Tibet2Timbuk2 home concert earthquake fundraiser

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)