SaReGaMa student concert

On Saturday I attended and performed at the SaReGaMa School of Indian Music concert, held in the West End Club. SaReGaMa is Indian vocalist Rahim Zullah's music school, and I was very happy to see the quality of his students. I especially want to mention 12 year old Vivek Narotam, who was very impressive with his classical performing style, very much inside the music and obviously enjoying it too. I'm really looking forward to seeing him develop in the future.

I do have to complain about the length of the concert though. Four hours was very taxing for the audience. I think it would have been better to restrict each performer to only one song, regardless of how good a singer they are.

Well done to Rahim though, and also to his wife Fawzia for preparing an excellent dinner for so many people.

12 year old Vivek Narotam (vocal) accompanied by Ravikesh Singh (tabla) and Rahim Zullah (harmonium)

Rahim Zullah (vocal) accompanied by Shen Flindell (tabla) and Sudha Manian (sitar)

Mbira session with Fabio @ Forest

We had one of the best Forest Wednesday sessions ever last night, as we were joined by master mbira player Fabio Chivhanda, up from Tasmania for a week and staying at our place. He is a great musician.

Even the songs without Fabio - Ravi and my Indo-Jazz explorations - came together really well. Ravi's been listening to some Shakti lately and is really starting to get the way to fit into Indian rhythms. The future is bright.

Fabio Chivhanda (mbira)

Shen + Fabio

Ravi, Fabio, Shen

Ravi, Shen, Tony, Fabio, Sam - what a great jam.

Hilary's happy retirement

It's been ages since I've blogged, mainly because I'm between cameras. My old one broke, I bought a new one, then the battery doesn't work so now I'm waiting for a replacement to come my way. Soon I'll be able to get back to regular snaps with little stories, and at some stage I'll report on what's been happening in these camera-less days.

In the meantime, one tale with accompanying photo. I took my old van Hilary for her final drive a couple of weeks back. She's found a happy retirement in the back yard of the Olsen family, where she'll be a cubby house for their 3 kids. It's perfect. I was so worried about finding someone who wanted to keep her on the road - a major fund-sucker. This is so much better. Everybody happy. (And nice to put some money back into my bank account too...)

Concert reports: Pravaahee, Debapriya-Samanwaya

I've just written the following article, to be published in this month's Brisbane Indian Times, on two recent Indian classical music concerts in Brisbane:

(Sorry I've no camera now...)

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Once again March has proven to be the peak of the Indian Classical Music concert season in Brisbane. Along with the yearly Nataraj concerts (on March 12 this year featuring Carnatic bansuriya Natesan Ramani and Hindustani vocalist Manjiri Kelkar), a performance by Carnatic vocalist Smt. Subha Harinath and tours by Hindustani bansuri players Manose (early in March) and Harsh Wardhan (coming up late in March), there were two more very special collaborative Hindustani classical concerts bringing together differing styles of North Indian classical music. On March 1st we were treated to a performance entitled Pravaahee combining classical vocal and Kathak dance, and then on the following weekend Kolkata artists Debapriya and Samanwaya presented their blend of classical vocal and sitar music.

Pravaahee showcased the talents of upcoming vocalist Pushkar Lele and Kathak dancer Shambhavi Vaze. They were given very able accompaniment on tabla by Charudatta Phadke and on harmonium by Chaitanya Kunte. I was particularly pleased to hear that both dancer and tabla player were trained by tabla master Pt. Suresh Talwarkar, currently introducing many innovations into the performance of taal in Hindustani music.

The Old Museum is a very fine venue and was almost filled by the music lovers drawn to the event, including many of Brisbane's own leading artists. While I would challenge the concert's billing as a jugalbandi, which usually refers to a duet between melodic artists sharing the elaboration of a raga, it was certainly a very appealing concept to present a wide range of vocal and Kathak dance styles in the one performance.

The recital opened with the more ancient forms of Indian classical vocal music by Pushkar Lele: a shloka, devotional Prabandha Gaayan and a Dhrupad. Having heard many specialist Dhrupad artists perform in this revered discipline, I felt it lacking in depth to gloss over it in the brief rendition given here, and this would be my main but only criticism of the overall performance - that in presenting so many diverse styles the performers could not explore any one style in much depth.

The musicians were then joined on the stage by Shambhavi Vaze for a performance of Kathak dance with a vocal rendition of Chaturang, a highly varied and exciting piece presented in five taals consecutively. Then followed the vocal centrepiece of the evening, a Bara Khayal in 14 beat Jhoomra Taal and Chota Khayal in Teentaal. (I must apologise to readers for not being well-versed in ragas, just talas!) The first set concluded with the main Kathak performance, a very interesting selection of dance compositions set to 13 beat Ras Taal and then Teentaal. Kya baat hai!

The second set consisted of lighter pieces including on the vocal side Ghazal and Tappa, and collaborative vocal-Kathak dance pieces in Thumri, Natya Sangeet, Hori, Gat-bhav and a very exciting Tarana. I was very surprised and honoured when the final piece was dedicated to myself. Apparently they had heard a recording of me and bansuri player Taro Terahara performing in 11 beat Chartaal ki Sawari, so they decided to finish with a beautiful composition of their harmonium player Chaitanya Kunte in 9 and half beats! Wonderful.

Overall it was a splendid performance and we are honoured to have such talented artists visiting us. However I did feel that the concert was a bit too long and that if the artists had chosen to present a more focused selection of pieces it would have been even more accessible to the wide audience they were aiming to please. Many congratulations to concert promoters Bollybiz!

As if that was not enough, the following weekend Bengali Society of Queensland hosted young vocal and sitar duo, Debapriya-Samanwaya from Kolkata, consisting of vocalist Debapriya Adhikary and sitar player Samanwaya Sarkar. Both are extremely talented and devoted artists who have toured internationally solo, and this was their first international tour as a duo. It was my great honour to accompany them in two concerts, firstly at Indooroopilly State High School and then the following night at a private function hosted by Dr N Das.

To be honest, this was much more my kind of recital - pure Indian classical ragas performed with a feeling of great humility and devotion, taking the time to explore each raga in depth. Both Debapriya's voice and Samanwaya's sitar were always relaxed and sweet, through all stages from slow alap to the most rapid twisting taans, meends and gamaks.

The first concert opened with a beautiful recital of Raag Yaman, with fully developed alap and jor, followed by gat in madhya lay ektaal. The second set consisted of two shorter pieces in Raags Kedara and Kalavati. Throughout, the dialogue between voice and sitar was very engaging. The two artists responded to each other's improvisations enthusiastically and yet they shared the space completely harmoniously. I was particularly impressed with sitar player Samanwaya's command over meend (bending of notes) and use of dynamics. Shabaash!

I must say I don't understand why so many Indian cultural events are held in school halls, which have such terrible acoustics and zero atmosphere. I suppose budget has a big part to play, so I encourage all readers to get out and give more support to Indian classical music in Brisbane, so that the organisers can afford to use better venues!

The second Debapriya-Samanwaya concert, on the other hand, was held in the perfect venue - the home of Dr N Das in Pullenvale. Home concerts always provide the best atmosphere for Indian classical music, which developed in the days before microphones and large halls. The audience becomes so much more a part of the music, interacting directly with the artists and encouraging them to strive for ever greater heights.

The recital began with a lovely rendition of Raag Bhupali with alap, jor and gat in madhya lay teentaal. Then followed an exciting Raag Adana, and the concert wrapped up with an emotive Hori in Dip Chandi (14 beats) and Keherva. Even my humble tabla accompaniment was well received! Many thanks to Dr Das and the 30 or so Indian classical music connoisseurs who came on same-day notice.

It really is a privilege for Brisbane every time such great artists visit and enrich our lives with this great jewel of global culture, Indian classical music. Many thanks and congratulations to the organisers of these events, Bollybiz and Bengali Society of Queensland. We look forward to many more great performances soon.

Shen Flindell
www.ethnosuperlounge.com/shen/

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Manose - Bansuri player from Nepal

Last Friday I accompanied Nepali bansuri player Manose in a home concert in Ocean Shores near Byron Bay. Manose is currently touring Australia with satsang stars Deva Premal and Miten. This was the first time he and I had played together and it went quite well. That is the beauty of Indian Classical Music - we could meet and play immediately without rehearsal and there was good chemistry. His style is very sweet, playful and both healing and entertaining. Thanks very much to Paul Kimmel for hosting us and organising such a lovely concert!

Manose and I are playing again this Friday in the Sri Saileshwara Sai Baba Temple, Virginia (north Brisbane), before he returns to Nepal on Saturday.

Rehearsal with Cia, Asim & Saikat

This coming Saturday I have a great gig coming - Global Soul Music Vol 5, featuring Saikat (sitar), Asim (Sudanese music) and Cia (Persian music). I'm really looking forward to the next few of these monthly gigs - take a look at the fliers below. You can get advance tickets at a discount at the EthnoSuperLounge Shop here.

Bengali Society Saraswati Puja

On Saturday I took part in the Bengali Society of Queensland's celebration of Saraswati Puja. Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of learning and music, and so a very important deity for musicians and students, especially in the Bengali community. My guru-ji's family (also Bengali) have held Saraswati Puja home concerts for more than 50 years, and so this is also a very important day for me.

Pujariya Bapi Bhattacharya performing the puja for Saraswati-ma

Sulagna Basu singing songs devoted to Saraswati-ma, accompanied on tabla by Mortuza Huq

Tito Basu performing Bengali songs on guitar

Saikat Bhattacharya (sitar) accompanied by Shen (tabla) - our performance was very well received!

Saraswati Puja cultural evening audience

At the end of one of my best solos my bayan broke! Luckily Mortuza's bayan was right next to me and I could continue with that.

Taro Tour Part 5 - Steve Oda and Ty Burhoe

Following the craziness of Woodford, Taro and I were happy to take it easy for the last week of his tour. We had just a couple of small concerts - a home concert hosted by the Indian community of Brisbane and a temple concert in collaboration with 2 other touring artists, Steve Oda (sarod) and Ty Burhoe (tabla) from America. But first we attended Steve and Ty's own concert, at which Taro also played tamboura.

Ty Burhoe (tabla) and Steve Oda (sarod), with Taro Terahara accompanying on tamboura

Taro and Steve, deep in music

On Taro's last night in Australia, we had one of the best concerts I've ever been involved in: a jugalbandi between Steve Oda and Taro, accompanied on tabla by Ty Burhoe and myself, in the holy surroundings of Sri Saileshwara Sai Baba Temple in north Brisbane. The alaap was beautiful, but too long - 1 hour!!! The audience were wonderful, thank you. Special thanks to Dan Prasad and his family for hosting us.

Steve and Taro exploring Raga Puriya Dhanashree in the Sai Baba temple.

Double Jugalbandi!!! Ty Burhoe, Steve Oda, Taro Terahara, Shen Flindell, tamboura by Alicia

Many thanks to Taro for coming all the way from Japan to play with me. It was a wonderful experience. It is rare for me to have such a fabulous partner to play music with here in Australia. 楽しかったですね！

From now I have a much more open schedule. I'll mainly be teaching tabla to my growing number of students, and organising my monthly Global Soul Music shows. I'll be in Japan from late August for a few months this year, but otherwise enjoying the Australian lifestyle and doing what I can do develop Indian and world music here...

Taro Tour Part 4 - Woodford

Last year Taro & I played at Woodford Folk Festival, including the amazing New Year's Dawn concert, and the organisers were so happy that they invited us back this year. (Thanks Pat & Sim!) This year's Woodford was the wettest I've ever seen. It rained for most of every day except the second day. The hilltop events (New Year's Eve and Dawn) were cancelled, and a lot of people including myself skipped the Closing Ceremony. But everyone was there to enjoy themselves and a great time was had by all.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of Taro & my "proper" concerts, just a couple of jam sessions... In all we played 13 concerts - 5 classical sets in Folklorica (our paid gigs), 1 set accompanying singer Menaka Visvanathan, and 7 "chalkboard" shows in the Chai tent, including an improvised collaboration with Butoh dancer Yumiko Nii, an EthnoSuperLounge session (pictured below), and a very exciting tabla duet with Perth-based tabla player Vicky Ramakrishnan.

We also had the honour of performing in the Folklorica up to New Year's midnight. This included the "3 minutes silence" from 11.30pm, a pet project of Festival director Bill Hauritz. Taro was really looking forward to being part of this, and his performance was perfectly timed - according to the clock given to us by the stage manager! Unfortunately that clock was exactly 3 minutes slow, and Taro played right through the festival's 3 minutes' silence!!! Kind of embarrassing, quite disappointing at first, but it's a funny story. :-)

An impromptu jam session in the Gypsy Caravan - including Francis Gilfedder (morsing), Taro, and Aiba (violin)

EthnoSuperLounge in the Chai Tent - Asim Gorashi, his wife Manal, myself, Taro Terahara, Faros (darbuka), Peter Hunt (trumpet), Caleb Trott (sax), Tony (vocals)

How rainy was Woodford?

Very wet, but fun...

My favourite band of the festival - Mukti. Kind of like Shakti, but with more western classical influences, Mukti features guitar, cello, vibraphone/percussion and tabla. Tabla player Vicky Ramakrishnan and myself also gave a tabla duet performance in the chai tent.

Tashi Lhunpo Monks were featured performers in the festival

A spontaneous collaboration between Tenzin Choegyal and shakuhachi player Riley Lee on the final day

Taro Tour Part 3 - The Great Journey

One of the highlights of Taro & my tour was driving from Melbourne to Brisbane - straight through in 22 hours! We had our small concert in Melbourne on Saturday 22nd, and wanted to reach Brisbane in time to collect Taro's wife Yuriko from the airport on the morning of the 24th. We left Melbourne at 5.45am, took turns driving usually in 2 hour shifts, had a few rest stops along the way and all was fine. The scenery was breathtaking, and I'm really happy to have been able to share it with Taro - coming from Japan this was a major first for him.

This and the next 2 shots were in southern NSW - the flattest parts of the journey.

In Parkes we stopped off at "The Dish"

The Warrumbungles in northern-central NSW

Sunset was particularly beautiful. We were driving through northern NSW, between Moree and Goondiwindi. After a few hills in central NSW the landscape returned to flatness. The sun was setting on our left while there was a full moon rising on our right. Kya baat hai!!!

We made it back in time to have a Rosecliffe Christmas Party!!! :-)

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!

Taro in Oz 2007 tour photos

The first part of bansuri player Taro Terahara's tour is now complete, and the electricity situation at home has been resolved, so I can now post some photos of all the fun we've been having:

Home Concert with Pinaki Bose
I was invited to accompany touring Indian classical singer Pinaki Bose at a home concert on the Gold Coast the day after Taro arrived. He is a very talented singer, reminiscent of the great Rashid Khan. I was very honoured to play with him and to receive his warm compliments on my accompaniment, especially for vilambit ektaal.

Pinaki Bose (vocal), accompanied by Shen (tabla) and Joseph Nand (harmonium)

We were joined in the second half by Taro Terahara on bansuri. It really was a wonderful concert.

From left to right: Joseph Nand (harmonium), Taro Terahara (bansuri), Pinaki Bose (vocal), Shen Flindell (tabla), Ambika Nand, Mahendra Singh (tamboura)

Bamboo Bliss @ Brisbane City Hall
This was the main event of the tour. Many thanks to Shikara Design for sponsorship, support and the most beautiful decorations for the stage and foyer.

Shen and Taro performing at Ithaca Auditorium, Brisbane City Hall

Temple of Melodious Sound in Ocean Shores
After the big Brisbane concert, and with our house without electricity for a few days, it was a welcome break to go and stay with flute player Paul Kimmel in Ocean Shores, near Byron Bay. On the way, we went for a swim at Tugun Beach and Taro forgot to remove his glasses before swimming! He is pretty short-sighted but luckily he has some magnifying swimming goggles. He had to wear these goggles for most of the week until we managed to get back to Brisbane and get some new glasses. He even played a few concerts with them! Pretty funny, pretty cool. :-)

Taro with his goggles in Ocean Shores

Taro jamming on tabla with guitar player Tarshito, who joined Paul Kimmel, Taro and myself for a home concert there.

Taro in Ocean Shores

Bansuri lessons for Indian kids
Today we went to give my weekly tabla lessons in Sunnybank, and one of the families also requested flute lessons from Taro for their kids. So cute!

Taro teaching flute to Navdha (my youngest tabla student)
(note the new spectacles!)