T + S 2009 pt 6 - Melbourne

After the Theatre Royal in Castlemaine, Taro, Sangeet and I stayed 5 days in Melbourne, starting with a concert at Prana House in Thornbury with tabla player Glen Kniebeiss. While in Melbourne we stayed at our friend Vinod Prasanna's place - thanks Vinod and Lisa! Vinod is a bansuri player from Varanasi who was in Munna House at the same time as me a couple of years ago.

Glen and I took turns accompanying on tabla at the concert.

Shen, Taro, Sangeet and Glen Kniebeiss at Prana House, Thornbury
Glen is playing really nicely and I'm always very happy to play with him. It's quite rare for tabla players to get along musically.

Vinod Prasanna at Magpie House, Upwey

Glen, Taro, Vinod and Shen in a double bansuri, double tabla extravaganza on the coldest night of the tour.

Two Aussie tabla devotees - Glen Kniebeiss and Shen Flindell

Sangeet and Taro with Melbourne tabla player Sam Evans.
Sam had Sangeet accompany his tabla lessons for a couple of days. Taro and I had a couple of rest days so we went about town meeting a few Indian music folks.

Shen, Taro and Denis Phelan. Denis is currently learning sitar from Sugato Nag of Kolkata.

A beautiful sunset view of Melbourne from Vinod's place.

Vinod, Shen and Sangeet jamming at Vinod's place.

On our last day in Melbourne we gave a lecture/demonstration at Box Hill TAFE Music School - many thanks to Jonathan Dimond for having us!

We discussed the differences between Ragas Todi, Multani and Madhuwanti, then presented a few taals and a tabla solo in teentaal, then presented a 20 minute raga.

Finally we invited Jonathan to join us for Raga Bhairavi

... and then drove back to Wangaratta

Next stop on the Taro & Sangeet tour, Canberra...

Melbourne: Jazz fusion with Jonathan Dimond

A couple more snaps from Melbourne...

During a performance/lecture with Jonathan Dimond at Box Hill TAFE

Jonathan Dimond not only plays amazing jazz bass but also trombone and tabla, and his jazz compositions feature many influences from Indian music. Last Wednesday afternoon we gave a performance/lecture at Box Hill TAFE where he teaches. Most of the 2 hour session was spent with he and I in discussion and answering students' questions about Indian music, tabla, learning music, improvising... We also played Raga Bhairavi (on fretless bass) in rupak taal, a tabla solo in teentaal, and one of Jonathan's compositions, Jog Blues. Thanks for inviting me Jonathan!

The obligatory Melbourne tram photo

Melbourne has a distinct atmosphere, very multicultural (many Indians and Chinese), lots of shops and restaurants, colder weather than Brisbane, and there are trams. I spent a day visiting St Kilda where I used to live back in 1994, the year I started tabla...