I had loads of concerts this week: After playing with Jai Uttal in Byron on Thursday, I was very busy at BEMAC's Melting Pot Festival at Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC). Melting Pot is on the afternoons of one weekend a month for the next few months, and the first two editions are focusing on Indian and Tibetan music. While I'd known I would be playing with Tibet2Timbuk2 for a while, just a few days beforehand I was surprised to be invited for 2 more performances on the same day. So except for the opening act (Bollywood dance), I was on stage all day. And it was hot! Thanks to Vijaya Visvanathan and Shrabani Choudhury for inviting me to accompany them, and also to Menaka Visvanathan for joining Tibet2Timbuk2. A wonderful afternoon of music - and I hope no one got tired of hearing my tabla!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Jai Uttal concert in Byron
I came back from India a bit earlier than planned especially because I was invited to accompany kirtan singer Jai Uttal in his first ever Australian concert. The Byron Bay Community Centre was sold out as Jai Uttal and his "Shire Love Orchestra" led the audience through a couple of hours of singalong kirtans mixed up with Jai's original solo songs on devotional themes. Jai is one of the biggest names in the field of Westernised kirtans and it was a big honour and great opportunity for me to play with him and the musicians he gathered. The atmosphere on the night was thick with love and joy. Many thanks to tour organiser Amir Paiss for all his work in bringing Jai Uttal to Australia.
Friday, February 05, 2010
Delhi concert with Taro Terahara
In my last days in India I intended to go and see my good friend Taro Terahara play in Delhi at a concert organised by The Japan Foundation, who invited him and Kathak Dancer Masako Sato ("Miyabi") from Japan to perform there. Taro was to be accompanied by my guru-bhai Govinda Chakraborty, but as fortune would have it Govinda-da had to pull out and recommended me for the show. This was my first show in India outside of Varanasi. Thanks to Taro for the opportunity!
Shen and Taro performing at The Japan Foundation in New Delhi.
Kathak Miyabi at The Japan Foundation
More concerts in Varanasi
I saw a bunch more concerts by high-profile artists while in Varanasi: Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Baha-ud-din Dagar, Fazal Qureshi, Dhananjay Mishra and last but not least Gundecha Brothers.
Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia accompanied by Rashid Mustapha Thirakwa. Hari-ji is getting old now, and was visibly shaking. Still it's always great to see a great master, and young Thirakwa's accompaniment was very sweet.
Ustad Baha-ud-din Dagar on the rudra veena - a very deep (bassy) instrument from the Dhrupad tradition. Sublime.
Baha-ud-din was accompanied on pakhawaj by our friend Tetsuya Kaneko of Nagoya. The concert was part of the annual winter series at Ganges View Hotel in Assi Ghat.
Fazal Qureshi, younger brother of Zakir Hussain. The setting was beautiful - an old haveli on Raja Ghat. Fazal-ji played very nicely, although it's hard not to compare with the greatness and beauty of his older brother's playing.
Gundecha Brothers with Shrikant Mishra at Ganges View Hotel, Assi Ghat. A great performance, and the perfect farewell to Varanasi for me before running to pack for my 1am train trip to Delhi...
Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia accompanied by Rashid Mustapha Thirakwa. Hari-ji is getting old now, and was visibly shaking. Still it's always great to see a great master, and young Thirakwa's accompaniment was very sweet.
Ustad Baha-ud-din Dagar on the rudra veena - a very deep (bassy) instrument from the Dhrupad tradition. Sublime.
Baha-ud-din was accompanied on pakhawaj by our friend Tetsuya Kaneko of Nagoya. The concert was part of the annual winter series at Ganges View Hotel in Assi Ghat.
Fazal Qureshi, younger brother of Zakir Hussain. The setting was beautiful - an old haveli on Raja Ghat. Fazal-ji played very nicely, although it's hard not to compare with the greatness and beauty of his older brother's playing.
Gundecha Brothers with Shrikant Mishra at Ganges View Hotel, Assi Ghat. A great performance, and the perfect farewell to Varanasi for me before running to pack for my 1am train trip to Delhi...
Anwar Tabla Maker
My tabla maker Mohammed Anwar is the son of the famous old Varanasi tabla maker Shamsuddin. Anwar has been making me great tabla for several years now, and over the last year has helped me especially, in producing tabla especially made to pass Australian Quarantine's high standards, and packing and sending me numerous parcels, a big job in itself. I spent my last few days in Varanasi with him, checking tablas, bayans, puris (skins) and various accessories off of the lists of orders I had for myself and a few friends around the world, and then packing them into parcels. Sending the parcels from the post office was very frustrating: after being told by the postal clerk to wait in the queue for an hour, he then processed only 3 of my 7 parcels and asked me to join the queue again! Anyway, we gradually got the job done... Many thanks to Anwar and his sons Salman and Imran for all their help!
Anwar and son Salman. I've been teaching Salman how to send and check email, and various other computer skills, over the last couple of years. This year we got him a Skype account and I showed him where to get wi-fi on his new laptop.
Anwar and son Salman. I've been teaching Salman how to send and check email, and various other computer skills, over the last couple of years. This year we got him a Skype account and I showed him where to get wi-fi on his new laptop.
(For those interested in buying tabla or tabla skins especially in Australia, please get in touch.)
Sand sculpture island on Ganga
A sand island appears in the Ganges a little south of Varanasi in winter and there is a sand sculpture competition each year. Here are some snaps from our visit, 2 days after the competition, so slightly wind-blown.
A scene from the boat trip to the sand sculpture island.
Saraswati Puja 2010
The annual Saraswati Puja in my guru-ji's house has been running for 65 years and has featured such greats as Pt Ravi Shankar, Ud. Mushtaq Ali Khan and Pt Kanthe Maharaj. This year it was my honour to open the concert, accompanying my good friend Hiro Minamizawa who played Raga Marwa. Then followed young vocalist Priyanka Bhattacharya, and finally the highlight was Dr Sanjay Verma on mohan veena (slide guitar) with guru-ji's son Dr Debabrata Bhattacharya on tabla. Priyanka and I shared the MC duties for the day. This concert is always a very special event for me, as I fondly remember Guru-ji sitting next to Saraswati and enjoying his students' music.
Goddess Saraswati-ma and Guru-ji.
The family and students gather for the puja in the early afternoon
Guru-ji's grandson Abhishek ("Babun") in the puja. Babun and I had a lot of classes together with Guru-ji when Babun was a young 'un.
Prasad receiving blessings from Saraswati-ma. A big lunch which I always look forward to.
Priyanka Bhattacharya (vocal) accompanied by Jaydev Mukherjee (tabla) and Ashish (harmonium)
Newspaper clipping from Amaar Ujaala, 21 Jan 2010 about our concert.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Pt Nayan Ghosh and Brahmandanga village
This year I had my first ever lessons from someone outside the family and students of my main guru-ji, Late Pt Ashutosh Bhattacharya. I came to Kolkata to meet with Pt Nayan Ghosh, as recommended to me by my senior guru-bhai, Govinda Chakraborty of the Kathak Kendra in Delhi.
Here is a sample of Nayan-ji's wikipedia page:
In all I had 3 lessons with Nayan-ji, who took me in with open arms and started me off with some material from Delhi, Ajrara and Farrukabad Gharanas. Having been trained exclusively in Benares gharana, my third and fourth fingers are used to being stuck together, so I've had a bit of work getting them to work independently as required by Delhi style. I received quite a number of beautiful kaidas, tukaras and gats but more than that some new techniques which have instantly expanded the scope to practise all my repertoire.
I was lucky enough to be invited to stay with Nayan-ji in his "nephew"'s village Brahmandanga, outside Kolkata. The "nephew" was actually Aneesh Ghosh, the son of a senior student of his father who was a very important figure in the area. Nayan-ji told me that when in Kolkata he often goes to this village secretly to do riaz for coming concerts undisturbed for a few days.
Here is a sample of Nayan-ji's wikipedia page:
Nayan Ghosh was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra to the legendary Tabla Maestro Padmabhushan Pandit Nikhil Ghosh, the founder of Sangeet Mahabharati.[3]It doesn't mention that he is also an accomplished sitar player! Unfortunately my train was 5 hours late so I missed his sitar concert in Kolkata.
He was trained by his father, and practiced under the watchful eye of Ustad Ahmedjan Thirakwa, who lived with them for many years towards the end of his life in Mumbai.
Nayan Ghosh is regarded by many as the greatest performer of the traditional tabla repertoire of the Farrukhabad style.
He has accompanied many of the all-time greats, such as Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, Ustad Vilayat Khan and Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta.
In all I had 3 lessons with Nayan-ji, who took me in with open arms and started me off with some material from Delhi, Ajrara and Farrukabad Gharanas. Having been trained exclusively in Benares gharana, my third and fourth fingers are used to being stuck together, so I've had a bit of work getting them to work independently as required by Delhi style. I received quite a number of beautiful kaidas, tukaras and gats but more than that some new techniques which have instantly expanded the scope to practise all my repertoire.
I was lucky enough to be invited to stay with Nayan-ji in his "nephew"'s village Brahmandanga, outside Kolkata. The "nephew" was actually Aneesh Ghosh, the son of a senior student of his father who was a very important figure in the area. Nayan-ji told me that when in Kolkata he often goes to this village secretly to do riaz for coming concerts undisturbed for a few days.
Pt Nayan Ghosh performing tabla solo in Kolkata.
Scenes in Brahmandanga village
Aneesh Ghosh, son of one of Nayan-ji's senior guru-bhai, took me on a tour of his farm. The freshly picked peas and cucumber were so sweet! All the food we ate at his house was grown on his farm.
Pt Nayan Ghosh and Shen
Kolkata: Debapriya-Samanwaya
I recently stayed a week in Kolkata, in order to have some lessons with Pt Nayan Ghosh (more on that in the next post). I was lucky enough to be well looked after by singer Debapriya Adhikary and sitarist Samanwaya Sarkar, who form the Indian classical duo Debapriya-Samanwaya. I did some concerts with Deb-Sam when they were in Australia in October. They put me up in an apartment near Debapriya's place in Narendrapur, south Kolkata, where I stayed with their other guests, Thamo and Gowtem Sridharan, Sri Lankans from Canberra. 16 year old Gowtem is learning sitar with Samanwaya and looks to be getting an excellent foundation. He was practising for hours every day. I'm looking forward to seeing how he develops over the next few years.
Practising with Debapriya Adhikary
Practising with Samanwaya Sarkar
My flatmates in Narendrapur, Thamo Sridharan and his son Gowtem, from Canberra.
NYE Boat jam with Tahir
To celebrate the end of 2009, we braved the cold and went on a little Ganges boat trip with singer Tahir and a bunch of friends. Tahir is an American well-trained in Qawwalli singing and studying khayals etc in Benares, who sings with great enthusiasm and enjoyment. He will be in Byron Bay this year so look out for his concerts and workshops in the area. Hopefully we'll be playing together in Brisbane too.
We went along to Kashika Music Ashram's New Year's Eve concert that night.
We went along to Kashika Music Ashram's New Year's Eve concert that night.
Dr Shrabani Biswas, who happens to be the sitar guru of our friend Hiro Minamizawa.
Sukhdev Mishra (violin) accompanied by Gyan Swarup (tabla)
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