Tibet2Timbuk2 in Coffs Harbour with Yuki

Tibet2Timbuk2 recently had a show helping to raise funds for CWON (Child Welfare Organization of Nepal) at a concert in Coffs Harbour. On the drive down Tenzin asked Yuki if she would join us for a couple of songs, which turned out beautifully! Yuki opened the show with a short mantra and lovely bhajan, then joined us for Crane Song, Tso Marpo and the finale Aum Mani Padme Hum. In the process we helped to raise $2000 for Nepali kids, and we were then treated to a fun party by the CWON crew.  Many thanks to Calida Neal and her father Neville Neal for bringing us down to Coffs Harbour.

Tibet2Timbuk2 with Yuki Taniguchi Flindell

I did a short tabla demonstration with my usual finale - "Rabbit, Deer, Lion"

Tibet2Timbuk2 with Sulagna Basu in Noosa

This weekend Tibet2Timbuk2 had a double header on the Sunshine Coast, with an afternoon concert at one of our favourite venues, Crystal Waters Eco-Village, followed by an evening concert in Noosa Pengari Steiner School. Unfortunately I don't have any photos from the afternoon concert, but here are some from the evening. Thanks to organiser Jalberto Maldonado of Timbeao Planet and to special guest artist Sulagna Basu.

Sulagna Basu opened the evening with a variety of classical, semi-classical and folk songs, accompanied on tabla by Shen.

We concluded the first half of the programme with a tabla duet between Shen and his senior student, Sulagna's son Tito Basu, which got a very good audience response.

Tibet2Timbuk2 were joined by special guest Sulagna Basu on vocals in "Crane Song"

Sulagna performed some Kathak dance with us on "Tso Marpo"

Tibet2Timbuk2 at Powerhouse with IJIMP

On the winter solstice (June 21), Tibet2Timbuk2 had a show at Brisbane Powerhouse, organised by BEMAC as part of their "Planet" series of concerts. This concert was titled "Focus on Fusion" and also featuring Indo-Japanese Improvised Music Project (IJIMP). This was our first show in Brisbane since before my trip to India in Japan starting in February, and we're not sure when the next Brisbane show will be...? Maybe December or January when special guest Taro Terahara (bansuri) will be in town.

IJIMP - Takako Nishiburi (koto), Carl Rathus (shakuhachi), Ravikesh Singh (tabla)

Tibet2Timbuk2 with special guest Nicholas Ng (erhu)

Festival of Tibet 2012

On Sat 4 Feb Tibet2Timbuk2 gave two performances at the annual Festival of Tibet in Brisbane Powerhouse. We were joined for both concerts by special guests Peter Hunt (trumpet) and Katherine Philp (cello).

The first performance was a free show on the Turbine Platform as part of BEMAC's Planet Series of monthly world music concerts at the Powerhouse. The platform was packed as were the two levels of balconies above the platform! Fantastic response.

In the second concert, in the Visy Theatre, we provided musical accompaniment along with the Tashi Lhunpo Monks for a spoken word performance by Tibetan activist and writer Tenzin Tsundue. In the 90 minute show he talked about his experiences as a Tibetan in exile growing up in India, believing in the cause of Free Tibet, walking to Tibet over the Chinese border, being interrogated in jail in Lhasa and later in an Indian jail when marching to the border at the time of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It was a very powerful performance and a great honour and experience for us to be part of.

Many thanks to Tenzin Choegyal for organising this fantastic yearly festival and creating such interesting projects. Thanks also to Carolyn Stubbin of Perfect Potion (main festival sponsors) for these lovely photos.

Katherine Philp - cello

On tour with Taro Terahara (part 2)

For Taro's second weekend in Australia this summer, we had a 3 stop tour of NSW with Tibet2Timbuk2. We were hosted in Bellingen by Roots Records, who were celebrating their 1st birthday. Then the Wauchope Arts Council welcomed us back after our show there in January, and we closed out the weekend with an afternoon show at Sphinx Rock Cafe near Mt Burrell, NNSW.

Tenzin and I have toured Japan with Taro a couple of times now, but this was our first chance to have both Marcello and Taro playing with us for a series of really good shows. The chemistry that developed was really fantastic, and these were some brilliant concerts. (Here's a review of the Bellingen show.)

日本語のブログは、Yukiのブログを見てください。

Bellingen:

Wauchope:

Sphinx Rock Cafe:

This is a U-Stream (live internet stream) archive of our Sphinx Rock Cafe concert. The sound is not the best!

Brisbane:

After the Tibet2Timbuk2 tour, I had Taro help some of my students with accompaniment. We had a little student Christmas party and 4 of the students accompanied Taro.

On tour with Taro Terahara (part 1)

This summer we were lucky to have our old friend, bansuri master Taro Terahara returning to Australia, this time with his wife Yuriko. (Click here for an index of blogs on Taro's previous Australian tours.) As you'll see in the coming episodes, we had a great summer with lots of good times for all. Unlike previous years, the weather was fine most of the time, though not too hot with the occasional afternoon shower to cool things down.

We kicked off the tour with a couple of classical shows, firstly in the Sri Saileshwara Temple in Brisbane and then the next day at Awakening Centre in Maleny. On the Sunday we were joined on the Sunshine Coast by Tibet2Timbuk2 for a concert in the splendid gompa at Chenrezig Tibetan Buddhist Community, on the anniversary of HH the Dalai Lama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

Yuki opening our concert at Sri Saileshwara Mandir.

These two members of the temple congregation treated us to a beautiful devotional song at the end of the evening.

Yuki opening our concert at Awakening Centre. There was a storm just before the concert, which resulted in a blackout and a candle-lit performance.

There was a lunar eclipse that night. After the storm the sky was quite clear.

Tibet2Timbuk2 with special guest Taro Terahara, at Chenrezig Gompa.

Many thanks to Yuriko for the following videos of the concert:

And thanks to Lesley for the following videos of the concert:

Tibet2Timbuk2 - 2 fun gigs

On Sat 4th June, Tibet2Timbuk2 had a couple of fun gigs in one day, firstly at Zillmere Multicultural Festival in the afternoon. It was a lovely afternoon for a festival which also included Tenzin's solo performance and other music and dance performances from local communities from around the world. Unfortunately we couldn't enjoy much of the other music because we had to rush off to New Farm to play a benefit concert for a school in Tabo, Spiti, north India. We played some very peaceful improvisations in the evening concert.

Our next show will be on Saturday 16th July at The Basement in Surfers Paradise, with special guest Menaka Visvanathan. This will be our last show before Tenzin and I head off for a Japan tour, July 28 to August 10. I'll be staying on in Japan for a month after that.

 Tibet2Timbuk2 at Zillmere Multicultural Festival

Tibet2Timbuk2 performing in Merthyr Uniting Church

Taro in Oz 2011 (part 1)

I've been enjoying the sounds of beautiful bansuri, as brilliantly played by my friend Taro Terahara over the last couple of weeks. As you may have seen on these pages, Tenzin and I have toured with Taro in Japan the last couple of years, and they've just released a beautiful duet CD entitled "Tibet: Awakened Heart". To celebrate its launch, Tenzin invited Taro over to do a big concert along with Tibet2Timbuk2 at the Festival of Tibet which is on at Brisbane Powerhouse next weekend. In the leadup to this concert, Taro and T2T2 did a little tour down to NSW which also included a session at our good friends Elliott and Josie's celebrity wedding.

The tour opened with a small Indian classical concert hosted by Swara Mohini at Garden City Library.

Yuki opened with Sanskrit mantras

Taro played Raga Marwa in vilambit and drut teentaal, followed by Desh and Bhairavi

The following weekend we all drove 8 hours down to Wauchope, near Port Macquarie on the central NSW coast, where we were hosted by Krissa Wilkinson of the Wauchope Arts Council. Krissa had seen us play at Bellingen Global Carnival in October and invited us to come. We were happily surprised when the hall filled up to overflowing full of lovely people keen to go on a musical journey together. It was a brilliant night, one of our best shows ever. To top it off this was our first proper Tibet2Timbuk2 concert to include Taro, who recorded on our CD at a distance in Tokyo a few years back. Magic!

After enjoying our friends Elliott and Josie's massive wedding on the Saturday, where we played after the second ceremony, on the Sunday we had a nice little acoustic concert at Ganesa Gallery in Byron Bay. Many thanks to Garry and Kei who invited us to play after our show in Byron in December. Thanks also to Tahir Qawwal who came and jammed with Taro and I for a lovely Bhairavi ghazal.

Tabla Tarrango and Tibet2Timbuk2 at Woodford

As you may have read in my previous post, Woodford Folk Festival was huge as usual. As well as playing with Tibet2Timbuk2 (our first time at the festival), this year I was honoured and excited to have my tabla school invited to perform. We performed under the name "Tabla Tarrango" which is also the name my first guru Debu Bhattacharya used for his tabla group performances. My two best tabla students, Tito Basu and Sanjey Sivaananthan, joined me to perform a number of compositions in jhaptaal (10 beats) and teentaal (16 beats). We were joined on harmonium by Joseph Nand and vocals by Sulagna Basu, in a style somewhat inspired by Pt Suresh Talwarkar's new style of tabla solo, incorporating vocal performance in between tabla compositions. The performance was well received and I'm hopeful it will become a yearly event for us. We'll put on an absolutely brilliant show in a few more years!

Tabla Tarrango at Woodford 2010
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Tibet2Timbuk2 at Chai Tent

Tibet2Timbuk2 at Bazaar Stage, where we had brilliant sound, thanks Bazaar sound crew!

Tibet2Timbuk2 at Byron Community Centre

On Friday Dec 3rd Tibet2Timbuk2 had a concert at Byron Community Centre, with special guests Peter Hunt (trumpet) and Armando Ornano (bansuri). Yuki Taniguchi opened with some beautiful mantras, followed by bansuri alap by Armando and then a slow bhajan with tabla. Yuki had just arrived from Japan, and her flight was delayed so that rather than arriving in the morning and having a rest, she arrived just in time for soundcheck! Well done, Yuki!

Apart from a very small home concert in Ocean Shores in winter, this was our first proper show in Byron. I think we got a few more fans this time so hopefully we've got something to build on there now. The new songs, especially "Snow Lion" were absolutely beautiful, and Peter and Armando added some luscious textures on trumpet and bansuri.

Tibet2Timbuk2 Qld Multicultural Festival + Queen St Mall

On the weekend of Oct 16/17 Tibet2Timbuk2 had a couple of shows; firstly in Queen St Mall on Saturday afternoon then at Queensland Multicultural Festival (QMF) on Sunday. We were joined on both occasions by regular guest artist Peter Hunt from the most excellent jazz reggae band, Kooii.

I was quite busy at QMF, where I also accompanied sitar player Saikat Bhattacharya in the morning, then had two sets with Turkish musician Feridun Avar and storyteller Tom Lipscomb performing Nasruddin stories. No photos of the set with Feridun unfortunately... The first set had tuning disasters and was hard work, but the second set was really great. Hopefully we'll be doing this show again.