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