorry I forgot how to do close-ups at the moment I took this photo.}

After the Niigata concert, we drove to The Greenhouse in Chichibu, about halfway back to Tokyo, for the annual Earthlingz Golden Week Gathering. I talk a little about the event in general in this post, but here are some photos of Yamaquito Flamenco Family from the first night. Before the flamenco performance, Japan's seniormost tabla player Kenji Sakasegawa and I gave a tabla duet performance. I have to say it was the best ever tabla duet I've been involved in, and maybe my best ever tabla solo playing. Kenji-san gives fantastic accompaniment and mood which really got me going well, and the dialogue was fantastic. The fact that we both come from the Benares Gharana of tabla really helped our communication. Kenji Sakasegawa is great!

Likewise, Yamaquito Family were fantastic. Totally professional, and to me it sounded totally Spanish - until they politely said "Arigatou gozaimasu" after each piece. The singing was really great.

Yamaquito Family Flamenco Dance Group

DJ and live performances from the Golden Week Gathering are streaming on live web radio - click here to listen. Live performances are generally from about 10pm (Japan time) or so each night (11pm in Brisbane), maybe a bit later. Please have a listen. If you leave the broadcast running for a while you're more likely to catch us playing or at least some announcements about the schedule.

Comments appreciated...

Live music streaming from Earthlingz Golden Week Gathering

Here at The Greenhouse in Chichibu, a few hours from Tokyo, for the annual Golden Week Gathering. This will be my 3rd Golden Week Gathering and it's always a wonderful event, but this year the lineup of musicians is particularly diverse. Plus as always there'll be cool DJs, delicious food, nice people, visits to local onsens and walks in the forest.

Click here to listen to the Earthlingz Radio live web stream

Please visit here for general info on the event and here for info on the musicians performing. The live schedule is here. The list of performers includes:
Taro Terahara (bansuri)
Kenji Sakasegawa (tabla)
Yamaquito Family (Flamenco Dance & Vocal)
Eric Mandala (various acoustic)
Mia & Miki (Balinese Dance - Legong Kuntul)
Taka Kurihara (sitar/vocal)
Aquilah (Hula & Oriental Dance)
Tim Hoffman (Shakuhachi, Vocal, Koto)
Shen Flindell (tabla)

Friends from all around the world can enjoy the music at this event via the newly set-up Earthlingz Radio live web stream. We are sending out a stream from the mixing console, so you'll hear DJs (mostly playing downtempo and ambient chill music) and in the evenings live music and live-DJ jamming. Please drop me a line with any comments on the stream - whether you're having problems, comments on sound quality and music, etc. I'll warn you in advance that we're currently having a problem with the left-right balance and I don't expect the live sound from the PA to sound particularly hi-fi.

Earth Day + Hospitals: Bangkok vs Tokyo

So I've finally arrived in Japan for another 3 month tour...

Had an interesting conversation with the immigration officer at Narita airport: (NB I'm not supposed to play concerts on a tourist visa, so I wrote "part-time worker" as my occupation.)
"Part-time worker...? What will you do so long-time in Japan?"
"Just visiting my friends."
"Really? Nothing else?"
"Yes, really."
"..... I believe you" (in a tone which said, "I don't believe you, but what can I do?")

Got the tourist visa. And to my surprise, the customs officer didn't fully search my luggage. Usually when I arrive in Japan from India, via Thailand, with my tabla in hand, they're very suspicious... This customs officer just seemed really happy that I could speak Japanese.

I headed off to my old friend Martine's house - lovely place that - dropped my luggage and then headed to Yoyogi Park where the Earth Day festival was going on. I had a rehearsal with Masa (of Mbira Zvakanaka) and Shun for our show the next morning, and then headed to Ogikubo to see my friends Yasu (sarod), Teiju (sitar) and UKO (tabla) giving an Indian classical performance. Lovely stuff.

Playing with Mbira Zvakanaka and Shun @ Earth Day
(Thanks to Martine for the photo - original here)

The show on Sunday morning with Mbira Zvakanaka was quite fun, but unfortunately I couldn't hang around and enjoy Earth Day, as for the last 6 days I've had an almost non-stop headache, and it was just too much. What a pain! As I mentioned last week I've been a bit worried it might be malaria. I had a blood test in Bangkok which came up negative, but apparently if you're not suffering from fever at that moment it will usually be negative.

Yesterday I came to Taro's house and he took me to a hospital to get checked out again. Same result as in Bangkok - no fever, negative for malaria - but here's a brief comparison of the two hospital experiences:
: Bangkok - got pushed around in a wheelchair from arrival to departure;
Tokyo - please take your blood sample down the hall to the testing department yourself
: Bangkok - blood test took about 20 minutes and the whole visit about 1 hour;
Tokyo - blood test took over 1 hour and the whole visit 2 and a half hours
: Bangkok - final bill 1000 baht (about A$40), and I got 4 kinds of medicine for 3 days;
Tokyo - final bill 12000 yen (about A$150), and I got 10 headache tablets.

So the moral of the story is, don't get sick in Japan!

Still got a headache... I'm hoping it will either go away soon or if it is malaria that it will hurry up and make me feverish so that I can get on with fixing it!

Coming up for me this week: Thursday morning rehearsal with Dr. Chandrakant Sardeshmukh, Sunday workshop and concert with Taro Terahara in Niigata, then from Monday I'll be at the Greenhouse in Chichibu, enjoying the Golden Week Gathering with a host of DJs and musicians including sitar, tabla, Indian vocal, shakuhachi, koto, Flamenco dance and Balinese dance!!! (My Japan tour schedule is here.)

Please leave a comment if you've gotten this far. :-)

India 2007: Collected episodes

Some brief reports from my weekly event-news emails to Australia... I know it's pretty unreadable posting 3 months worth of news in one go, sorry. I'm honestly going to try to post my reports here on this blog more regularly from now on! Please at least skim through and check out the photos.

JAN 18: Kolkata news
I arrived here on Monday morning. Same as ever... crowded and polluted. The big news in India is that Aishwariya Rai and Abhishek Bacchan are getting married.

Tonight I board the train to Varanasi, where I'll be taking part in the Saraswati Puja home concert at my Guru-ji's house. I'll be performing with sarod player Shuji Yamamoto, a disciple of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. Also performing in the programme will be Shubhshankar, grand-nephew and protege of Varanasi tabla Godfather, Pt. Kishan Maharaj (who will also be present at the concert, I'm told). It's always an electric atmosphere at this concert. Report next week...

If I wasn't taking part in that Saraswati Puja concert I'd definitely stick it out in Kolkata to attend the Dover Lane Music Conference - 4 nights of amazing Indian classical musicians. (Read about last year's conference here.) For those of you interested, click here for this year's programme.

I've also recently updated my report on Taro Terahara's tour in December, to include a link to his blog with lots of photos of our experiences.


JAN 25: Saraswati Puja
Well Saraswati Puja concert came and went... I needed to be in India longer and more into my practice. :-( Luckily Kishan Maharaj-ji didn't come. But it was nice to see and play with Shuji-san (sarod) again and the audience seemed to like what we did. Anyway, now I can get down to setting up my room (with double-side Ganga view!)

With Shuji Yamamoto playing for Saraswati Puja

FEB 20: Shivaratri
This weekend was Shivaratri ("Shiva's night"), the biggest festival in the city of Shiva. There were several concerts including the 62nd annual Dhrupad Mela and the now annual khayal event near the Durga Temple, where we heard Kaushiki Desikan (daughter of Ajoy Chakraborty). Look out for her - she's amazing! Really nice voice and very interesting rhythmic taans.

Kaushiki Desikan at the Shivaratri concert
(thanks to Nick for the photo - more of Nick's Varanasi photos here.)

FEB 27: Hibiki Party @ Munna's
Saturday night my friend Junichi organised a party at Munna House - "Hibiki" (Resonance) featuring live sitar with twin tabla by Junichi, Shen & Waka, as well as DJ Izmir from Okinawa. Izmir started with an downtempo set and following the sitar performance started up some very nice dance tunes and the Munna rooftop, under a half-moon with full Ganga view, became the world's coolest nightclub for a few hours. Around midnight things toned down into some deep ambient sounds. Lush. (I'm personally satisfied with my single-handed two-floor cleanup effort during the day. The upper levels of Munna House are now rubbish-free.)

Waka, Junichi & Shen performing in the dimness at Hibiki Party

DJ Izmir, with Varanasi sound-man checking the moves

The world's coolest nightclub, for one night only

MAR 6: Holi

Last weekend was the big "Festival of Colours" - Holi. On Sunday morning all of India became a battleground for coloured waterbombs and water-guns (pichkaris). I stayed in my room...
Taro Terahara arrived just before Holi and we're now busy practising for the big Ashu-Babu Memorial Concert on March 16. We have a warm-up concert at Munna House tonight.

Jivan, the Munna House dog - another victim of Holi festivities

Shen & Taro at the Munna House Holi Concert. I'm seriously working on keeping my head straight nowadays - hopefully this will be the last photo with my head tilted so bizarrely! (thanks to Nick for the photo - more of Nick's Varanasi photos here.)

MAR 24: Ashu-Babu Memorial Concert
Once again my weekly email is late... I didn't want to write about Taro's strange adventure on Tuesday as the news that day was not so positive. But I have now written the full story including a full concert review of the 2007 Ashu Babu Memorial Concert.
Click here to read all about it... (old news for my regular blog-readers)


APR 1: Summer arrives
In the last couple of weeks the temperature has skyrocketed and yesterday was the first day with a maximum over 40 and a minimum over 20. I'm sorry to say that since the concert, along with this heat and my inherent laziness, my practice has been atrocious. Too lazy!!! I gave up my super view from Friday to move into a cool dark basement room. Next Thursday the 5 night Sankat Mochan music festival begins, with fantastic musicians coming to play for free in the devotional atmosphere of the Hanuman temple.


APR 10: Lessons, Sankat Mochan
It's too hot!!! But apart from that... Last week I spent 4 days in Delhi taking lessons with my senior guru-bhai, Govinda Chakraborty at the Kathak Kendra (National Kathak Dance Institute). It was great. He is an excellent teacher, and for the first time in many years I was part of a group of students. He gave me some excellent advice on improving my hand position, sound and posture. Now I have to do the necessary practice.

Here in Varanasi tonight is the last night of the annual 5-night Sankat Mochan music festival. I haven't attended very much so far, preferring to go for those performances I'm specifically interested in. Unfortunately my plan backfired on the first day, when I arrived intending to watch Shiv Kumar Sharma with Kumar Bose, only to find everyone leaving! I have managed to catch Suresh Talwarkar's innovative style of tabla solo and a jugalbandi between South Indian saxophone legend Gopal Kadri Nath and North Indian bansuri-wala Ronu Majumdar. I don't particularly like Ronu Majumdar's sound or style, but at least I can say I've seen Gopal Kadri Nath. Tonight I'll try to catch most of the night, until dawn, including tabla solo by Anindo Chatterjee and sitar recital by Niladri Kumar.


APR 17: Sick, Kolkata, Bangkok
I've had an eventful yet harrowing week. A few hours after witnessing Pt. Anindo Chatterjee's fantastic tabla solo in pancham sawari (15 beats) at Sankat Mochan (Hanuman) temple on Wednesday morning, and even meeting him briefly, I started to get quite sick in the belly. Still had to pack and catch a train to Kolkata though... In Kolkata I had an OK day but for the next few days I had a fever, cough and could barely eat. All alone and still had to do some errands though... I was quite worried I had malaria or something, but on arrival in Bangkok on Sunday I got a blood test. All OK - just a combo of a cold, a stomach bug and way-too-hot weather making me feel like hell. Getting better now but I can't wait to get out of the Bangkok heat and into Japanese spring.

I'll be in Tokyo on Saturday and will stay with old buddy Martine Cotton (check her cool Tokyo photoblog) for the first couple of days, while visiting Yoyogi Park for the Earth Day festival, where I'll be performing my only Tokyo concert this trip, with Mbira Zvakanaka. If you're interested in my Japan tour schedule, please check it out here.


PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT IF YOU GOT THIS FAR :-)

Ganga Views

A collection of photos from my former Ganga-side room...
You can click on any photo to see a larger version.

I love this boat. My friends Liz & Barry used a photo of this boat for their engagement party - "Sailing off on new journey together" or something like that. The sail seems to be patched together from about 20 pieces of fabric.

Wide-angle with the same sailboat.

View of Varanasi on a clear day.

Pilgrims bathing in Ganga and washing their saris.

For most of February there was a flock of seagulls on the river - something I've never seen before. They were in the habit of picking one boat to flap around, and dogging that boat all the way down the river. My friend Mai said it was like an Alfred Hitchcock movie. My theory is that a few of them would come to the boat looking for food, then others would see the small gathering and go to join it. Once it reached critical mass that unlucky group of pilgrims was condemned to a view of a cloud of seagulls for the whole boat-ride.

Some sadhus came to Varanasi after the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad and set up these tents on this island.

The same "island" two weeks later, after the pre-Holi rainstorm. They packed up their tents the day before, in strong winds.

Giving the bicycle a holy wash. "Now how do I get the Hero Honda down here...?"

A herd of water-buffalo swimming up the river. I saw them swimming near Dasaswamedh Ghat all the way to their usual bathing spot in front of my house on Narad Ghat, so they came at least 500m. They obviously knew where they were headed too.

Varanasi by night. Sorry about the blur. Note the cluster of candles floating on the river.

The Ramayana boat-procession on Ram Navmi. This is an annual event, with actors on each boat presenting a scene from the Ramayana. Sorry my camera's not good enough to show any close-ups.

Don't forget to leave a comment if you get this far... :-)

Taro's Travails (incl Ashu Babu Concert review)

Bansuri player Taro Terahara has just had a very strange few weeks in Varanasi, having arrived a few weeks ago specifically to perform with me in this year's Ashu Babu Memorial Concert. Now that I have safely seen Taro onto the Delhi-bound plane for his homeward journey, I feel prepared to recount the story.

WARM-UPS
Before to leaving Japan, Taro & his wife Yuriko moved house. Literally just before - after moving the last items into his new place he had 30 minutes to pack before leaving for the airport. It was quite cold in Japan and he had a cough when he arrived, so I requested him to take care of his health because Varanasi is a strong place. I got him a simple room with beautiful Ganga view and the first week was spent settling in, practising and being inspired by sitar master Shahid Parvez who gave a rare performance here. The weather was lovely and Taro became a bit of a celebrity with his impromptu Ganges-side flute sessions.

Shortly after Taro's arrival we had a small concert at Munna House to warm up. In a couple of days we managed to russle up about 60 people to listen, largely due to the fact that Taro is quite well known in Japan but this was his first ever performance in Varanasi. Taro & I played first, with Raga Puriya Dhanashree in char taal ki sawari (11 beats) and teentaal (16 beats). I had requested Taro that we play in char taal ki sawari because it is a taal in which I received a lot of material from Guru-ji, and Taro being the rare kind of musician up for the challenge of 11 beats, this would be my first chance to perform it at Guru-ji's Memorial Concert. We played quite nicely, pretty much as usual for us after playing so much together on our Australian tour last year, but we were aware we needed to improve our standard before the big gig 9 days later.

After our set there was a sitar performance by Nick Proctor from England, accompanied by Bengali Tola tabla player Nirmal Goswami. They played very nicely and did a few encores. I first encountered Nick through the chandrakantha.com Indian music forums, where he is one of the most active contributors. We have both taken part in heated discussions about non-Indians playing Indian classical music and the attitudes and prejudices to be found in the Indian music scene. He is very knowledgeable about ragas and boy does he love to chat about Indian music! Lovely fellow.

So... after the concert we were reheating some dal for dinner, and what does Taro get? The hottest kiss in his life... in blowing out a match his arm slipped and he ended up with burning phosphorus adhering to the exact middle of his lower lip! A flute player, injuring his lip 9 days before an important concert... He couldn't control his sound at all for a couple of days and then the clarity of high notes continued to evade him for several more days.

We had some more practice concerts at local tourist music shops the following week, when his lip had healed 98%. At the first one in Triveni Music Centre he was still not getting the sound he wanted, and seemed pretty down. At the second one at Kashika Music Centre the following night, he finally got his high notes coming and was ecstatic. It was a very special little concert actually, with Nick and a few other knowledgeable students in attendance. So everything was on track for success. The next day Taro came down with a fever! We played that night at International Music Ashram - again we played char taal ki sawari which was good practise for me, and Taro tested his limits. But he told me "fever is no problem once I'm on the stage".

On the afternoon of the big concert while we were practising in my room, a bee started hovering around Taro's face. Panic!!! But I managed to shoo it away quickly enough. How many more travails would Taro encounter, we wondered? This was a very challenging concert!


ASHU-BABU MEMORIAL CONCERT 2007
Take a look here (scroll down the page - there are a few posts about Nick's time in Varanasi there) for sitar-Nick's review of the concert, and on-going discussion...

This was the third annual concert in memory of Late Pandit Kaviraj Ashutosh Bhattacharya - my guru-ji of tabla - and the biggest program yet. After the opening speeches and ceremonies, the musical programme opened with devotional mantras and bhajans by a 13 member group directed and led by Dr. Debashish Dey, a prominent vocalist in Varanasi. The group included Debashish-ji, his son and 6 female students along with pakhawaj, tabla, harmonium, violin (Sukhdev Mishra) and keyboard (ugh). I didn't focus too much on this set as I was tuning and relaxing in the green room with Taro and our stand-in tamboura player, David (a dhrupad student of Dr. Ritwik Sanyal). There was a mixed response with many people saying a classical programme should be purely classical, however a devotional atmosphere was certainly set.

Taro & I performed second, after the mantras. Taro was dripping in sweat after only a minute of alap, and I have to say his complete effort over the 2 weeks in Varanasi culminating in this concert was absolutely heroic. We received many compliments on the performance - it was very beautiful, I thought, although I knew that it was a bit flat compared with Taro's usual energy-levels. Brother Nick commented that Taro "was on form", and the head priest of the Vishwanath (Golden) Temple, a wise toothless 90 year old man, told me "Bahut sundar. Aisa hona chahiye" ("Very beautiful. That's how it should be.") However Taro appeared to be both disappointed and exhausted and wasn't able to appreciate much of the rest of the two-night concert, missing the second night altogether. He said the main problem was that after burning his lip, he had had a week of trying to rediscover his sound. When he came to play through the microphone, he was uncertain of his sound again and could not go as deeply into the music as he normally would. But I can say that his talent was appreciated in Varanasi, and I'm reminded of his guru's guru, Pt. Nikhil Banerjee, who despite being one of the greatest artistic geniuses was never satisfied with his music.

As for my own tabla I was quite happy - only 1 or 2 big slip-ups (had to break off a long chakardar because I screwed it up), and I'm now reaching the stage where I can smile when I fluff - no big deal and much more important to get on with the music. So the photos where I'm smiling are where I've made a mistake. Funnily enough, although Guru-ji had taught me lots in char taal ki sawari, I used none of it because Taro's speed was much slower than I had learnt. So in the last week I developed a lot of new material which was a fantastic learning experience in itself.


Back to the concert... Following Taro & myself, senior Varanasi sitar player Dr. Ravindra Narayan Goswami gave a beautiful performance of Raga Rageshree, accompanied on tabla by Vinod Lele. Vinod-ji is a good tabla player but I prefer his vocal accompaniment, and would have preferred to see a more dynamic tabla player with instrumental. In any case (due, I'm told, to some political maneuvering), Vinod Lele was back to accompany the next artist, vocalist Arati Ankalikar from Pune. How boring to have the same tabla player twice in a row! Oh well... Srimati Ankalikar was a very powerful and adept singer, and probably my favourite performance of the night. It was a shame the sound system was so loud though.

The final act of the night was a sitar-violin jugalbandi between Sujay Basu and Indradeep Ghosh, accompanied on tabla by Guru-ji's son, Dr. Debabrata Bhattacharya. The alap was very beautiful, however as the concert went on I felt that these were two quite average artists banding together to become more interesting. Their taans were quite linear and their tihais very basic. But they had their moments.

On to the second night which like last year was the stronger night... First up was Kathak dancer Malavika Mitra, who was always in complete control of her movements - very accomplished and well-practised. I just wish Kathak wouldn't go on so long... I'm not the best person to review Kathak. I love to play with it, as rhythmically it is very interesting and exciting, but the visual side just doesn't appeal like Odissi dance, for example.

Second item, a far better jugalbandi by Kedia Brothers on sitar and sarod, accompanied by two of Guru-ji's best students, Govinda Chakraborty and Manishankar Tripathi. Unlike the previous evening's jugalbandi, these two musicians presented a far wider variety in their music. Govinda-da & Manishankar's accompaniment was lovely and their distinctive sounds complimented the pairing of sitar and sarod. Govinda-da often plays with kathak and his playing has a strong beautiful sound with many interesting and spacey tihais, while Manishankar plays very softly and sweetly.

The third item was a tabla solo by Varanasi tabla player, Pundleek Krishna Bhagwat. His performance was a very interesting study for me - he used many interesting tihais including anagat tihais (coming before 1), which is something I am working on at the moment. (For the uninitiated, tihais are triply played phrases whose final note usually occurs on 1, but they can finish at another point, eg an accented - possibly upbeat - note of the melody.) I got quite a few ideas for my practice.

I can't comment too much about Vidushri Sulochana Brihaspati, a vocalist from Delhi. I heard she was very devotional and humble. During her performance I was sitting in the Green Room waiting to introduce myself to Purbayan Chatterjee who is soon touring Australia with my friend, Sydney tabla player Bobby Singh.

Purbayan Chatterjee, as expected, was quite fantastic. Young and very well-practised, I hope if you're in Australia you will catch his concerts in April. At this concert he was ably accompanied on tabla by Shubhshankar, grand-nephew of Pt. Kishan Maharaj and rising star in Varanasi.

Overall I thought the programme was more consistent than the previous years in that generally every act was quite OK if not excellent. However everyone agreed that it was too long and next year is expected to be a much shorter and higher quality event. So see if you can make it to Varanasi for 17 March 2008!

As for myself, I will not be performing next year. I had a very strong feeling this year that I am missing a Guru and I am without direction and guidance. I have a lot of material but have a lot of questions with regard to style, development of solos, control of accents. I need to pursue study with more focus and not be distracted by concerts in India for a while yet. With this in mind I had a very important conversation with my senior guru-brother, Govinda Chakraborty. Not spilling any details for now except that I'll be visiting him in Delhi for some lessons in early April, and next year could be the start of something completely new for me.


TARO TURNS SPOTTY
A couple of nights later, Taro, in a weakened state due to 3 weeks' cough, 5 days' fever and a fair bit of stress, had an allergic reaction to some sweets and went completely spotty and swollen all over with violently bloodshot eyes. His fever had increased and he was basically really really sick. He had a few more days in Varanasi in which we'd hoped to relax and meet some people, but instead he was confined to his room to rest!

What does it mean? I had really hoped that Taro would come to Varanasi and shine, but obviously this was not his moment. Actually the main benefit of us playing this kind of big concert is in the preparation, so for that we both gained a lot. But there were certainly some unexpected lessons this year. I hope Taro won't be scared away from Varanasi!


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Ashu Babu Memorial Concert 2007 Programme

Here is the programme for this year's Ashu Babu Memorial Concert, in loving memory of our late guru-ji, Kaviraj Pt. Ashutosh Bhattacharya. I will be performing with bansuri player Taro Terahara. Please note that the main act, Purbayan Chatterjee will soon tour Australia (Brisbane concert details here).

Kaviraj Late Pt. Ashutosh Bhattacharya ("Ashu Babu")
Third Memorial Classical Music Evening

Date: 16 & 17 March (Two days - Friday & Saturday)
Venue: Dhrupad Tirth, Tulsi Ghat, Varanasi
Time: 6.30 evening

PROGRAMME
Date: 16-03-07 (Friday)

• Gayan & Vadan - Direction by Dr. Devashish Dey (Varanasi)
• Flute (bansuri) - Taro Terahara (Japan)
• Sitar - Dr. Ravindra Narayan Goswami (Varanasi)
• Classical Vocal - Smt. Arati Ankalikar (Pune, Maharastra)
• Sitar & Violin - Sri Sujay Vasu & Sri Indradeep Ghosh (Kolkata)

Date: 17-03-07 (Saturday)

• Kathak Dance - Smt. Malvika Mitra (Kolkata)
• Sitar & Sarod - Sri Kedia Brothers (Dhanbad)
• Tabla Solo - Sri Pundlik Krishna Bhagwat (Varanasi)
• Classical Vocal - Vidushi Sulochana Sahasrbudhe (Delhi)
• Sitar - Sri Purvayan Chatterjee (Kolkata)

ACCOMPANYING ARTISTS
Tabla: Pt. Sri Govinda Chakravarty (Delhi), Dr. Debabrata Bhattacharya (Varanasi), Sri Kishan Ram Dohakar (Varanasi), Sri Vinod Lele (Varanasi), Sri Shubha Shankar (Varanasi), Sri Shen Flindell (Australia), Sri Mani Shankar (Varanasi),Sri Dena Nath Mishra (Kolkata)
Vocal: Sri Anand Gupta Kolkata)
Sarangi: Sri Santosh Mishra (Varanasi)
Sarod: Sri Jayanta Bhattacharya (Kolkata)
Harmonium: Sri Vinay Mishra

Co-Sponsor: Islam Fabrics, Pili Kothi, Varanasi

My new Varanasi room

Hi folks,

I've now been in Varanasi for a few weeks and thought I'd show some snaps of my lovely new room. Well... it's usually lovely, except that in the last week Varanasi has been suffering through cold rainy windy weather - a late January monsoon in the first week of Feb - and my windows weren't latchable so my room became very cold and wet!

But here are some more positive views...

The view from my front step.

Another front-step view...

Nya (the kitten) and Buju (the puppy) are often playing. Usually Buju is stronger but Nya doesn't hold back, and usually initiates things! Nya often comes to sleep under my blankets at night. Very cute!

The inside of my room. You can see the view through the closed window. (I should have closed all the windows to get the Ganga view too...)

Please leave comments if you manage to read through my blogs!