14th and Final Gifu Sangeet Mela

I've been lucky enough to participate in the annual Gifu Sangeet Mela 6 times - the first time as an audience member and then 5 times performing, culminating in this year's final instance of this wonderful event. (Here are my blog posts for the last three years'.)  It really is great to gather so many musicians to perform together and see each others' performances, give feedback, discuss music and just hang out all night.  This year I was blessed to play twice: first accompanying Taro Terahara (bansuri) and second accompanying Koki Yoshida (sitar).  Unfortunately a few of us Tokyo musicians had to leave at 4am to return for a concert the next day, and so weren't able to see the final two performances nor enjoy the feeling of having experienced the whole night together.  The next day's after-party is always a blast too; so sad to have missed that.  Many thanks to Jimi-san for inviting me to join in again, and we'll miss the Sangeet Mela in future years.

Event organiser and wonderful santoor player, Setsuo "Jimi-san" Miyashita

This image of Saraswati-maa, goddess of music, has looked over Sangeet Mela for 14 years!

Baku Hirakawa (sarod) with Ayako Ikeda (tabla)

Rahul Acharya (Odissi dance)

Taro Terahara (bansuri) with Shen Flindell (tabla)

Sachiko Murakami's Odissi dance group

Live accompaniment for Sachiko Murakami's Odissi dance group

Jai Bajrang - Tetsuya Kaneko (pakhawaj) and Takaaki Kuno (ghatam)

Scene from the green room

Koki Yoshida (sitar) with Shen Flindell (tabla)

Atsuko Maeda and her Kathak dance group

Steve Oda (sarod) with Ty Burhoe (tabla)

Yukie Satou (Odissi dance)

Shree (Dhrupad vocal) with Tetsuya Kaneko (pakhawaj)

Gifu Sangeet Mela 2009

Gifu Sangeet Mela is a yearly all-night Indian classical music and dance event held in Horado village, Gifu prefecture, Japan. Last year's Mela was a big success and this year's event had an even more illustrious lineup, with a whole bunch of international artists. Unfortunately I think the promotions for this year's event were a bit late, because numbers were way down on previous years, but that did little to dispel the feelings of camaraderie amongst the artists. This is very much a music conference, like India's Dover Lane, All India, and other gatherings of musicians from around the country. The artists gather together to hear and get inspired by each other, and just to have some fun together. The event is dedicated to the goddess of music, Saraswati, and I really felt this time that it's like a puja, and that staying up from start to end is an act of devotion bringing many blessings.

Congratulations once again Jimi-san! (Thanks to Yuki Taniguchi for all the photos.)

Goddess Saraswati-ma watched over the proceedings

7.15pm: Opening ceremony by local Taiko group, 美濃の國高賀山太鼓(洞戸）

7:52pm: Opening Indian classical item, Kathak dance by Atsuko Maeda, accompanied by Takaaki "Maha" Kuno (ghatam), Yasuhiro Minamizawa (sitar), Shree (vocal)

8:41pm: Sangeet Mishra (sarangi - Mumbai/Varanasi) with Ashwini Kumar Mishra (tabla - resident in Kobe) performing Raga Vachaspati

10:03pm: Satoshi and Sachie Tatsumi (Bharat Natyam dance)

10:46pm: Setsuo "Jimi" Miyashita (santoor) accompanied by U-Zhaan (tabla)

11:19pm: Mata Prasad Mishra with son Rudra Shankar Mishra (Kathak dance)

12:12am: Surprise guest Tenzin Choegyal (Tibetan music) accompanied by Taro Terahara (bansuri) and Shen Flindell (tabla)

12:48am: Keisuke Muto (sitar) accompanied by Tetsuya Kaneko (pakhawaj)

1:32am: Baul singer Satyananda Das with Hori Dasi and Mabo-san

1:59am: Daya Tomiko (Bharat Natyam) doing a Saraswati pose

3:06am: Shree (Dhrupad vocal) accompanied by Tetsuya Kaneko (pakhawaj)

3:50am: Yoshida Daikiti (sitar) accompanied by Shen Flindell (tabla)
This was our first ever duo performance (our first performance was in a jugalbandi last year), and was very very enjoyable!

4:31am: Jai Bajrang percussion ensemble - Tetsuya Kaneko (pakhawaj), Mata Prasad Mishra (tabla), Takaaki "Maha" Kuno (ghatam), accompanied by Keisuke Muto (sitar)

5:21am: Carlos Guerra (bansuri) accompanied by Shen Flindell (tabla)
Such a sweet Chandrakauns, perhaps my best ever accompaniment for Carlos-ji.

6:12am: Yasuhiro Minamizawa (sitar) accompanied by Mata Prasad Mishra (tabla)

7:24am: Steve Oda (sarod) accompanied by U-Zhaan (tabla)
Wow. So beautiful. Ahir Bhairav followed by Bhairavi, in memory of Steve's late guru-ji, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. The best accompaniment I've ever seen from U-Zhaan. So many tears were shed on listening to this Bhairavi. Taro (on tamboura) was just about blubbering.

4pm: After-party in a nearby hall. 皆様、おつかれさまでした！
In this photo, everyone is listening to 1 year old Suisho banging on taiko and chanting oo-ba-ba! Ba-ba TOM, Ba-ba TOM! Kya baat hai!!!

Gifu Sangeet Mela 2008 - the best ever!!!

Every year on the full moon in September or October, santoor player Jimi Miyashita organises the Sangeet Mela in Horado Village, Gifu. This year was the 11th occasion (my 4th time in attendance, 3rd time performing), and pretty much everyone agrees that it was the best ever!!! Everyone played so well. Many congratulations to Jimi-san and all the performers and volunteers.

The Indian classical music and dance community in Japan is really very impressive. It spans several generations and now has a very broad base among younger folks. Gifu Sangeet Mela is the peak event in the community's year, bringing together musicians and dancers to perform together all night, starting 6pm and finishing 6am. The musicians are part of the audience, and most others in the audience are also knowledgeable about Indian classical music, whether as an experienced practitioner or listener or a beginning student. It was really heart warming for me to see early 20s Japanese girls sitting in the front row counting out the taals.

I really hope that some time this kind of event can get started in Australia. I really cannot rave enough about how wonderful it was to have all these great musicians, dancers and Indian music lovers gathering together in a quiet country hall and enjoying all the performances all night until the dawn. Getting praise from other musicians was so rewarding. The community vibe continued when all the musicians and volunteers went to bathe in a local onsen and then gather for drinks and lunch. Jimi-san deserves huge praise for continuing this event for 11 years and giving so much to the Indian music community here in Japan.

(I've put times that the photos were taken so you'll have an idea of how immense this event is. Some of the photos were near the beginning, some the end of a set...)

Saraswati watched over the proceedings

The green room - from left to right: Aki (tamboura), U-Zhaan (tabla), Daya Tomiko and friends (rear - Bharat Natyam), Taro Terahara (bansuri), Daikichi Yoshida (sitar), Yasuhiro Minamizawa (sitar), Mata Prasad Mishra (Kathak dance, tabla), Chie (tamboura), Yuriko Terahara (tamboura)
So wonderful to see all these Indian music folks together!!!

6:24pm Opening ceremony by local Taiko group, 美濃の國高賀山太鼓(洞戸）

6:44pm Mata Prasad Mishra (Varanasi) dancing with the Horado Taiko group

7:13pm Manami Fujiwara (Bharat Natyam dance)

This lad was dancing along with every dancer - I think his mother is a dance student.

8:10pm Opening instrumental performance - Jimi Miyashita (santoor) accompanied by U-ZHAAN (tabla) and Yukiko (tamboura)

9:04pm Atsuko Maeda (Kathak dance)
I will be accompanying Atsuko in 3 concerts in Tokyo in October

Atsuko Maeda's accompanists:
U-ZHAAN (tabla), Taro Terahara (bansuri), Daikichi Yoshida (sitar)

9:56pm Daikichi Yoshida (sitar) accompanied by Mata Prasad Mishra (tabla - Varanasi)

11:30pm Shree (aka Mariko Katsura - Dhrupad vocal) accompanied by Tetsuya Kaneko (pakhawaj), Yuki Kaneko (tamboura)

12:40am Daya Tomiko (Bharat Natyam)

1:19am Koki Yoshida (sitar) accompanied by Shen Flindell (tabla).
Thanks to Akira Io for the photo.

2:03am Sachie Tatsumi (Bharat Natyam dance)

2:14am Satoshi Tatsumi (Bharat Natyam dance)

2:27am Satoshi and Sachie Tatsumi (Bharat Natyam dance)
I am absolute fans of these two and would go so far as to say that Sachie Tatsumi is the best Bharat Natyam dancer I've ever seen. So natural, so touching.

3:11am Jai Bajrang with special guest Mata Prasad Mishra (tabla)
Jai Bajrang is Tetsuya Kaneko (pakhawaj), Takaaki Kuno (ghatam), Yuki Kaneko (violin)

3:26am "Yoshida Brothers" (Daikichi Yoshida and Koki Yoshida - not actually brothers) with U-ZHAAN and Shen.
Thanks to Akira Io for the photo.

4:07am Mata Prasad Mishra (Kathak dance)

4:51am Taro Terahara (bansuri) accompanied by Ayako Ikeda (tabla)
Krishna and his gopis?

5:45am Yasuhiro Minamizawa (sitar) accompanied by Dinesh Chandra (tabla)

6:23am Almost done - will this really be only 15 minutes? The sun is up already...

6:32am Final Bhairavi session: left to right - Dinesh Chandra (tabla), Taro Terahara (bansuri), Jimi Miyashita (santoor), Yasuhiro Minamizawa (sitar), Mata Prasad Mishra (tabla)

I have some video and a few photos of the post-event festivities, which I hope to post in the coming days. Can anyone suggest good free video editing software?
Edit: Video and post-Mela party photos now here.