Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Cajón Alert!

Greetings,
Here are a couple videos I shot of a pair of my guru-bhais (brother students) in my apartment in Pune:
Umesh Warbhuwan on cajón and Bhargav Garde on tabla. Both are longtime students of Taalyogi Pandit Suresh Talwalkar.

Umesh is an astonishing cajón player, oozing technique and tasty tabla stylings....check it: Here's the Jhaptal:



I'll wait while you go change your pants.

So.... they're working with divisions of 9-4-7 (9+4+7=20, cuts across the tala beautifully)

Try reciting throughout the whole video (including the final composition!):
TakitaTakitaDhikita Takadimi TakitaTakadimi

Bonus if you can keep Jhaptal on your hands as well ;) *see bottom of post for tala

GROOVY! and that final chakradar! *fans self*

Bhargav is an amazing tabla player... balance, speed, tone (though the camera is not getting the bayan very well, trust me, it's sweet)

Here's the 2nd vid: Tisrajati Tintal (Tisrajati=triplets, though Umesh moves into Chatusra [4s] at the end)



I should have warned you to wait to change your pants until after this video...sorry. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Bhargav is in a purely accompaniment role here, but it's NOT EASY. Keep tala, and you'll see why... Umesh is driving to the takiTA of the triplet from 2:34-3:24. :O

The rela (starting at 3:35 until 6:24) is phrases of 7 & 5: TakadimiTakita TakaTakita with some tasty tihais.

Nice goppucha yati (reduction) at 5:58...

aaaaand at 6:25 we hop up to chatusra nadai (4 or 8 subdivisions of the beat) for another blistering rela.

I cannot stress it enough: there are 2 reasons these guys play the way they do:
1. Good taalim (training) from Pt. Suresh Talwalkar
2. Insane amounts of practice.

These guys live at the Gurukul (school) with many other tabla and pakhawaj players, take 2 classes a day with Sureshji, practice in between classes--alone and in groups, and are massive nerds (nerds is a term of endearment in my book, fyi)

Phew!

I gotta go do laundry.

ciao for now!

(btw... both Umesh and Bhargav are on Facebook)
Sureshji working with Umesh (yes, he plays djembe too), pakhawaj wizard Omkar Dalvi (who also plays cajon),  Aashay Kulkarni (a smokin' tabla player, here on calabash) and Kulkarni Milind Vasudeo on harmonium.
I have video of the concert they were rehearsing for, editing, & will release soon...go... buy more pants...
*Jhaptal:
Divisions: 2-3-2-3

Theka:
Dhi Na
Dhi Dhi na
Thi na
Dhi Dhi na

Tala:
Clap-pinky
Clap-pinky-ring
Wave-pinky
Clap-pinky-ring

Class at Suresh Talwalkar's Taalyogi Ashram in Pune

Monday, April 7, 2014

Hola! a couple videos and concert announcement

Hello there,

I'm back from India, and I have a tihai of video to share, plus a concert announcement.

1. I played a gig at the Canadian High Commissioner's residence in Delhi for the Governor General of Canada with sitarist Subrata De. Fun gig. Here's a little excerpt with a couple solos:



I played a tabla solo at a house concert in Kolkata with Jonahan Kay on dilruba:



and finally I shot a music video for my band Autorickshaw's song City of Lakes, commemorating the 1984 Bhopal Gas Disaster:


My band Autorickshaw is releasing our 4th album on April 29th at Lula Lounge in Toronto. Here's the Facebook event and the album: Facebook Event


New album: