Global Soul Music + Rosecliffe photos

On Saturday we had the first edition of my new monthly concert, Global Soul Music. The music was beautiful, the space lovely. This group has an excellent chemistry, bringing together music spanning Sudan through Iran to India.

Just need a bit more community support... Next month, sitar player Saikat Bhattacharya and bhajans with Yani.

Global Soul Music Vol.1 : Shen (tabla), Vijaya Visvanathan (vocal), Menaka Visvanathan (vocal), Cieavash Arean (vocal, tar, oud, daf), Asim Gorashi (vocal, violin, whistling, oud)

There are lots of much nicer photos at the Divine Arts website.

Rosecliffe St
Some snaps from my lovely home...

Akira cooking while Alicia feeds Tiger the cat

Akira, Alicia and Simon. Akira and Simon are both currently in Japan.

Tiger aka Tigga aka Mr Stripey Trousers

Another regular visitor

This week my cousin Ed came up from Sydney. Here he is with my housemate Melissa.

Ed, Mel and Alicia hanging out at Rosecliffe

Our mate Sammy - a great whistle and trumpet player - stops by to relax on the balcony.

The view from our balcony - Brisbane River in the background

Forest band with mbira and bass

Some snaps from last night's session at The Forest...

(L to R): Ravi (jazz guitar), Alicia (mbira), Shen (tabla), David (double bass)

And on the other side of the room...
George (accordion), Sammy (whistles), Tony (vocals/bongos)

Alicia and Ravi

Sammy channeling

Hilary and Bess

Went to the post office yesterday and the only parking spot for my van Hilary was right next to her sister Bess! Two seventies Ford Transits in West End...

Bess and Hilary

Hilary and Bess

Article in Brisbane Indian Times

There is an article about me in the latest edition of Brisbane Indian Times (issue date Sep 15, 2007, page 40):

Local Tabla Wala Returns from Taal Yatra

Brisbane-based tabla player Shen Flindell has returned from 7 months’ travelling around Asia with little more than his tabla and laptop.

Shen spent 3 months in the holy city of Varanasi, India, practising his art and performing in several concerts, including Saraswati Puja in his Guru-ji Late Pandit Ashutosh Bhattacharya’s home and the 3rd annual Ashu-Babu Memorial Concert on holy Tulsi Ghat. “I’ll always fondly remember the Mahanta-ji of Viswanath Mandir telling me of our performance, ‘Bahut sundar! Esa hona chahiye.’,” says Shen. Also while in India, he took lessons in tabla from his senior guru-bhai, Pt. Govinda Chakraborty, head of the tabla department at Kathak Kendra in Delhi.

Following this Indian sojourn, Shen spent a further 3 months giving Indian Classical Music concerts all around Japan. “The Indian Classical Music community in Japan is very strong – there are many enthusiastic students who continue their studies for many years. This year I played with 20 different musicians all around the country, each one with their own unique style and character. That is the beauty of Indian Classical Music.”

On return to Australia, Shen’s travels were not over as he immediately took on 3 weeks visiting Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne and meeting various artists there.

Now based back in Highgate Hill, Brisbane, Shen will be concentrating entirely on tabla and Indian Classical Music in our region. He is available for both adults and kids tabla lessons, and can give classes in suburban areas for groups of 4 or more. He is also experienced in tabla repair and has high quality parts from Varanasi’s leading tabla maker, Mohammad Anwar. He can even find uses for old tabla and tabla skins. Shen can be contacted on 0415-106428 or by email at shen@ethnosuperlounge.com (For concert details, see the website www.ethnosuperlounge.com)

Shen Flindell accompanying Taro Terahara at a concert in Varanasi. Taro will be visiting Australia again this December.

Forest House Band + playing for 400 kids

The gradually evolving Forest World Music Wednesday house band - Sammy (whistles, harmonic singing, etc), Ravi (jazz guitar), Shen (tabla), George (accordion)

Wednesday nights at The Forest vegetarian cafe are going really well. A few musicians are turning up regularly and there have been some very nice sound blends going down. Thanks to Ravi for the smooth jazz guitar, George for sensitive accordion, and Sammy for channeling spirits through his whistles and voice!


Playing for 400 Kids
No photos of this, but yesterday Asim Gorashi (great Sudanese musician living in Brisbane now) played for the final of the Wakakirri Story Contest Grand Final - our audience 400 primary school kids! It was so much fun. We played a couple of songs, and in between I did a tabla demonstration. Got the kids to say "tetekatagadiganadha!" They were really excited and wow, really fun.

Global Soul Music poster

I've started organising concerts again! Not super publicity big gigs, but getting some nice musicians together in a nice space and playing some beautiful experimental cross-cultural music. Next Saturday is the first of my monthly "Global Soul Music" events at Core Yoga Studios in West End, a suburb of Brisbane with lots of artistic and interesting folks.

The musicians in this first concert are:
: Asim Gorashi from Sudan - oud, violin, vocals, whistling
: Cieavash Arean from Iran - tar, vocals, daf, ney, camanche, Persian santoor
: Vijaya Visvanathan from India - vocals (Carnatic)
: Shen from Australia - Indian tabla

We had a great rehearsal tonight. Oud, tar, tabla, tamboura and voices from Sudan, Iran and India - it's a really nice group.

We need a name! Any suggestions? Please leave a comment.

Full concert info and details about the artists, click here.

Broadband = BUSY!!!

(Sorry, no photos this week - my camera's broken...)

Last Monday our long awaited broadband internet connection came, and suddenly I went from slow motion to super-busy as all the tasks I'd been putting off suddenly became urgent.

A few weeks ago I returned to Brissie from several months' travels in Japan and India, which was also a culmination of several years' gypsy life. While I expect there will be lots more gypsying about in the coming years, right now I'm pretty broke and have an intention to make the most of the possibilities for Indian classical and world music fusion in Australia. So for the next year I'll be quite settled in Brissie.

So for the last few weeks I haven't been doing much, just opening boxes which hadn't been opened in several years and making a nest. Settling into this place - Rosecliffe St, by the Brisbane River, near West End and all-up a pretty relaxed, organic, refreshing place to be.

I've been slowly starting to organise a few concerts - my weekly world music session at The Forest and a monthly EthnoSuperLounge event called Global Soul Music. I also have Taro Terahara coming to Australia in December so I'm planning a big concert in Brisbane with him. (Please check my Brisbane world music events page for details.) And at the same time I've been looking at ways to expand my tabla lessons.

Until last week I was doing all this pretty slowly, and putting off a lot of work until our broadband connection came - which happened last Monday! Suddenly super-busy! Lots of website work going on too, including a new look (complete) and an online shop (not yet...).

A bit of a stress, self-management. I really do wish I could just worry about nothing but practice.

Harvest Festival

Some photos from Harvest Festival at Northey St City Farm yesterday. Northey St City Farm is a community organic farm. This is their big yearly event, with workshops on organic farming, cooking, and a strong multicultural element eg Indian & Eritrean cooking workshops, ethnic food stalls and most of all a lineup of multicultural entertainment organised by BEMAC (Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre).

Asim Gorashi (middle - oud/violin/vocals - Sudan), Cieavash Arean (on the right - daf, various Persian instruments - Iran) and friends
I came especially to see Cieavash and Asim. I'd never seen Asim before and I was very impressed by his music and energy. I've invited him to join my concert at Core Yoga with Cieavash and Vijaya Visvanathan on September 29th. Should be fabulous!

Also at Harvest Festival, there was a Muslim forum, in which 4 diverse Muslim people spoke about their experiences and opinions and responded to questions from the audience. It was very interesting.

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.

Heirloom from Pt. Kanthe Maharaj-ji

Last month when I was in Melbourne I visited my first tabla teacher, Sri Debu Bhattacharya. Back in 1994, when I was working as a freshly graduated computer engineer, I started learning tabla from Debu. After a few months I went to Varanasi to learn from his father, Pt. Ashutosh Bhattacharya, aka Ashu-Babu and to many including me, Guru-ji. Guru-ji was a senior disciple of one of the bastions of Benares tabla, Pt. Kanthe Maharaj - there are some photos of him and other legendary Indian musicians in Guru-ji's Photo Gallery.

So while sitting with Debu last month, he told me "I have something I want to give you. Kanthe Maharaj gave this to my father when he was young, and then my father gave it to me when I was about 14. Do you want it?" Also while I was there he gave me some remarkable rhythms, the likes of which I've never heard before, and a delicious fish curry! :-) I'm so grateful.

The pendant I received from Debu-ji, who had received it from his father and my guru-ji, who had in turn received it from the legendary Pt. Kanthe Maharaj.

Sri Debu Bhattacharya, my first guru of tabla

My altar and practice space

Photos from Pulse + other weekend news

Tenzin @ Pulse

Shen @ Pulse at the Transcontinental Hotel, Brisbane.

Notice the wrought-iron Queenslander-style verandah-fencing in front of the stage. I sat on a couple of high beer tables! It was a really nice set with Tenzin, who I've been playing with almost since he came to Australia 10 years ago. We have developed a nice rapport and can improvise freely together. I'm really happy to have Tenzin as my friend. This time we played a piece for flute, a few of Tenzin's songs with dranyen (Tibetan lute), and some tabla solo with dranyen nagma.

Spankinhide @ Pulse
(L to R: Tony, Aden, Piers, Charles, Elliott)

Long long ago (for a few years back around 1996) I used to play with Elliott in a percussion band called Bubada Dubada, which had a monthly gig called The Big Bang. Bubada Dubada, which used to play a blend of African, Indian, Latin and hippy-tribal percussion, has now evolved under Elliott's guidance into Spankinhide, who play traditional West African drumming pieces. They were so tight - I was really impressed. Pretty much all the members are capable of leading the group, and they have developed a whole bunch of really cool musical "moves" which they can use as a group. Great stuff!

Other Weekend News
Also this weekend, I had a recording session with Alec Burns, who is submitting a song to Australian radio station Triple J's Unearthed competition. (I'd like to add links but we're on dialup at Rosecliffe St right now.... broadband coming soon, we hope!)

I then sped over to the other side of town for a rehearsal with Vijaya Visvanathan's students for her coming student concert on Sep 1. Playing tabla with lots of cute South Indian kids!

Swara Mohini Strings of India photos

On Saturday I took part in two separate concerts for the Indian community in Brisbane. First up I played in Toowong with sitar player Sudha Manian for an Indian Senior Citizens Day event. I know Sudha is a subscriber to this blog, so my apologies for not remembering to organise a photo, Sudha! But here's a photo of some girls doing a Bharat Natyam performance there:

After the concert in Toowong, my companion Tenzin and I zipped over to Sunnybank for a concert for Swara Mohini, an Indian classical music cultural association. We had a bit of trouble finding the Sunnybank Community Hall and stumbled onto another Indian Senior Citizens Day event in the nearby school hall. Wrong event, but we had a delicious free meal and I met a parent who may be able to organise weekly kids tabla lessons for me in Sunnybank. The Swara Mohini concert was called "Strings of India":

Rajyashree Josyer Shrikanth (Veena) with Arthavan Selvanathan on Mridangam
Arthavan is about 15 years old and an excellent mridingam player!

Shrabani Choudhury (Sitar) with Shen

Shrabani Choudhury and Rajyashree Josyer Shrikanth

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...

St Andrews Market, Glen Kniebeiss' Temple of Tabla

Some photos from last Saturday, when I went with my sister Jacki and her fiance Darren to St Andrews Market about 50km from Melbourne.

Me in the chai tent at St Andrews Market

Shen, Jacki and Darren at St Andrews Market

Shen & Glen Kniebeiss practising at Glen's place in Eltham.

Glen's house has pictures of all the gurus of tabla all around, and is a veritable temple of tabla. Glen plays tabla very nicely and is a lovely fellow - I hope to play with him much more. His wife is Japanese, and her mother came to one of my concerts in Osaka and bought my CD! When they visit Japan next year, I hope they can meet my musician friends there.

Sydney/Melbourne snaps

Practising with Sarangan Sriranganathan in his home in Sydney. Very enjoyable. :-) Sarangan is from Sri Lanka and can apparently play South Indian percussion, sing both Carnatic and Hindustani classical vocal, and as you can see play sitar! He's also a busy dentist.

Glen Kniebeiss and Sarita McHarg performing in a church in Melbourne

I've been having a luvverly time in Melbourne with my sister Jacki and her fiance Darren, and meeting various folks around town almost every day, notably tabla players Sam Evans and Glen Kniebeiss, sitar players Sarita McHarg and Dennis (sorry I've forgotten your surname!), a bunch of drummers at St Andrews Markets, bass player and former Brisbanite Jonathan Dimond (we have a show/lecture/interview at Box Hill TAFE on Wednesday), and most importantly of all my first tabla teacher, Debu Bhattacharya. A few more people to meet yet...

Coming up: Shen returns to Brisbane and settles down for a while from August 11...