Tabla in Hand

Rose Festival in Kamakura

2012-05-26T16:30:00.002+10:00

Yesterday we went to the Rose Garden in the grounds of the old Marquis Maeda villa in Kamakura, where the garden is in full bloom. What a lovely way to wrap up our Japan trip.

"Black Tea"

Dance of Shiva 2012

2012-05-26T16:24:00.000+10:00

One of the big highlights of this Japan concert tour was Dance of Shiva, held in west Izu, a few hours drive from Tokyo. This event is the annual party for Indian goods importer in Japan, Tirikita.com, and brings together live Indian classical artists with DJs and bands. I attended the first Dance of Shiva back in 2007, which by good fortune was the time Yuki and I shared our first kiss. Now 5 years and 3 wedding ceremonies later, Yuki and I performed together at Dance of Shiva 2012. The event was timed to coincide with the annular solar eclipse on the morning of Monday May 21, although we ended up returning to Kamakura to witness that from the beach. Many thanks to Atsushi Umehara, aka Tirikita-san, for inviting us to take part and for organising such a fantastic party.

Yuki opened the event with mantras and a fantastic Dhrupad recital, accompanied by Tetsuya Kaneko on pakhawaj. She received a lot of well-deserved praise from respected musicians, which surprised her, but not me! I'm very proud of my lovely wife.

Taro Terahara (bansuri) with Ayako Ikeda (tabla) and Takaaki Kuno (ghatam)

Yuki and I opened the Saturday morning live performances with mantras, kirtans and bhajan.

Yasuhiro Minamizawa (surbahar) with Tetsuya Kaneko (pakhawaj)

Taro Terahara (bansuri) with Arif Khan (tabla), son of Ustad Sabir Khan

I accompanied Yasuhiro Minamizawa (sitar) in one of the best Indian classical performances I've ever been part of.

Makyo: Junzo Tateiwa (percussion), Setsuo Miyashita (santoor), Madoka (oud, saz), Gio (live mixing, electronics), Hayati (dance)

Setsuo Miyashita (santoor) with Arif Khan (tabla)

Atsuko Maeda (Kathak dance) accompanied by Shen (tabla), Taro (bansuri), Yuki (vocal)

Arif Khan also gave accompaniment on tabla, while I gave padhant (vocalised rhythms). At the close of the show, Arif showed some brilliant tabla compositions in dialogue with Atsuko's Kathak dance.

It was great to make a connection with an accomplished tabla player like Arif Khan.

We were offered a lift home early and took advantage of the opportunity, which included a stop at Dougashima Onsen (hot spring baths), with this view!

A tihai of weddings

2012-05-26T15:39:00.008+10:00

Readers of this blog who don't follow me on Facebook or Twitter might be wondering about the increasing presence of a certain Yuki Taniguchi in my life. Well wonder no more - we got married this year! We didn't get married just once, though. We had three ceremonies in three countries, a veritable tihai of weddings.

Jan 6: Gold Coast, Australia

My lovely bride

Taro and my student Sanjey welcomed everyone with beautiful bansuri and tabla

Waiting for my bride to arrive

Our friends played mbira for the wedding procession

Tashi Lhunpo Monks blessed our union

What a beautiful place for a wedding

You may kiss the bride :-)

Happy times with Spankinhide

Blissfully in love

My best men: Tenzin, Taro and Elliott

We had a great party during which Yuki and I performed kirtan "Sita-Ram".

Feb 27: Varanasi, India

We had a Bengali Hindu style ceremony, which includes funny hats.

Yuki's Dhrupad guru, Pt Ritwik Sanyal, took the role of the bride's father, a great honour for us.

Exchanging malas

Binding lives together

Offering to the sacred fire

Applying sindur for the first time

It was a powerful and magical ceremony

May 13: Kamakura, Japan

We went to Egara-Tenjin Shrine by jinriksha, wearing traditional hakama and shiromuki

Arrival at Egara-Tenjin Shrine with Mama, Uncle Bob, Auntie Zydre and Kamakura jinriksha legend Aoki-san

The Shinto ceremony was absolutely sublime. My favourite part was this dance by the priestess, warding off evil spirits with a ceremonial short sword.

Triply wed. Thanks to TC for this beautiful photo.

Yuki wore a beautiful wig which didn't get seen until the end.

We had the reception at an Indian restaurant.
Thanks to my student Bhavik's mother Neelam for Yuki's beautiful sari.

We performed "Sita-Ram" once more

Thanks so much to all our friends and family for all your support. And praise to all the gods and goddesses for giving us so many blessings.

Kamakura sightseeing with Bob and Zydre

2012-05-26T15:29:00.003+10:00

My Uncle Bob and Auntie Zydre visited Japan for about 10 days, honouring Yuki and I by coming all the way from Australia to attend our Shinto wedding ceremony. We had a great time together in Kamakura and Izu, where they also came to attend our performance at Dance of Shiva. Here are some photos of our Kamakura sightseeing trip.

Uncle Bob at Daibutsu ("Big Buddha")

Small statue of Benzaiten, the Japanese Saraswati, at Hasedera

Bamboo garden at Hokokuji, a very beautiful and highly recommended temple in north-east Kamakura

Bob and Zydre in Hokokuji garden

Year-round autumn colours at Jyomyoji, a Zen temple near Hokokuji

Tokyo concerts part 2

2012-05-26T15:11:00.005+10:00

Since my last blog (Tokyo concerts part 1), I've had 2 more concerts in Tokyo, and some other activities in between, so I'm going to write about the Tokyo concerts here first...

A few weeks back Yuki and I joined Kathak dancer Atsuko Maeda and her students at Cafe Muriwui in Setagaya for a small concert, which was kind of a rehearsal of our upcoming show at Dance of Shiva in Izu.

Then earlier this week I joined bansuri brother Taro Terahara and pakhawaj brother Tetsuya Kaneko at Otoya-Kintoki for a very special concert. Tetsuya's guru, Pt Shrikant "Toon-ji" Mishra had passed away a week earlier on May 15th, so he was very much in our minds. My own guru-ji passed away in 2004 so I felt a lot of sympathy for Tetsuya at this tough time. Actually my guru-ji first learned pakhawaj as a boy under Pt Ram Nath Mishra, Toon-ji's guru's guru, and was close friends with Toon-ji's guru-ji all their life, so Tetsuya and I have a strong musical family connection. I enjoyed playing along on tabla in pakhawaj style in Tivra Taal and later Teentaal. The highlight of the concert was Tetsuya's passionate pakhawaj solo in Chautaal.

Pakhawaj solo by Tetsuya Kaneko

Pt Shrikant Mishra (1952-2012) was there with us in spirit

Tokyo concerts part 1

2012-04-29T17:42:00.004+10:00

After a successful and enjoyable few days in Kansai, Yuki and I took an overnight bus to reach Tokyo in time for a special live TV appearance with Taro Terahara on NHK-BS1 program "Hotto @ Asia". Taro was being interviewed as part of a series of features on different Indian classical musicians in Japan. It was an interesting day - rehearsal, makeup, then live show including 3 minutes of music. Check it out on Youtube.

Shen, Taro and Fumie (tanpura) with the Hotto @ Asia hosts

The following weekend (April 20-22) I had a few concerts, firstly with father-and-son sitar duo Koro and Rei Ito, at regular world music venue Otoya-Kintoki. Koro-san greeted me by saying "Japan's radiation is very high!" and later asked me to give a message to "all of Japan" (although there were just 8 people listening!). What could I say? There should be more vocal political opposition to nuclear power here.

The next night I joined Taro again to accompany Kathak dancer Atsuko Maeda in a dance studio in Meiji-Jingu-Mae, near Shibuya. It's been a few years since I accompanied Kathak (last time being with Atsuko-san on Tenzin's first Japan tour in 2009), and it was very enjoyable going through those dance rhythms again. Yuki and I will be accompanying Atsuko at a concert in Tokyo on May 5 and again at Dance of Shiva in Izu on May 20.

Then on the Sunday Yuki Taniguchi gave a nada yoga workshop at Rakudoan in Kanda, Tokyo, followed by our concert. We played almost 2 hours of music, starting with Yuki's mantras, followed by Dhrupad in Raga Yaman (alap and chautaal), various bhajans and kirtans, and finally tabla solo.

This weekend I had 2 concerts, firstly back at Otoya-Kintoki, this time with Afghani music group Chalpasah. It was lovely to accompany beautiful Afghani music, as well as to play some Indian classical music with Taro as always.

Then last night I joined my old friend TC Deane at jazz/rock/blues venue Someday in Futamatagawa (near Yokohama). TC and I first met when I was living in Tokyo back in 2005 and the last time we properly played together was at that time, also at Someday. We had some really beautiful improvisations and the audience, only one of whom had ever seen tabla before, seemed quite profoundly affected. TC has uploaded some audio from the concert to his soundcloud page. Thanks TC.

Remaining concerts on my Japan tour:

Sat May 5 Tokyo: Cafe Muriwui - Atsuko Maeda
Fri May 18 - Mon May 21 Izu: DANCE OF SHIVA2012-Travel of mind effect music-
Wed May 23 Tokyo: Taro Terahara (bansuri), Tetsuya Kaneko (pakhawaj), Shen (tabla)

Tabla Exam Success for Forest Lake Boys

2012-04-25T17:51:00.002+10:00

A copy of the article on my tabla students' recent PRSSV tabla exam results, to be published in May 2012 Brisbane Indian Times:

Tabla students from Forest Lake, The Gap and Bundaberg have achieved distinctions in a London-based tabla exam. Bhavik Barot (12, tabla grade 5), Neel Chandra (15, grade 4), Krishan Chandra (13, grade 3), Sivamsan Senthilvasan (9, grade 3) and Abraham Birkelund (10, grade 1) earned top results among 14 Queensland tabla students who took the exams held by Pandit Ram Sahai Sangeet Vidyalaya (PRSSV).

Bhavik Barot of Forest Lake received a distinction in grade 5 of the recent PRSSV tabla exams

Of the other students of the Ashutosh Bhattacharya Memorial Tabla School who took the exams, 6 received merits and 3 passes. The exams are available in 8 grades equivalent to AMEB or Trinity music examinations. The students have to study a range of practical and theoretical material including classical tabla repertoire, Hindustani classical music theory, music writing system, biographies of famous musicians, and the history of tabla gharanas.

Bhavik, Neel and Krishan have weekly tabla classes together in Forest Lake with tabla teacher Shen Flindell, who also gives group and private lessons at other locations around Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Abraham and his father, Swedish-born Tor Birkelund travel to Brisbane all the way from Bundaberg for their tabla lessons, and have plans for Abraham to take more intensive tabla studies in an ashram in India next year.

The top Brisbane tabla students, Tito Basu (16, Springfield) and Sanjey Sivaananthan (16, Westlake) successfully completed grade 7 and will attempt grade 8 when the exams are next held in Brisbane next January. As well as completing requirements on tabla, Tito and Sanjey had to present compositions and demonstrate theoretical knowledge in two ragas. PRSSV are currently applying for recognition by the Qld Studies Authority, so that from next year exam results will be included in the students' school certificates.

For enquiries about PRSSV tabla exams, tabla lessons, repairs and instrument sales, please contact Shen Flindell on 0415106428 (after June 9) or email shen@ethnosuperlounge.com

Kansai concerts with 3 sitar players and Yuki

2012-04-19T16:57:00.004+10:00

After the 40 degree heat of Varanasi it was a relief to come to the beautiful spring weather of Japan. We arrived here at the peak of sakura (cherry blossom) season. After a stressful journey from Kuala Lumpur, via Haneda to Kamakura and then by bus to Kyoto, I was happy to wake up to the perfect spring day for some hanami (flower viewing) with friends.

I had a busy few days in Kansai, starting with a concert on the Thursday in Kobe with sitar player Shuhei Ozaki, student of current rising star Purbayan Chatterjee. Yohei Iwashita (sitar) and Bayan Fujisawa (tabla) opened the night. I have to say a big thanks to Shuhei-san for pulling this concert together so that we could have a chance to play together.

On the Friday I joined old friend Yasuhiro Minamizawa, with whom I played at my Guru-ji's memorial concert in 2006, at Uzura Gallery in Kyoto.

Then on Saturday it was off to Cafe Amanto in Osaka for Calcutta Night Vol 82 with Tadao Ishihama. Tadao has been playing sitar as long as I've been playing tabla, but started at the age of 15! I've played with Tadao at Amanto many times over the years, starting back in September 2002.

Finally on the Sunday I accompanied Yuki Taniguchi in a concert following her nada yoga workshop, held in a beautiful old Kyoto house ("machiya"). Our concert followed our usual pattern of mantras, kirtans and bhajans, finishing up with a short tabla solo. Very enjoyable :-)

After dinner we jumped on a night bus back to Tokyo, where I appeared with bansuri player Taro Terahara on NHK TV programme "Hotto @ Asia", which was a very interesting experience. Will post links to video if anyone uploads them...

I have a few concerts in Tokyo from hereon:

Fri Apr 20 Tokyo: Concert with Kourou and Rei Itou (sitar)
Sat Apr 21 Tokyo: 「東京ガラナ＃８」　ーNew Moonー Atsuko Maeda (Kathak), Taro Terahara (bansuri)
Sun Apr 22 Tokyo: Nada Yoga Workshop and Concert with Yuki Taniguchi
Fri Apr 27 Tokyo: Concert with Chalpasah (Afghani) and Taro
Sat May 5 Tokyo: Cafe Muriwui - Atsuko Maeda

Varanasi sessions

2012-04-19T16:46:00.002+10:00

Here are a last couple of pics from my time in Varanasi this year. On weekends I visited my late Guru-ji's house, where his son Dr Debabrata "Bappa" Bhattacharya and student Manishankar Tripathi continue the tabla tradition there. Here we are playing with 14 year old Asheesh, who is going really very well. While there I received some training in the famous 15 beat taal, Pancham Sawari, from Bappa-da.

I also visited the home of renowned tabla player Pt Ishwar Lal Mishra, nephew of the legendary Pt Anokhelal Mishra, and his sons Dhananjay (tabla) and Anand (sitar). Dhananjay and Anand were to visit Australia later this year so I went a couple of times for practice in anticipation of a concert together in Brisbane. (Unfortunately their visas didn't work out so the tour has been cancelled this year.) It was a great honour to practise with Ishwar Lal-ji and get some bols and some feeling from his way of playing.

8th Annual Ashu Babu Memorial Concert

2012-03-23T16:42:00.005+10:00

March 17 was my Guru-ji, Late Pandit Kaviraj Ashutosh Bhattacharya's birthday and every year since his passing his students have organised a memorial concert on Tulsi Ghat on this day. (Click here for blogs on previous years' concerts: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2007, 2006) This year's concert was, as always, very well organised and enjoyed by a full house of attentive listeners. It opened with a splendid vocal concert by Smt Kalapini Komkali, including a gorgeous bhajan in 7 beats. Then followed a powerful tabla solo in Benares style by Sri Arvind Kumar Azad, who also accompanied the final item, Kathak dance by Pt Kishen Mohan Mishra and family.

Holi season concerts and fun

2012-03-22T20:25:00.007+10:00

No I didn't go out and play Holi in Varanasi this year. In keeping with our usual policy of keeping clean and calm, Yuki and I stayed in and did a big yoga session on the morning of Holi. However, around Holi there was lots of fun to be had in Varanasi.

A couple of days beforehand our friend Gumi (a bansuri player from Kyoto) organised a concert called "Namaste Mela" featuring foreign students of Indian classical music, in which I accompanied Tetsu Takana, a sitar student of Pt Shiv Nath Mishra. Along with one practice, it was the first time we'd met or played together, but hopefully not the last! Very enjoyable.

Hannah played very beautiful alap on Mohan veena

Gumi played Holi in the chai break

Shen and Tetsu playing together for the first time

On the afternoon of Holi it's traditional to put on new clothes and go visiting friends. I took this photo of Yuki and Nao on the way to visit their Guru-Ma.

Holi is on the full moon

An atmosphere of wildness lingers on for a few days after Holi, helped by traditional drumming groups like this (and mobile DJs).

A few days after Holi it was March 11, the first anniversary of the great Tohoku Earthquake of 2011. Many Japanese people in Varanasi gathered at Dasaswamedh Ghat to pray together and to sing a Japanese folk song, "Furusato" ("Homeland"). Yuki was asked to play the harmonium and lead the singing!

Some Varanasi concerts

2012-03-07T17:05:00.008+10:00

I arrived in Varanasi the day before Shivaratri ("Shiva's night"), one of the biggest festivals in the City of Shiva. There are usually two big music festivals around Shivaratri: the Dhrupad Mela (now in its 37th year) on Tulsi Ghat, and the more recent khayal event near Durga Temple, sponsored by Jalan's. As my wife Yuki is studying Dhrupad vocal she spent all her time at the Dhrupad Mela - see her blog (many photos, text in Japanese). I visited the Jalan's concert for a couple of items but was mostly disappointed. The sponsor's son's singing sent me out the door. Talk about nepotism.

Meanwhile at Dhrupad Mela... Yuki performed with her Guru-ji Dr Ritwik Sanyal's student group and did very well.

Two days later I saw Tahir Qawwal's excellent Qawwali group Fanna-fi-Allah at a guest house in Assi. Tahir spends parts of the year in Varanasi, USA and Byron Bay, so he is a nearby musical friend for me when our schedules coincide. I've seen and accompanied Tahir in khayal and light classical (in which he is also excellent) but this was the first I'd heard his Qawwali. The atmosphere was electric and uplifting. Kudos to Hari Om Hari on the tabla.

The following day we were blessed to be invited to a special ceremonial concert. My friends Debapriya Adhikary (vocal) and Samanwaya Sarkar (sitar), aka Debapriya-Samanwaya, had their gandabandhan initiation with Benares vocal legend Smt Girija Devi. Many local music legends were in attendance. (I've written previous blogs with Deb-Sam.)

A sarody time in Kolkata

2012-03-07T16:42:00.004+10:00

Here I am in India again. As I write this, Varanasi (and most of North India) is getting excited Holi with fires set up all over town ready to burn tonight, and colours in stock for tomorrow morning's water battles (which I'll stay safely away from inside, thanks).

I flew in through Kolkata and spent a few days there in order to catch up with some musical friends. It turned out that everyone I met was a sarod player! On the first day I was invited by Facebook friend Apratim Majumdar to practice with him. He gave me some good advice about making tihais in khanda jati (dividing the beat into 5).

That night I visited Pratik Shrivastav and tabla player Chiranjit Mukherjee, whom I met at Woodford Festival in December where they were playing in Earthsync Collective. Pratik and Chiranjit were practising for their concert to be held the next day at Ramakrishna Mission, so I was only able to play with Pratik a little that night. It was refreshing to be in that musical family atmosphere. Pratik's mother (a sitarist) was also listening to the practice and gave some nice ideas.

The following day I caught up with Japanese sarod player Baku Hirakawa, who like Pratik is a student of Pt Tejendra Narayan Majumdar. There are quite a few very dedicated Japanese students of Indian classical music who spend a lot of time in south Kolkata doing hard practice and taking lessons with great masters.

It wasn't far from there to Ramakrishna Mission where Pratik and Chiranjit were giving their concert that night. Guru-ji Tejendra Narayan Majumdar was in attendance along with great tabla player Subhankar Banerjee. I also bumped into another Japanese sarodist, Yasu Fujibayashi, though there was no time for us to practise together before I headed to Varanasi the next day. Hopefully when I'm in Kyoto in April!

Festival of Tibet 2012

2012-03-02T15:20:00.004+10:00

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

Woodford 2011-12

2012-01-21T15:21:00.009+10:00

The weather-gods smiled on Woodford Festival patrons and organisers this year, and we had one of the most enjoyable festivals in quite a while. I was performing there with bansuri player Taro Terahara and also accompanying sitar player Saikat Bhattacharya in a couple of performances. Taro and I had 7 performances, mostly in the Folklorica stage but also including the special hilltop New Year's sunset and sunrise concerts. For those of you who don't know, Woodford Festival runs from Dec 27 to Jan 1 every year and has over 20 stages and music and entertainment of all varieties. I'll be uploading these and many more photos to my Facebook Australia 2011 album.

Tashi Lhunpo Monks

Taro and Shen with Yuriko (tanpura) in the first of our 5 concerts in Folklorica. Fantastic stage with the talented Siri on sound, making it so easy for musicians of all ethnic varieties.

One of my festival favourites: Hanggai - Mongolian rock music. Very entertaining, especially the lead singer with frontless studded leather jacket, talking enthusiastically in Mongolian between songs.

Taro was invited to join Tenzin Choegyal, Michael Askill (gongs) and Stuart Ransome (shakuhachi) for a beautiful morning meditation concert.

Fantastic Flamenco dancer with Gerard Mapstone (guitar). Some of the most musical Flamenco tapping I've seen.

Another festival favourite: Tuba Skinny - old-time New Orleans jazz

And the dream band: EarthSync Collective - ghatam, sarod/guitar, bass, samples/drones, Carnatic male vocal/morsing, Hindustani female vocal, violin, tabla. We had a lot of fun hanging out with the EarthSync folks, especially tabla player Chiranjit. I had to help Chiranjit out with an emergency tabla repair at the festival, so thanks to Australian Quarantine for helping seal our friendship.

After Taro and Saikat's solo sets on Dec 30 we joined together in a trio jugalbandi.

The crew for the New Year's Eve Sunrise Concert - Stuart Ransome (shakuhachi), Carla Thackrah (flute), James Coates (poetry), Michael Askill (gongs, samples), Jonny Ng (violin), Shen (tabla), Yuriko (tanpura), Taro (bansuri)

The last sunset of 2011

We enjoyed Die roten Punkte - intentionally bad comedy music in German industrial pop style. Unfortunately I couldn't see the whole set as I had my own set...

I accompanied both Saikat and Taro as part of the Sacred New Year programme in Folklorica stage on New Year's Eve night.

As the clock ticked over to 2012, some of the festival-goers were sitting in contemplation in Folklorica, while Trikaya performed "... in the Between - The Tibetan Book of the Dead"

The New Year's Dawn concert - Yuriko, Shen, Taro, Tenzin, Tashi Lhunpo Monks, Jonny Ng (violin)

First sunrise of 2012

Taro and I had a set immediately followed by Tenzin Choegyal, which gave us the perfect opportunity to play along together. This was New Year's Day, and our 4th show in 24 hours, but despite the brain-daze it was a beautiful set.

The Tashi Lhunpo Monks made this sand mandala during the festival.

And had a Dissolution ceremony at on the last evening.

The Farewell Ceremony in the Amphitheatre.

On tour with Taro Terahara (part 2)

2012-01-18T22:18:00.006+10:00

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)

2012-01-18T21:48:00.003+10:00

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:

Various concerts with Tenzin and Tabla Tarrango

2011-10-28T21:31:00.001+10:00

Since my hectic Japan tour (including two weeks with Tenzin Choegyal) in August and September, I've been enjoying the relaxing space at my Highgate Hill home and getting back into lessons with my tabla students, along with a few concerts on the weekends. Once again, I've been doing a few shows with Tenzin Choegyal, including a 3 show weekend in the countryside inland from Brisbane doing small concerts fundraising for Tibetan Children's Village. We've also performed at Gold Coast and Queensland Multicultural Festivals, along with my tabla student performance group Tabla Tarrango. I'm missing some photos from a few recent concerts, notably Tibet2Timbuk2 with erhu player Nicholas Ng at Crystal Waters on Friday 14th October, a really lovely gig.

Tenzin Choegyal accompanied by Shen (tabla) and Peter Hunt (guitar) at Kaivalya Meru community, 17 Sep 2011

Accompanying Tenzin at Gold Coast Multicultural Festival, 18 Sep 2011

Tabla Tarrango performing at Gold Coast Multicultural Festival
L to R: Sanjey, Jesinthan, Shen, Thejan, Tito

Tenzin with Jacqui and Shen in Glamorgan Vale, 8 Oct 2011

Glamorgan Vale, 8 Oct 2011

Tabla Tarrango performing at Queensland Multicultural Festival, 16 Oct 2011

Brisbane Family Success in Tabla Exam

2011-10-03T21:44:00.001+10:00

Rhea Ravi (7) and Ritvik Ravi (13) achieved distinctions in PRSSV tabla exam

A brother and sister in Parkinson have achieved distinctions in a London-based tabla exam. Ritvik Ravi (13) and Rhea Ravi (7) received top marks among 12 tabla students from Brisbane and Gold Coast who took the exams held by Pandit Ram Sahai Sangeet Vidyalaya (PRSSV). Rhea Ravi also studies Carnatic vocals under her mother, well-known vocalist Susmitha Ravi, as well as Bharat Natyam dance. Ritvik Ravi has also taken his mother's singing lessons and currently also plays drumkit.

All the other students of the Ashutosh Bhattacharya Memorial Tabla School who took the exams achieved merits. The exams are available in 8 grades equivalent to AMEB or Trinity music examinations. The students have to study a range of practical and theoretical material including classical tabla repertoire, Hindustani classical music theory, music writing system, biographies of famous musicians, and the history of tabla gharanas.

The top Brisbane tabla students, Tito Basu (15) and Sanjey Sivaananthan (15) successfully completed grade 6 and will attempt grade 7 when the exams are next held in Brisbane next February. PRSSV are currently applying for recognition by the Qld Studies Authority, so that from next year exam results will be included in the students' school certificates.

For enquiries about PRSSV tabla exams, tabla lessons, repairs and instrument sales, please contact Shen Flindell on 0415106428 or email shen@ethnosuperlounge.com

CONCERT DATE
Sunday October 16: Queensland Multicultural Festival, Roma St Parklands. Tabla Tarrango will perform on the Children's Stage from 1245 to 1pm.

(to be printed in Brisbane Indian Times Oct 2011 edition)

Indian Classics Tokyo 2011 - A first class Indian classical concert

2011-09-26T17:41:00.000+10:00

My last concert of this year's Japan tour was a really first class event held in Densho Hall in Shibuya, bringing together some of the top Indian classical artists in Japan at the time. The 9/11 event marked 6 months since the Fukushima tsunami and 10 years since the New York attacks. The hall was packed full of attentive listeners creating a fantastic atmosphere for great music. Many thanks to organiser Yuriko Terahara and congratulations on a great job for Indian music! The after party was loads of fun too - the biggest I've ever been part of!

These photos were taken by Akiro Io and there are many more on his blog.

Fumie Negishi (vocal) with Ayako Ikeda (tabla)

Taro Terahara (bansuri) with Shen Flindell (tabla)

Steve Oda (sarod) with Ty Burhoe (tabla)

Amit Roy (sitar) with U-Zhaan (tabla)

14th and Final Gifu Sangeet Mela

2011-09-26T17:29:00.000+10:00

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)

EthnoSuperLounge @ Magokoro Vol 2 with Aoyamaguchi

2011-09-26T17:13:00.000+10:00

For the second Friday EthnoSuperLounge at Magokoro, I was joined by bansuri buddy Taro Terahara and Japanese folk song duo Aoyamaguchi. Aoyamaguchi had joined Taro, Tenzin and a for shows in Fukushima and Sendai earlier in my Japan tour. Their combination of Japanese folk singing with Tuvan throat singing and open-tuned guitar is very beautiful and emotive. As always, we finished the show up with a jam session. I think Taro and I make a great accompaniment team!

A couple of Tokyo shows

2011-09-26T17:09:00.001+10:00

After the Magokoro Kamakura show I had a couple more events in Tokyo city itself. First up I accompanied Yuki in our concert after her workshop at Sun and Moon Yoga in Meguro. The following night I joined Taro Terahara (bansuri) and June Chikuma (ney) for an exploration of Indian and Arab flutes at Saint-Jacques Bistro, Nishiogikubo. We did some wild free improvisations in joining to two kinds of music!

EthnoSuperLounge @ Magokoro Vol 1 with Mbira Zvakanaka

2011-09-26T17:05:00.002+10:00

The last few years we have done concerts with Tenzin Choegyal at Kamakura hemp cafe, Magokoro ("Hemp Heart"), but this year things didn't work out. So instead they offered me a couple of concerts on the first two Fridays in September, with whomever I wanted to invite! The first week I invited Mbira Zvakanaka to join Yuki and I in a lovely show. The final jam was lots of fun and really melded our music together in a very fun way.

Fukuoka

2011-09-26T16:58:00.000+10:00

For the last weekend of August Yuki and I went to Fukuoka, where Yuki was giving Nada Yoga workshops all weekend at Yoga Limt. I joined her for a small concert on the Saturday evening, where we did our now usual programme of mantras, kirtans and tabla solo. I didn't do much else while in Fukuoka except for eating at the delicious Daiichi Udon, the best eating place within walking distance of our accommodation courtesy of our old Fukuoka friend Amigo-chan. Thanks Amigo! Also thanks to sitar player Hide Iwai who came from Kumamoto to see us and practise together.

Concert with Yuki at Yoga Limt, Fukuoka

The udon king at Daiichi Udon, Ikinomatsubara, Fukuoka

Goubouten bukkake udon - yum yum yum!