Tenzin in Japan part 2: Sightseeing in Kamakura

After our first round of gigs in Tokyo and Kamakura, it was time for a bit of sightseeing. Kamakura is also known as "Beach Kyoto", for its large number of temples and abundance of traditional architecture. Tenzin also did a bit of sightseeing around Tokyo, but I stayed in Kamakura for the next few days as I had another event down there, so I'll leave that for Tenzin to blog on.

I'll be posting a selection of photos here but you can see a whole lot more on our Facebook album, "Tenzin in Japan".

Taro, Tenzin and Shen at Daibutsu ("Big Buddha")

Tenzin offers prayers at Hase Dera, Kamakura

Tenzin, sitar player Hide Iwai and Taro at Hase Dera

The Benzaiten cave at Hase Dera. Benzaiten is the Japanese version of Hindu goddess of music, Saraswati. This cave is a very powerful place.

An army of small Benzaitens (Saraswatis) in the Benzaiten Cave

Tenzin in Japan: part 1

After all these years coming to Japan, at long last I've managed to get my old friend, amazing Tibetan singer Tenzin Choegyal over here, and it was exactly the success I thought it would be! We had 8 shows in the 12 days he was here. They weren't all big, but for a first visit definitely successful. He made a huge impression and everyone wants him to come back again.

I'll be posting a selection of photos here but you can see a whole lot more on our Facebook album, "Tenzin in Japan".

Fri Sep 25: Kie, Nishi-Azabu: A small opening concert, more of a paid rehearsal really. The owner of the bar has won awards for her paintings of McLeod Ganj (home of the Tibetan government-in-exile) and Varanasi.

Taro, Tenzin and Shen get warmed up in Kie, Nishi-Azabu

Tenzin playing sanshin (the Okinawan equivalent of his usual instrument, the dranyen), with some girls we came across in Yoyogi Park.

Sat Sep 26: Cafe Slow, Kokubunji: A beautiful candle-lit, acoustic (no electricity was the concept) show in a slow-food organic cafe in Tokyo's west. Tenzin, Taro and I really clicked from here on. Unfortunately due to the dark, there's no photos.... Thanks to Dolma Tsering, Tenzin's long-lost cousin, for being the interpreter.

Sun Sep 27: Namaste India Festival, Yoyogi Park, with special guest Kathak dancer Atsuko Maeda: Wow. We started the show with about 1000 people waiting to hear us play, but with 's voice filling the park, by the second song we reckon there were about 3000 people clustered around the stage. Tibetan flags flying everywhere. Atsuko's beautiful dance complementing our happy festive sounds. Kya baat hai!

Tenzin dancing with the Ainu people (indigenous people of Japan)

Shen, Taro, Tenzin and Atsuko win everybody's hearts at Namaste India. Atsuko added some Kathak interludes to Tibet2Timbuk2 song "Tso Marpo", and some interpretive dance on "Daway Wola"

Sun Sep 27: Magokoro, Kamakura: After allowing 15 minutes to sell some CDs at Namaste India, we had to rush off to beachside town Kamakura, southwest of Tokyo, for this intimate acoustic gig at Magokoro ("Hemp Heart"). Many thanks to Yuki for arranging this concert.

Shen, Tenzin and Taro at Magokoro

Tenzin and Taro's flute duet become a highlight of every concert, leading in to the emotional Tibet2Timbuk2 song "Lotus Born". These songs kept getting better and better.

Nagoya/Kyoto

After my sojourn at the Greenhouse, I headed off to Nagoya for a concert with santoor player Mari Komuro, a very experienced student of maestro Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma. It was a daytime concert at Meito Playhouse, a proper concert hall - not too many chances to play in such venues for us musicians out on the Indian Classical fringe. My time in Nagoya was strange and brief: the friend who had offered to put me up had gotten the date wrong, so after an hour on the phone trying to contact everyone I knew in Nagoya, another friend recommended the cheap but very friendly guesthouse Otohaya Bessou. Thanks Koki.

Shen and Mari Komuro at Meito Playhouse

From Nagoya to Kyoto, my old home town when I was living in Japan in 2002-03. Last year I had only 1 concert in Tokyo and a whole bunch around Kansai, but this year it's the opposite: I couldn't get any gigs in Kansai, but I still wanted to visit my friends there, especially as I was already booked to visit Nagoya. So in the end a couple of friends booked a yoga space (Mysore Kyoto) and I invited sarod player Sagar (aka Yasu Fujibayashi) to join me for an informal gathering of a few friends and friends of friends. Yasu is a very emotional and powerful musician, and the concert was captivating. Thanks so much to Andrew, Alex and Yasu for getting this together.

Shen with Sagar (sarod), plus the new Mrs Fujibayashi, Ganga on tamboura.　
おめでとうございます、やすさんとガンガさん！

Sky, the son of my Kyoto hosts Alex and Hana, playing tabla with great hands. 4 years old, my youngest student!

My students first show without me

While I was playing with sarod and sitar at the Greenhouse in Japan, my top students in Brisbane had their first tabla group performance without my supervision, at the 2nd Brisbane Music Circle concert in Garden City Library, Mt Gravatt. Brisbane Music Circle aims to foster Indian classical music at a community level by encouraging students and amateur artists to perform at their small free concerts. I really did want to play with my students there, but as I was overseas it was a great chance for them to build confidence on their own. I'm eagerly waiting to hear reports and see a video of the show when I get back home.

Jesinthan, Arka and Sanjey representing the Ashu Babu Memorial Tabla School

Arthavan gave a mridingam solo

Arka's mother Sulagna Basu performing, accompanied by Dheeraj Shrestha on tabla.
Sulagna-ji was one of the first Indian musicians in Brisbane to support me when I was just beginning tabla, and her son Arka is one of my longest-running students.

Shrabani Choudhury (sitar) with Dheeraj (tabla)

Percussion duet by Arthavan and Dheeraj

Greenhouse party 2009

Here I am in Japan once again. As usual, my tour is starting slowly but will soon pick up pace and be frenetic until I get back to Australia in mid-October.

First up I went to stay with my friend Chris Case at the Greenhouse in the peaceful hills of Chichibu. I usually stay here for a few weeks when I'm in Japan, help Chris with cleaning up the house and garden or doing some web development work, and have a party with some live musicians and DJs. (You can also check out my blogs about the Greenhouse from the last few years.)

Shen with Baku Hirakawa (sarod) and Kei (sitar) - we played about 5 hours on Saturday, a couple more on Sunday

Chris DJing

Our gracious host

Tabla Tarrango @ Krishna Fest

On Sun August 23 my top students and I gave our first public performance, at Krishna Fest, ISKCON's celebrations of Janmastami (Krishna's birthday) at Roma St Parklands. In the tradition of my first guru Debu Bhattacharya, I'm thinking of calling our tabla group Tabla Tarrango. The weather was absolutely beautiful (a slight cooling off from the freakish week of 30+ degrees August winter days) and thousands of festival goers enjoyed a range of entertainment and devotional music, heavy on the kirtans.

I was honoured to have my students invited to play, and so proud of them. We played for about 20 minutes, opening with uthaan, then Arka and I played a kaida, Sam, Sanjay and Jesinthan played a rela, peshkar all together, then some gat kaidas and tukaras one by one, culminating in a powerful tukara all together.

My old friend Soolaba on sitar

Carmela singing kirtan

Diwarkar Mothay and his young singing students

A bit more kirtan

Tabla Tarrango
- Sam Mead, Arka Basu, Shen Flindell, Sanjeyan Sivaananthan, Jesinthan Ketheeswaran

Very proud of my boys

Shen and Marcello at "Sing it Up for Sabina"

Last weekend Tibet2Timbuk2 bandmates Marcello Milani and myself played at the "Sing it Up for Sabina" charity event at Cafe Checocho, which raised $4000 for a permaculture project in Uganda! Unfortunately I was tied up during the day but I heard it was absolutely fantastic, with great performances by Sana, Mbira Myoyo, Spankinhide and many more. Here's a couple of snaps of Marcello and my show, with Sana joining for the last song.

Brisbane Music Circle

Last weekend I participated in the inaugural event of Brisbane Music Circle, an Indian music social group fostering amateur Indian classical music. The event was free and well attended. This first event had a primarily Carnatic vocal focus (although concluded with my tabla solo), and future events will include more Hindustani music. The stage was set facing an altar with audience behind, puja-style, as some of the singers felt that they might be intimidated by an audience, but not by God.

Leena Palekar

Divyasri Shashidhar (accompanied by myself on tabla and Joseph Nand on harmonium)

Jayadevi Venugopal

Kamalakar Guntur

Shen Flindell (tabla solo) accompanied by Joseph Nand (harmonium)
The devotional setting inspired me to perform a rhythmic Ganesh vandana for the first time and also a piece inspired by the sound of Shiva's damaru.

Great review of Tibet2Timbuk2's "Music is Life"

Tibet2Timbuk2 is a trio consisting of Tenzin Choegyal (vocals, dranyen, flute), Marcello Milani (vocals, guitar, keyboard) and Shen Flindell (tabla and percussion). On the nine track CD, “music is life”, they are assisted by Peter Hunt (trumpet), Lansana Camara (vocal, kora) and Taro Terahara (bansuri).

One of the most astonishing things about “music is life” is the fundamental simplicity of the parts played by, in particular, the guitar and dranyen. Mostly uncomplicated and repeated phrases, they nevertheless combine with the tabla to produce an extraordinarily interesting and detailed sound that is intensely hypnotic and enchanting. This is a combination of Africa, India and Tibet, that, for all its unlikeliness, has resulted in a musical masterpiece.

The CD was recorded by trio member Marcello, and reveals his mastery of the technical as well as the musical. This is a clean, spacious and tasteful recording, capturing the essence of the instruments while using the technology to elevate the drama and interest of each.

From the opening sparse and seductive notes of the first track (“Beautiful Girl/Bhumo Zhema”) this CD had me ensnared, and I’ve played it almost non-stop since. It is relaxed, yet energising; ambient yet vigorous. There is something of interest in every bar, and even after having played it many times, I keep finding something new to listen to. Included on this CD is the “Crane Song” (“Ngagpey Sungkey”) which was the 2008 Qsong BMEC Music Award winning piece. It lopes along easily in a slow seven-four, and features the highly acclaimed bansuri player, Taro Terahara.

But my personal favourite is “Lotus Born”, a ten minute tonal landscape that looms through the mist with haunting flute; in which other instruments insinuate themselves almost unnoticed until you bump into them. After about four minutes we hear Peter Hunt’s trumpet: just a long C before it fades, to reappear a little while later. I often clatter away on the keyboard while I am listening to the CD I’m reviewing, but this is a track that stills my fingers and draws me into the music; I have to pay attention, and it won’t let me be distracted, specially by something as mundane as a review.

“Little Things” follows “Lotus Born”, and is lively track that takes you straight to dusky dancers on the Serengeti, with “Dawey Wola” following in similar vein. Featuring Lansana Camara on kora and vocals, the CD is rounded off with the anthemic mantra, “Music is Life”. This track summarises everything that has gone before; there is a particularly special life breathed into this CD by these gifted musicians. Like any self-respecting mantra, it is reversible: “music is life”, but “life is music” for Tibet2Timbuk2.

Mike Raine for indie-cds.com 2009

Cows at the Beach - Indo-Jazz with Toby Wren

I had a really nice 1 hour gig with jazz guitarist Toby Wren and harmonium player Sean Foran (of Misinterpretato) at Ric's Bar in Fortitude Valley on Sunday afternoon. For non-Brisbane people, the Valley is the main nightclub and entertainment district in Brisbane. I haven't had a gig there in years! (or it feels like that.... actually I played there twice last year.)

This Sunday afternoon Ric's thing is Toby's new weekly gig, entitled "cows at the beach", and was my first chance to play with him. We played 3 of Toby's compositions and I really really enjoyed learning and playing them. Toby has spent time in South India studying Carnatic music and incorporates a lot of those rhythms into his music. I hope we can play together many times more!

Toby can't make the show on Sunday July 26, so I'll be covering him with the band formerly known as Jaadu - Robert Welsh (piano), Ravi Welsh (guitar), Cieavash Arean (Persian instruments/vocals), Shen (tabla). As Robert wants to use that name for another project, we're looking for a new name - any suggestions most welcome, please click the comments link below.

Shen Flindell (tabla), Toby Wren (guitar), Sean Foran (harmonium)

2nd Annual Ashu Babu Memorial Tabla School Concert

Last Saturday I had one of my yearly highlights - the 2nd Annual Ashu Babu Memorial Tabla School Concert. Last year's inaugural concert was a wonderful event, and this year's lived up to the promise with all the students making good progress over the year, and the night being as full of love and devotion as could be. Unfortunately this year a few students had to pull out at the last minute but all the students, whether they performed at the concert or not, really put in a great effort and improved their tabla immensely. Imagine if they practised like that all year round! :-)

The concert was held a couple of days before the July full moon (this year July 7), known as "Guru Purnima" or "Guru's full moon", and was dedicated to my guru-ji of tabla, Late Pandit Kaviraj Ashutosh Bhattacharya also known as "Ashu Babu". He was a great teacher, great tabla player and great man and I was so lucky to have had the chance to learn from him for 10 years until his passing in 2004.

At this year's concert I introduced a friendly competitive element with some prizes for the top three performances. Big thanks to sitar player Saikat Bhattacharya and Kathak dancer Namita Debroy for judging the performances. First prize winner Arka Basu wins a full tabla overhaul with new skins, second prize winner Sanjeyan Sivaananthan will get one drum reskinned, and third prize winner Jesinthan Ketheeswaran gets a couple of free lessons. Thanks to Brisbane Indian Times for sponsoring the prizes.

Many thanks to all the students and families for all their support, especially to Rob, Liz, and Param for the sweets and drinks, the Middle Park mothers for all their food and decorations, Sulagna Basu and Yuki Taniguchi for wonderful mantra and bhajans to open the evening, and to my sister Jacki for coming up from Victoria to sit on the door (and to attend a medical conference over the weekend).

Finally, big thanks to Joseph Nand who gave very beautiful and patient harmonium accompaniment all night, as well as providing and setting up the sound system with Mohit whose sound engineering was brilliant. Thanks guys!

Guru-ji - Late Pandit Kaviraj Ashutosh Bhattacharya - watched over the proceedings

Yuki Taniguchi opened the evening with beautiful and meditative mantras

Sulagna Basu presented some devotional bhajans, accompanied on tabla by her son Arka and on harmonium by Joseph Nand, who accompanied all the following tabla performances as well.

Rob Sri Nath Wallis got the tabla solos going

Indveer Singh (11)

Shayne Prakash (13)

Arka Basu (13) - 1st prize winner

Tabla Lehri - "garland of tablas" - a tradition at my Guru-ji's tabla school concerts, and very well-received by the audience

Thejan Elankayer (9)

Sanjeyan Sivaananthan (13) - 2nd prize

Jesinthan Ketheeswaran (15) - 3rd prize

The students were all presented with certificates by judges Saikat Bhattacharya and Namita Debroy. Down the left-hand side of the certificates, I placed pictures of the 7 generations of guru-student tradition (guru-shishya parampara) from the progenitor of the Benares Gharana, Pt Ram Sahai (1780-1824) down to myself. (Thanks to Shawn Mativetsky for the great photos and info on his website about our great Varanasi tabla tradition.)

After presentation of certificates I gave a 40 minute tabla solo, very enjoyable. I used my G# tabla which I've just reskinned and are sounding absolutely fantastic!
I have to thank Sulagna Basu also for the lovely green kurta.

Thanks again to Joseph for beautiful lehera on harmonium, and to Mohit for great sound.