
Tabla player Shen Flindell's personal blog, featuring news of his travels and experiences, plus other interesting snippets.

Shen Flindell (tabla solo) accompanied by Joseph Nand (harmonium)
Shen Flindell (tabla), Toby Wren (guitar), Sean Foran (harmonium)
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.
Tabla Lehri - "garland of tablas" - a tradition at my Guru-ji's tabla school concerts, and very well-received by the audience
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!
Yuki Taniguchi (Dhrupad vocal) with Shen Flindell (tabla)
Rahim Zullah (Sufi music) with Ravikesh Singh and Waheed Popil (tabla)
Shen Flindell (tabla solo) with Yuki Taniguchi (harmonium lehera)
Namita Debroy's Nritya Bharati School of Kathak Dance
Rinki Bala of Nritya Bharati School of Kathak Dance
Vivek Narottam (vocal) with Dheeraj Shrestha (tabla) and Rahim Zullah (harmonium)
Hari Bhakti Dey (bhajan) with Shen Flindell (tabla)
Indo-Irish Fusion with Bennadet Gill and Rahim Zullah
Asad Basit (vocal) with Rahim Zullah (harmonium), Ravi Welsh (jazz guitar) and Waheed Popil (tabla)
Yusuf Ali Khan (vocal) with Rahim Zullah (harmonium), Ravi Welsh (jazz guitar) and Ravikesh Singh (tabla)

Practice on first day - Taro and Sangeet had never met before. The good chemistry was evident from the start though.
Home concert at the "Temple of Melodious Sound" in Ocean Shores, near Byron Bay. This was the biggest concert of the tour - I love home concerts! The tamboura player here is Matthew Weekes, with whom I have a sitar-tabla CD recorded several years ago.
Home concert in St Lucia, Brisbane. This was an excellent concert, and the recording is available for download on my website. Coincidentally, this house was right next door to the place I lived in 1992 while studying at university.