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

Gig snaps: Vijaya's student concert, Forest session with Tenzin

Sri Krishna Music Academy Student Concert - Sat Sep 1

Some photos from Vijaya Visvanathan's student concert last week. I'd love to show you some photos of the cute Indian kids singing but no-one has sent me one yet...

Arthavan Selvanathan (mridingam), me and Atul (harmonium - student of Vijaya-ji)
Arthavan is 16 years old and was so much fun to play with!

Arthavan, Vijaya Visvanathan and myself after the concert
Vijaya-ji did a fantastic job. I have played in a few of her student concerts and this was the best one by far - very entertaining and varied. Her lead students, Menaka Visvanathan (her daughter) and Lavanya Lingam were just fabulous.

World Music Wednesdays with Shen @ The Forest - Opening Night

A couple of snaps from the first night of my new weekly gig at The Forest vegetarian cafe in Boundary St, West End. Last week my good mate Tenzin Choegyal came down with friend Katherine on cello, and Tony Kicken aka Magambo added some fabulous impro vocal. I think there will be some regular and irregular participants every week, so if you're in town please come on down.

Katherine Philp (cello), Tenzin Choegyal (flute/vocal/dranyen), Tony Kicken (vocal), Shen (tabla)

And Nab joined us on oud for a bit too.