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 concert photos

On Friday night Tibet2Timbuk2 played a concert for BEMAC's Cultivart Program. BEMAC stands for Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre and their Cultivart program is for presenting new world music projects. It was a really nice concert, with diverse range of music from Tenzin Choegyal's Tibetan nomad songs, my own Indian classical tabla solo, Asim Gorashi's Sudanese songs, Marcello Milani's Afro/pop/reggae songs, and the combination of all.

The recent funding cut to BEMAC and a number of other cultural organisations in Queensland cast a shadow over the evening. It's possible this might have been the last ever BEMAC event. All the artists involved told stories about how BEMAC has been important for helping us become world music performers. It would be a real shame if BEMAC was forced to cease operations - please write an email to the Queensland Premier to express support for BEMAC.

Asim Gorashi and Marcello Milani

Tenzin Choegyal and Shen Flindell

Tenzin, who just got back from 3 months in USA the day before the gig!

Shen performing tabla solo

Marcello singing one of his songs

Asim Gorashi in the mood on violin

Many thanks to Richard McLaren for the photos

SET LIST:
First set:

1. Beautiful Girl (Marcello/Tenzin collaborative song)
2. Himalaya (Tenzin's song, solo then group accompaniment)
3. Tabla Solo (Shen with lehera by Tenzin)
4. Allah (beautiful song by Asim on guitar with Marcello and Shen)
5. Music is Life (Marcello song, Asim on violin, Tenzin on flute, Shen on tabla)
6. Radio (Asim's song, playing oud with Marcello and Shen)

Second set:

1. Sudani (Asim's song, playing violin with Marcello and Shen)
2. Murphy's Law (Marcello solo, then accompanied by Asim and Shen)
3. Zim Jam (African-style song by Marcello with Asim and Shen)
4. Dawe Wola (Tenzin's song accompanied by all)
5. White Crane (Tenzin's song accompanied by all)

Please visit ethnosuperlounge.com/t2t2/ to hear studio versions of some of these songs.

Qld Multicultural Festival

Some photos of Qld Multicultural Festival on Sunday. For most of the day, I stayed at the Ceremonial Stage, which featured more acoustic traditional world music acts.

RAASA - guest artist Tunji Beier (excellent Indian/world music percussionist), Dave Fernandez (tabla), Armando (bansuri), Yuval Ashkar (oud)

The set was very impro and they had a "lucky finish" in the second piece (ie they all stopped at the same time, luckily). It was really nice to see Armando again after a few years. After the RAASA set we went and played a little bansuri-tabla together under a tree nearby.

The Parade at the Amphitheatre Stage

Dheeraj Shrestha (tabla) and Saikat Bhattacharya (sitar)
Brisbane folks: please look out for my concert with Saikat in West End on Sat October 27.

Efiq Zulfiqar

Efiq played flute and percussion with a soundtrack of Javanese gamelan. He's a talented musician - unfortunately I didn't get a chance to chat with him after his show. It would be interesting to work with him.

"Sounds of Peace" - Cieavash Arean (tar), Shen (tabla), Vijaya Visvanathan (vocal), Menaka Visvanathan (vocal), Asim Gorashi (oud)

This is my newest ESL combo and it's a very nice group. We actually don't have a name yet, and asked the audience for suggestions - the one I like the most was "Sounds of Peace", although I hope for something more........

Set list:
1. Song from Vijaya (not the one we were expecting!)
2. Sufi song featuring Asim on guitar and whistling - sweet and beautiful
3. Turkish song featuring Cieavash on oud
4. "Payo ji mene" - featuring Vijaya and Menaka
5. Sudanese song by Asim on oud
6. "Aum Namah Shiva" - bhajan led by Vijaya and featuring beautiful vocal solo by Cieavash

Cieavash singing beautifully as ever

Asim on violin