Palta Theka, Palta Theka, Rela

Howdy!

Quick post with 3 new videos plus a bonus!

First up:
2 Palta Thekas:

1. Jhaptal Palta Theka

Recorded during the Cycles Project, this is a mashup/arrangement of palta thekas I learned from Pt. Swapan Chaudhuri, Pt. Suresh Talwalkar and material from Sri Karaikudi Mani, with some of my composition as well. More detailed post on this recording here: http://52kaidas.blogspot.ca/2013/05/a-pair-of-jhaptal-recordings-from.html

Lots of phrases of 5, but the only strokes used are: Dhin, Na, Tin, Tun and terekite...in other words, pretty much the strokes of Jhaptal theka: Dhin na Dhin Dhin na Tin na Dhin Dhin na

Palta Theka is basically an improvisation on the strokes of the theka, happens right off the top of a solo, and, because it uses the strokes of the theka, has a huuuuuge scope for improvisation. You can do anything...it's the zombo.com of tabla, if you will.

Lineup:
Ed Hanley-tabla, voice, udu (heavily auto-filtered to sound like a kickdrum), shaker, programmimg, recording, mixing
Larry Graves-Green Egyptian Parade Drum
Lisa Patterson-Duduk
Mary Ellen Moore-voice
Adam Ogilvie (age 2.5)-bell

The video is part of the early morning train ride from Mumbai to Bhopal on January 9th. It was super foggy and mysterious, so I clamped the GoPro outside the train and let it run for awhile.

2. Tintal Palta Theka

Two palta thekas in one post? Anyone still reading/watching a definitely a tabla nerd. *hi5*

I was a bit leery of sharing this video here... I'm working on a solo *solo* show, and this was an experiment: can I do a set of tabla solo w only my drums and my iPhone. So, I'm running 3 apps here: a drum machine called FunkBox, a generative music app by Brian Eno called Bloom, and iTanpura. Lame? Cool? not sure...it is what it is.

I recorded this Palta Theka on my Tintal album, so nothing new...there's a post about it here:
http://52kaidas.blogspot.ca/2010/02/uthan-palta-theka.html

3. Rupak Rela with slooooow motion !

I got offered a solo *solo* tabla gig at a local food and beer fundraiser in the CBC Atrium in Toronto, and I took it because a) it was a challenge: let's see if I can keep non-tabla nerds entertained for an hour, and b) because hey! tabla solo gig!

This is something I've been working on for awhile, an adaptation to a tisrajati rupak rela Pt. Suresh Talwalkar taught me a couple years ago. I posted about this here:
http://52kaidas.blogspot.ca/2013/12/6-7-8-7.html

BUT! I filmed it at 120 frames per second, which means slow-motion playback action was possible! So, the 2nd part of the video is slow motion action (where ugh! my technique looks so sloppy!!). I kinda dig the super low pitch sound of tabla at 25% normal speed though...

OK, BONUS!

Aside from tabla, I'm also a photographer, and here's a brand new video with some of the photos I took in Bhopal when I was there in January, set to 2 versions of Autorickshaw's song City of Lakes (all proceeds to the Bhopal Medical Appeal, which funds the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal, which offers free healthcare to survivors of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Disaster). The BIG version of this song, with the much heavier video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BydB4_tUnP8



OK, that's all for now, thanks for reading!

OH! almost forgot: if you're in Toronto, I have 4 shows this summer, including a tabla solo on July 8th:
Facebook event w info: https://www.facebook.com/events/514170575379089/

Short tintal solo & concert announcements

Hello

I played a short (~25 min) tabla solo yesterday in Toronto (well, Brampton) at the Hindustani Sangeet Society's "Music Fest 2014 - Showcasing the Gwalior Gharana" gig.

(video re-upped w better audio... board mix comes in at 1:42. Thanks to Hardeep Chana for the board mix)



That's the amazing and intuitive Rattan Bhamrah on esraj, playing a lehara in Misra Maand.

The organizer, Vinayak Phatak specifically requested that I play tabla that I learned from Pt. Suresh Talwalkar. I also accompanied Vinayak-ji on his vocal performance, playing the unusual talas Jhoomra and Tilwada.

Nothing new here, repertoire-wise...all three of these pieces have appeared on this blog before.
Peshkar/Kaida/Rela: http://52kaidas.blogspot.ca/2013/03/cycles-collaborative-multimedia.html
Tisra kaida in the Subrata De video: http://52kaidas.blogspot.ca/2014/04/hola-couple-videos-and-concert.html
and the final kaida in my stop-motion video: http://52kaidas.blogspot.ca/2013/02/animated-kaida-tablavision-residency.html

I played a couple more pieces, but they're not ready for primetime yet...

BUT!

I have a tabla solo concert coming up on July 8th at Musideum where I'll take another stab at them. I'm planning 4 talas at this show: rupak, jhaptal, chartal ki sawari and tintal. Let's see if that all fits in my mouth O.o
Listing: http://musideumconcerts.com/styles/page1.html#ed1

On July 29th I'm bringing together a dream team for another gig at Musideum:
Suba Sankaran (voice), Chris Hale (sitar), Justin Gray (bass veena) and I will be presenting an evening of Indian classical music and not-exactly-Indian-classical music.
Listing: http://musideumconcerts.com/styles/page1.html#ed2

Here's a playlist of duets I've done with these 3 stellar musicians separately. I can't WAIT to bring them together.



ok, all for now, thanks for reading/watching/listening!
E

pic from the gig yesterday, by Manraj Singh Pannu

Packed for the gig: have baby powder, will travel.

Another solo in Chartal Ki Sawari...longer this time

Hello all,
New video from a concert I played the other night with sitarist Chris Hale:

You might recognize some of the material from these previous posts, but there's a bunch of stuff I haven't played or recorded before. Compositional types abound: mukra, paran, kaida, gat & chakradar. With lots of recitation.


So...

I learned most of the material I play here in a workshop with Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, and it's all so very beautiful...the way the compositions follow the contours, and especially the sawari (little 'ride' on the last 3 beats of the tala) is really a joy to practice and play. I hope I do it justice.

Tabla has basically 2 types or extended families of composition: improvised, and fixed. I ramble on about the improvised forms (peshkar, kaida, kaida-rela, rela etc) a lot on this blog, so now it's time to focus on the short forms: mukra, gat, paran and chakradar.

I think of these forms as poems...rhythmic poems. One does not tend to improvise on them, though it's common to re-compose, or elaborate on one particular composition to put it in a different tala, or to just make a series of them that are all related. Some compositions have probably hundreds of versions, and every tabla player knows one you've never heard before. Still...they're fixed, not improvised.

The performance practice, unlike the long-forms, is to recite the composition first, then play. The poetry of these compositions lies equally in both realms... the vocalizations, if done well, can stand alone, are very lyrical, and can really illustrate the phrasing, grammar and flow, while the playing part operates on a completely other, abstract level...you hear a set of words (bols), then a musical or sonic representation in which you can 'hear' the words, but the real magic is that the drum sounds will set up accents and patterns that are not audible in the spoken language. One composition might, for example, have a progressive use of the open 'tun' stroke (open RH drum sound): 'tun' can be played alone (tun, di) or combined with open or closed baya (thun, dhin, dhen) and are grouped in combinations with a dizzying array of 'words' or longer phrases: dheneghene, gedighene, dhenegheran-ne, dighene, teteketagedighene, dhenetage, takedhene etc etc and when this happens, it's almost like another level of reality is exposed...the Matrix of Tabla! omg. Did I just go there? I really did. Tabla players DEFINITELY took the red pill ;)

So...the forms:

Mukra is a short composition, usually made up of bols from Pakhawaj. I think of mukras as small flourishes leading into sam...they're not usually a main-course type of composition, but can be very beautiful nonetheless. There is usually a tihai at the end of a Mukra. Mukra means 'face', but I'm not sure how that relates to tabla...perhaps it's more of a glance, or a glimpse of a face? Maybe a mischievous flare of the eyes.

Paran: compositions made up of pakhawaj and/or dance bols, including an ending tihai. Some of these bols are super obscure and cool... 'tunga', for example is pretty awesome, as is this entire phrase:
Ta--watun-ga-wa-tun-ga-dugga dugga tun-ga

Parans can also include entire words, and can take the form of prayers or invocations to Hindu deities. (see if you can find the album 'Masters of Tala -Raja Chatrapati Singh Pakhawaj Solo' for some AMAZING parans... wow)

Chakradar: basically a thukra or a paran (including tihai) that is repeated 3 times (aka Chakradar tihai). So, kind of a giant SUPER-Tihai. The real fun is that there are sub families of Chakradar, with carfully math'd out placements of 'dha' in relation to sam (1st beat). I'm not sure how to explain these at the moment...and besides, they deserve their own post. Later.

Gat: the king of tabla compositions (in certain Gharanas/styles anyway). Gats are super complex poetical forms that often (but not always) do NOT have a tihai. They're so cool, they don't even need a tihai. ;)

Gats often have virtuosic combinations of strokes (they can be quite long...blistering streams over many cycles), can change speeds (eg from chatusra (4s) to double tisra (6s) to misra nadai (7s) etc) all in one composition. There are gats that repeat each bol 2 or 3 or even 4 times in a row: dhenegheran-ne dhenegheran-ne gherenagedhene gherenagedhene etc;, there are gats that rhyme the ends and beginnings of phrases (i.e. finish with a tun, start with a tun, finish w a dhet, start with a dhet etc); the same phrase in 3 or 4 different speeds and on and on. Super rich creative soil, the gat. I do a couple gats in this solo.

Gats are also improv friendly...there are Gat-Kaidas, for example, where the body of the gat becomes a theme for improv. Amazing.

So, here's a time'd, absurdly detailed breakdown of what's happening in this solo:

0:00-2:15 Chris plays alap in Raga Jaunpuri (introduction of the raga, or melodic mode) *at 0:23 I get my list of compositions...basically a sheet that reminds me what I want to play, and in what order, as it's easy to forget in the heat of the moment, for me anyway. The entire compositions are not written there...just the first lines, so I know what's what.)

2:15-2:20 I give Chris the tempo

2:20 Chris starts the lehara (from beat 9) and I mark the first sam, and then adjust my mic stand, which is too low :P

tihai into the next cycle at 2:33, where i show the audience the 11 beats (I've talked about the tala cycle before starting, so now they can hear the pulse and the sawari in action) Chartal ki Sawari is broken down 2-2-2-2-1.5-1.5, and those 1.5s give the last three beats a very cool feel...the Sawari, or 'ride'.

2:43 theka, introducing the baya on beat 9

2:52 mukra (note how he tihai follows the sawari at the end of the tala *swoon*...but then again, ALL the tihais do that!)

3:02 first full cycles of theka (Dhin terekite Dhin na Thun na Kat Ta Dhin..Dha.re Dhin..Dha.re), and Chris improvises for a few cycles, still setting the mood.

3:58 Paran (my adaptation of something I know in tintal), followed by theka, and then a variation of the theka Swapanji taught that is very similar to Ektal (a 12 beat cycle, and an example of a subtle sense of humour ;)

4:34 Paran (from Swapanji), followed by Theka

5:00 Kaida (everything following this is from Swapanji unless noted), starting with single speed, introducing double, then full double, finishing with a tihai and theka (there always theka! the tabla version of idling, or grooving...won't mention it again)

7:26 Gat, recited a couple time then played. This is a Di Padi Gat, meaning that each phrase is played twice, flowing right into...

8:18 another Gat, that finishes with a phrase in Tisra nadai, right into...

8:52 a sort-of-kinda rela I made up on the spot, and barely survive...this is the tabla equivalent of drifting in a car...you're skidding and sliding, still moving forwards, somewhat in control, but maybe not entirely :P My notes simply said 'improv on tisra gat phrase'

9:41 Mukra, recited and played a couple times...lovelovelove this composition! Din Din NaNa kitetake....and those 'Nas' are open Na's...on the rim of the drum, not regular types...mos def a pakhawaj bol.

10:39 Paran, recited and played a couple times...the tihai is some very challenging technique...many many repititions at slow slow speed to get it right, and keep it intact at top speed: Dha - kitetake din . ghere Dha

11:20 Gat. MONSTER Gat. 2 cycle beast of a Gat. Very beautiful composition, but hard. Recite, playplayplay. I kinda break the rules here btw...Gats are supposed to be played Bhari/Khali (like a kaida..version with bass strokes and then a version partially without bass strokes), but I wanted to try to play all the compositions 3 times in a row, you know, just to make it harder O.o

12:33 Paran, and one of my favourite parans ever! Swapanji taught us 3 different tihais for this...i'm playing the simplist one...the hardest one is crazy technical mountain climbing and I can't play it...yet. working on it. This composition is NOT about tunafish, despite what you might think.

13:32 Chakradar (aka super tihai) this one starts out with a couple phrases of 7, in 11 beats...7-11, get it? *facepalm* None of these are easy, but the 2nd palla (repeat) of this one starts on the offbeat, and crosses sam on the offbeat and finishes with a tihai in groups of 5, so yeah...hard. One of the most fun to recite though.

--speed increase--

14:59 Gat...sort of... this is an adaptation of a tintal Gat I learned from Pandit Anindo Chatterjee (I play it at 5:46 if this recording) and my version isn't really all that super...I actually met with Anindoji in Toronto the night before the concert, and he made a very nice chakradar version, but I couldn't get it stable enough to pull off in concert that quickly, so I reverted to my version. *sigh* Next time.

at 15:12 I launch out of the ending phrase of the gat into a Adjrada-y groove, then into a kitcheri-y* version of the Farukhabad Chalan-Kaida I recorded here and this is another wet-road drifting session...I could've played a lot longer, but I could feel the traction slipping, so I bailed into a tihai. Yup...I believe in honesty! ;) *kitcheri-y because I'm mixing in strokes not in the original composition.

16:41 Paran (I talk about this on the video). Some challenging baya work here, and I tag a tihai onto the end that is not part of the original composition Swapanji taught (apologies!) BUT! it IS made up of bols from the original composition, so hopefully that smooths the infraction somewhat.

17:40 final Paran, and it's another 2 cycle beast, crossing sam in the middle of a phrase, and with a tihai that is so precarious that a 1/4 beat error is unrecoverable. I was going to say fatal, but you can always ditch the main 'chute and go to the backup 'chute...i.e., revert to theka and try again! ;)
I tag a tihai onto this composition as well, just to really give it that 'final tihai' feeling.

and if anyone actually read all that, and followed along, get yourself a Tabla Geek patch and sew it on your kurta!

OH! aaaand, i would like to give major props to Chris Hale for his wonderful playing...this tala, and especially this tala with these rhythms is NOT easy to keep lehara for. Awesome job Chris! *Kran* hi-five.

That's all for now, thanks for reading, listening, and oh, hey! if you like what I'm doing here, feel free to buy a track, or an album...everything is over here on Bandcamp.

tata, dinginatoms
E

Great Northeastern Blackout of 2003 tabla solo concert:

It is Aug 14, 2003. My friend Lowell Lybarger is putting on a concert at the University of Toronto. The concert, called 'tabla Tabla TABLA!', is to be an evening of tabla solos by Toronto tabla players, myself included.

But alas! darkness descends upon the land! Dogs and cats, already living together, watch humans stumble around in the dark, and snicker silently as shins spark off low lying furniture (well...the cats do anyway). People in glowyglowy vests direct traffic at intersections with growing piles of donated food and water at their feet. I feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror: "Candles!?! WE DON'T OWN ANY (bleeping) CANDLES!!". Beer supplies dwindle, fridges warm and a myriad of flaming beverages are invented. Bartenders dust off long forgotten memories of Prof. Watterson's math class to settle bills for wide-eyed customers. Lovers gaze into each others eyes, hypnotized by the dancing candleflames they find there. (There is, however, no baby boom associated with this, despite the sage predictions of Toronto's other circus mayor, Mel Lastman). The concert is.... cancelled.

Here's some footage of that night.

Fastforward a few months. The lights are back on. Lowell has booked the hall again. The concert has been renamed (hilariously) 'Tabla Power!' and a large gathering of tabla players has come together to geek out and make music.

Here are some excerpts from my performance that night:

 
Cheers.

Tisra Triputa Tala, Saraswati & Autorickshaw concert, Fri June 7

Hello again

ain't this a pretty poster?

I don't usually post gigs on here, but I'm excited about this one for a couple reasons:
1. Autorickshaw hasn't been playing a lot of late
2. there's no drumkit on this gig, so tabla gets to step out

BUT! Never fear...here comes an  Autorickshaw tune with a tabla solo in it...

But first, concert info:

Fri June 7, 8PM
Autorickshaw at Bohemian Palace
240 Roncesvalles Ave, Toronto
$10 at the door

with
Suba Sankaran-voice
Ed Hanley-tabla
Dylan Bell-bass
Justin Abedin-guitar

bohemianpalace.com
autorickshaw.ca
fb event: https://www.facebook.com/events/113582332180502/

OK, since it's at a Yoga Studio, I think a Saraswati Slokam is somewhat appropriate (watch carefully at 4:00 for a surprise!):

...

Song available on iTunes and here: http://autorickshaw.bandcamp.com/track/saraswati-2

Based on a Sanskrit slokam (prayer), this piece is an invocation to Saraswati, Hindu goddess of art, learning and creative inspiration. The notes used in the slokam were inspired by the three-tone Vedic Samika chant, the vocal improvisations based in the raga Megh, and the piece is set to an unusual 7-beat rhythmic cycle, tisra triputa tala.

lyrics:

yeah, the designer went to town..you should see the booklet!

Saraswati Namasthubyam
Varade Kaama Roopini
Vidya-rambam Karishyaami
Sidhir Bhavatu Mey Sadaa

Padma Patra Visalakshi
Padma Kesara Varnini
Nityam Padmaalayam Devi
Samaam Pathu Saraswati

Suba Sankaran-voice
Ed Hanley-tabla, big cymbals, jingle shaker
Rich Brown-bass
Debashis Sinha-multikit, bass drum
Kevin Fox, Tom Lillington-bass voices

from Four Higher, released 16 June 2004

So... that kaida I play in the middle:

Dha - Tetekredhete Dha Tetekredhete
Dha terekitetaketerekite DhatiDhagena Thunnakena

Which is an adaptation of a Tintal composition I learned from Pt Anindo Chatterjee (put a Dhinnagena at the end of that first line, and bingo, Tintal...)

Ok, all for now. I hope any Toronto folks will come out to the show (feel free to share!), and be sure to hook up on Facebook, Twitter on join the email list (Feedburner form on the right).

tata!
E

Pair of tintal micro-performances

Hello again.

Quick post with a quick video.

...
First off, props to Romancha Pralapa for coining the term 'micro-performance' in the YT comments. Love it. Totally stealing it. Romancha's Youtube channel is a rich source of vitamin T, including a lot of educational stuff. Thums Up!

what's for dinner? a thali of different font sizes!

This is a sort-of promo video for a series of concerts Autorickshaw co-founder Suba Sankaran and I are doing at Kamasutra Indian Restaurant in Toronto. Nice place, great food, and cool owners who really want live music to be a part of the vibe. A restaurant isn't necessarily the ideal place to gig, but, it does have a stage and PA, plus it's a totally low pressure vessel for us to cook up new music, new arrangements and try risky stuff, which is always good.

Ok, so...what have we here.

The first thing I play is a bit of a wild improv ride on the bol:

Dha - tete gherenage gherenage terekite
Dha - tete gherenage Thun - na - kerenake

but eventually I make it into the following Farukhabad Kaida:

Dha - tete gherenage gherenage tet - - -
Dha - Dha - gherenage thun - na - kerenake

which I hadn't played in forever, hence almost derailing at one point.

That 'Tet - - -' really needs to pop out to make this one work. Tet!!!!

mmmm....garlic gharana....

All kinar, but I sometimes play the 'na' in the first 'gherenage' on sur. I think it was accidentally ergonomic originally, but now I like the sound of it.

This (w italic'd 'na' on sur):

Dha - tete gherenage gherenage
Dha - tete gherenage gherenage
Dha - tete gherenage

is a fav bol of mine.

Next up we have the classic Lucknow rela:

TakaDherenage TakaDherenage Dherenage
TeteTete GheGhetete Gherenage DheneTage

I could work on this forever and never ever get it to sound as good as Pt Swapan Chaudhuri's version.

Oh, and TeteTete GheGhetete Gherenage Dhenetage? AWESOME PRACTICE BOL. Run it 108 times x 108 times and you'll be a happy camper. Getting bored? make sure you can really hear the 'dhene' open sound. Feel the burn. Great baya practice. Especially the all closed version:

TeteTete KeKeTete Kerenake Thenetake

This was the first gig of the series, and we're ramping up to adding a small keyboard (for basslines and leharas) as well as, eventually, live looping with Abelton Live.

Here's the other mini-promo video, featuring a Tamil Folk song and a pair of south Indian classical pieces (detailed info in the Youtube description):


...
Songs avail here: http://autorickshaw.bandcamp.com/
 
ok, all for now!
tata dinginatoms
E

PS: from this evening's post-gig trip to Gerrard Street (aka Little India) in Toronto.

a friend thought that said 'Rowdy Bathrobe', which is a pretty great band name, no?

A pair of Jhaptal recordings from Cycles and more! WAY more!

Holy posting frequency Batman!

Suba Sankaran in the Cycles Space

As I mentioned, during the month of March, I ran a month-long creative collaboration laboratory (aka 'Happening') in the Arcadia Gallery in Toronto. The project was called Cycles. Basically, I moved my studio (instruments, recording studio, cameras etc) into the gallery, and recorded/ video'd/ photographed anyone who came in, doing whatever they wanted to do. This resulted in a LOT of material being recorded, among other things. (click that link for some crazy crazy stats!)

I had no idea what was going to happen, or if anyone was even going to come, so I made a rough plan: record a tabla solo (peshkar->chakradar), in various talas and shruthis, and crowd-source the accompaniment by recording and/or sampling people playing things to build leharas.

Well....people brought so much amazingness and wickedocity, I was pulled off the tabla-solo path pretty early BUT...I did record the afore-posted Tintal Peshkar video, as well as a Jhaptal Palta Theka and a completely wacked out Jhaptal Kaida.

Ready for some Palta Theka action? Here we go:

...
So...let's get this out of the way: non-traditional accompaniment! The credits on this piece are:

Ed Hanley-tabla, voice, udu, shaker, programming, recording, mixing
Larry Graves-Green Egyptian Parade Drum
Lisa Patterson-Duduk
Adam Ogilvie (age 2.5)-bell

This composition is an amalgam of stuff from a variety of sources, stitched together on the fly:
A Palta Theka from Pt Suresh Talwalkar
A Palta Theka from Pt Swapan Chaudhuri
Another Palta Theka from Pt Swapan Chaudhuri
Chunks of material from my lessons with mrdangam maestro Karaikudi Mani

The starting point (after theka of course) is:

Dhin - Na - - Dha - Dhin - Na - Dha - kreDha - Dhin - Na - 

and we end up at:

Dhin na Dha trkt Dhin na Dhin Dhin na
Dhin na Dhin Dhin na Tin na Dhin Dhin na

 Everything was video'd, so, when I get time, I will edit the video for this one.

Cricketty

What else...the G tabla I was using has a pretty significant buzz, so I decided to join it, rather than fight it, and I threw a wee bit of ye olde overdrive plugin on the tabla track. The lowlow kick-drummy sound is actually an udu drum run through major filters, and the cricketty chik chik sound is actually trashy can-lid jingles from my green Egyptian Parade Drum. oh, and Yay cheezy drum programming! And whoa...isn't the duduk just about the most haunting thing you've EVER heard??
A. Mazing.

OK! time to go to space dear readers!

Ever wondered what a Kaida would sound like with the baya at double speed, and the tabla at single speed? What about that same idea, but with 8 bayas in unison, and 8 tabla in unison? With a bass veena, didgeridoo and gongs as accompaniment? Well, your wondering-about-all-that days are OVER!

This one is in 2 parts: alap, then the kaida.




...

(    (  ( (( Bass Veena )) )  )    )

So, first of all, the alap...WHOA! That, ladies and gentlemen is Justin Gray playing his custom made Bass Veena. Imagine a lot of reverb when you say that, because it's amazing:
(    (  ( (( Bass Veena )) )  )    )

He's playing Raga Bikaskhani Todi, which is one of my very favourite ragas...a sombre morning raga...from the wiki:

It is said that this raga was created by Bilas Khan, son of Miyan Tansen. Bilas Khan is said to have created raga Bilaskhani Todi after Tansen's death; an interesting legend of this improvisation (it differs only in detail from Tansen's Todi), has it that Bilas composed it while grief-stricken at the wake itself, and that Tansen's corpse moved one hand in approval of the new melody.

Slightly creepy, but cool. 

So, the kaida. Guess what? It's this old chestnut again:

Dha-trekeDhinnagen Dhagetete Dhage trekeDhinnagena
DhagenaDhatreke Dhinne Dhagetete Dhage trekeThinnakena

Yup...same one I play here, here AND here. Yes. I like this kaida.

you put your left hand in,
you take your right hand out...

The how: First, i recorded the whole kaida to click in logic (you can hear it come in every other cycle or so) so I'd have a guide. Then I put a shawl over the tabla, looped the section I wanted to record, and recorded (in loop mode) the theme, each variation and the tihai, eight times each. Logic makes a new file for each loop, and stacks them, so once you're done, you have, in this case anyway, a massive wall of bayas. THEN...I did the same thing for the tabla part, but at single speed...which was a bit of a trip at times...very interesting and unexpected intersections were happening...syncopating in a whole new way. But the tihai was a problem!!: the tihai I play on baya in double speed will not work in single speed! They won't land on sam together!! So...new tihai for the tabla part, with a Karnatic style expansion of Dhas...see if you can hear both tihais going by at the same time. Trippy!

There is some crazy patterning going on...the baya part is usually twice as long as the tabla part (because of Bhari/Khali, the tabla part is played twice for each single baya part, if that makes sense) so in this case the spread is closed: for each long baya part (bhari/khali) there is only 1 repeat of the tabla part. And now even I'm lost. Anyway. I thought it was cool.

Talia says: remember! safety first when gonging!

What else...my friends Larry and Talia did a gong improv to an early version of the recording (before Justin recorded (  ( (Bass Veena) )  ) which involved hanging gongs from the ceiling (there was a LOT of stuff hanging from the ceiling actually) and gonging gorgeously while standing precariously on a chair and a ladder. At some point, I didgeri-did the didgeridoo and the track was didgeri-done.

But that's not all! Earlier, I sampled some folks playing bells and singing bowls too...here are the full credits before I forget anyone:

Ed Hanley-tabla, baya, didgeridoo
Larry Graves, Talia McGuire-gongs
Justin Gray-bass veena
Laurie Stevenson, Wendy Fisher, Lori Fox Rossi, Vicki Persig, Christine Hein & Suba Sankaran-singing bowls and bells

and finally...here's a playlist of all the videos. (that link goes to the playlist, or see below...there's a 'next' button beside the play/pause button).
Each one deserves its own blog post, though not all of them are tabla-centric, they are all interesting in their own ways...poets, a dancer with Parkinson's disease, a whirling dervish, a lego stop motion animation in eleven beats! Hmm. That last one might have to get its own blog post:

Pair of Rupak recordings (plus video)

Quick post, mostly music:

I rediscovered my Soundcloud account recently (honestly...it's nigh impossible to keep track of all the places one has to post muic, video, gigs etc etc these days. sigh).

anyway...here are a couple things I haven't posted before:

A rupak solo I recorded, apparently, 4 years ago. I have a very dim memory of recording this, but it sounds ok. Lots of different composition types...parans, kaida, rela:


and an excerpt from an Autorickshaw tune with a Rupak kaida-rela. This is an adaptation of a composition I learned from Pt Swapan Chaudhuri. I added the rela-type elements, and it features an experimental layered vocal lehara by Suba Sankaran (daughter of mrdangam maestro Trichy Sankaran). EDIT: I played this kaida yesterday, and it's definitely a kaida, even with all the trkt fills I added. Dunno what I was thinking...I kinda rushed this post a bit. Bonus info: 2 unison tabla tracks via multitrack overdubbing:


and here's the whole song:


AND! Because why not, since it's Rupak day: a raw, early version of my Rupak kaida video:

Double post: Heavy Metal Tabla in Chartal Ki Sawari and 30 min Jhaptal solo video

Well, it's not really heavy metal, but it's definitely not traditional...or is it?

Let's see. Traditional tala? check. Lehara? check. Theka? check. Mukra? Gat? Parans? final Charkradar tihai? checkcheckcheckcheck. Recitation? check. Screaming guitar solo? err....ummm...

Yup, passes the tradition test for me, with the one exception of the sounds, which begs the question...what makes traditional music traditional? Is it the content, vocabulary and grammar? or is it the instruments? pure sounds only? the people who play it? the time or place it is performed? what?

I bent the tabla tradition as much as I could here, and it didn't break.

So, what do we have:
The tala is Chartal ki Sawari, an 11 beat tala:

Dhin terekite Dhin Na Thun Na Kat Ta Dhin..Na..Dhin..Na..

The sawari (lit 'ride') at the end (last 3 beats) is what makes this tala so awesome. Count 'em: Tkt Tkt Tkt Tkt. You can geek-out a bit and count the tala as 3 groups of 4, with the last 4 squeezed into 3 beats:
1...2...3...4...
1...2...3...4...
1..2..3..4..

All the tabla material was taught by Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri in a workshop in Toronto. I'm worried he may disown me after this track, but it had to be done, and as I said, I don't think I've broken the tradition at all.

All the material Swapanji taught us in the workshop followed the sawari beautifully, so, rather than just being material in 11 beats, it is all definitely material in Chartal Ki Sawari. An important, but subtle, distinction.

Material: (in order of appearance)
Mukra (gerenage terekite dhagethrekethunnakena...no recitation)
Gat (takatakataka dheneghene takatakataka dheneghene...)
Paran (Dha KreDha ne Dha Dha kiteDhet Ta...)
Paran (Din Din nanakitetetaka...)
Paran (Takite Dha-ne Dha- Ge di gerenage...)
Paran (TakaterekiteTaka teteketagedighene...)
Paran (dhetedhetedhagetete kredhetetetagetete...no recitation)
Tihai (from a kaida)

I derived the bass-synth lehara from a Jaunpuri gat that sitarist Chris Hale plays...and in fact, I play the same tihai in the video (end of kaida that starts at 0.44) and at the end of the track above. It's a little obscured by drumkit-guitar chaos above though. Here:

Personell:
Ben Riley-drums
Rich Brown-bass
Justin Abedin-guitar
and I played played tabla, vox, recorded, edited, mixed etc
Mastered by Andy Krehm

OK OK THAT'S IT ! Enough hanky-pankying around with this fusion-con-fusion business!!

Here's a Jhaptal solo I played recently. Informal setting, major tabla geekage in the room:

This is a rehash/shorter version of the big Jhaptal solo I played last year, but covers peshkar, kaidas, kaida rela, a sort of palta theka-rela hybrid, parans, thukra and chakradar. Material from my teachers Pt Suresh Talwalkar, Pt Swapan Chaudhuri, Pt Anindo Chaterjee and Sri Subhajyoti Guha, who very generously organized this concert. Thanks Subho!! It should be noted: Rattan and I didn't rehearse at all, and in fact, he arrived at the hall 5 min before we started playing.

Pics:

 

And this concludes this latest post. Thanks for reading, listening and watching. Please post your irate comments about the Chartal Ki Sawari piece below, but you should probably buy the track first ;)

Jhaptal solo, live, Part 1

Dear readers!

So….remember the big 'Year of Jhaptal' plans? Heh. Yeaaaaah (sheepishly scuffs his feet).

BUT WAIT! 

Here comes an entire tabla solo in Jhaptal!

On Aug 21/12 I performed a 1 hour solo at a très cool spot called Musideum in Toronto. The entire thing is on video, and here's part numero uno:




That is Rattan Bhamrah on Esraj, and he's SO awesome to play with, I really can't say enough. You might remember him this video, or maybe this one, or this audio clip.

We start with a lovely Alap from Rattan, and then move into an improvised tabla introduction that probably (…ok, definitely) breaks all sorts of rules. The material is drawn from a Peshkar I heard (but didn't formally learn) while I was studying with Pt Suresh Talwalkar in Pune, a Palta Theka I learned from Pt Swapan Chaudhuri and some Khanda Nadai material (quintuplets*) I learned from mrdangist Karaikudi Mani in Chennai. Any rule breaking is 100% my doing. So….it's a bit of a mixture, but I wanted something really slow and mellow to start the solo. It's maybe easier to extend the playreallyfastattheend part of the solo, so it was a personal challenge to extend the slooooow unfolding of things.

I decided to play the first couple of sections on a low tabla as I think it suits the material, plus those low drums sound so earthy and nighttime-y. Higher tabla comes into play later. The baya is clay, which doesn't sustain quite as well as metal, but it won the 'which baya?' shootout the day of the show.  Plus it's made of clay! More old-school earthy factor! All three drums are made in Kolkata by Mukta Das via Kala Kendar in Toronto.

I tried to cover as many types of repertoire as I could in the solo. Here's what's coming: a proper Peshkar->Kaida, a few Kaidas, Kaida-Relas, Relas, a Gat, some Parans, an Amad and a few Chakradars. I covered as many gharanas as possible as well: Lucknow, Farukhabad, Delhi, Punjab and Ajrada (though this last one is possibly not accurate). I'm not sure i know any Benares gharana material actually….hmm. Unless I do and don't know it? Possibly.

There's material from almost all of my teachers: Pt. Suresh Talwalkar, Pt. Swapan Chaudhuri, Pt. Anindo Chatterjee, Subhajyoti Guha, Sri Karaikudi Mani and my first tabla teacher, Ritesh Das. Disclaimer: Some of it isn't native Jhaptal, but adaptations of Tintal material, and I'll talk about how that works when it comes up.

I did a little talk at the beginning of the show (not sure I'll include it in the videos, as I rambled a bit, and even said 'blah blah blah' at one point 0.o!!) in case there were tabla newbies in the audience, and it was an interesting challenge to try to talk about this incredibly complex and obscure artform in a concise way. I came with a simple way of describing a solo that I think works:

A tabla solo is a series of percussion vignettes that all take place in a rhythmic cycle with a fixed number of beats, accompanied by a looping melody that marks the time. The solo unfolds gradually, moving through different types of repertoire, from slow to fast, long to short, improvised to composed, simmering to explosive.

Sounds a little less intimidating than "ONE HOUR DRUM SOLO!! Three THOUSAND Six HUNDRED seconds of reallyreallyfast drumming!! w00t!" Which, let's face it, is not for everyone.

Then I went on and on and on forever trying to explain the cyclical nature of time in Indian music, the concept of tihais, the role of the lehara, types of repertoire, gharanas, bhari/khali, tabla language, drumheads made of goats and iron and rice…  oh my. Yeah… not going to include the pre-show talk.

The goal, of course, being to introduce a wider audience to what I think is one of the richest percussion languages and traditions on our lovely planet earth.

I'll be piling the videos on as fast as I can edit them so keep an eye out. You can always sign up with the Feedburner email thingy (on right side over yonder->), which will let you know when a new post arrives, or do the Facebook 'like' thingamajig.

percussively yours,
E

*In this episode of Get Your Tabla Geek On:

Quintuplets (5 subdivisions of the beat). Time to transmogrify!!….if you play a phrase of 4 quintuplets** it will take 4 beats. If you then play the same phrase straight, i.e. 4 subdivisions of the beat (aka Chatusra), then it will fit into 5 beats. And vice-versa of course….take any Chatusra Jhaptal material, play it in Khanda Nadai, and you'll be in Tintal!

So…one beat per line….eeeeeverybody recite along and clap on the first word in each line!

Khanda Nadai (5 subdivisions/beat)

Taka Takita

Taka Takita

Taka Takita

Taka Takita

4 beats.

Chatusra Nadai (4 subdivisions/beat)

Taka Taki

ta Taka Ta

kita Taka

Takita Ta

ka Takita

5 beats.

(Use DhatiDhagena instead of TakaTakita, or even Dhin-Dhagena DhatiDhagena GhenaDhagena DhatiDhagena if you want a more north-y flavour).

This works for pretty much anything: phrases of 3, 5, 7, 9 and so on. So, transmogrify away! 

PS I filmed with 4 cameras…I had a 5th that didn't record, and you can see me tinkering fruitlessly with it in the video. It was going to be a really cool shot looking up the Esraj from below. [sadface]  BUT…my video projections seemed to work, though someone, bless their nerdy nerdy mind, did notice that the kaleidoscope plugin I used in FCE gave the images 8 sides instead of 10! The horror!! Ten sides would have been ideal of course, but I couldn't figure it out. More about the video projections in a later post.

PPS Making sure quintuplets was the right word, I checked a couple places, and I love that they're referred to as 'irrational rhythm' in western music. Lol. No wonder tabla players are so temperamental!! In other news, Irrational Rhythm is a great album name. Just sayin'.

PPPS I am available for concerts, lecture demonstrations and workshops as well as classes, both online and in person. Drop me a line.

Another video

The 2nd video from my solo concert on January 15th at Musideum.



This is a live version of the Sankha Chatterjee Farukhabad Chalan-Kaida I previously recorded and wrote about in the Four-in-one super-special mega-simul-post extravaganza!:
http://52kaidas.blogspot.com/2010/08/farukhabad-chalan-kaida-punjab-kaida.html

Another video from this concert:
http://52kaidas.blogspot.com/2012/01/video-video.html

And an audio recording:
http://52kaidas.blogspot.com/2012/01/live-in-concert-1.html

Please sign up for emails (see the Feedburner form on the right?) and feel free to fan-up on my Facebook artist page.
until next time,
TaTa!

Live in concert #1

What?!? Two posts in two days? Madness I say... Madness!!

Here's a live version of a (previously posted) Farukhabad Chalan-Kaida, recorded on Jan 15 2012 at Musideum in Toronto:

Farukhabad Chalan-Kaida Live by Talawallah

Check out the timed comments, and feel free to leave your own if you're a Soundclouder.

I wrote a fairly big post about this in July 2010 when I posted the studio version. You can read about it here: http://52kaidas.blogspot.com/2010/07/dha-dha-gegenage.html

There's video of this concert here, in yesterday's post (never thought you'd see those words, didya?) : http://52kaidas.blogspot.com/2012/01/video-video.html

Not everything was videotaped, but there are a couple more clips coming eventually.

Here's a pic of the show, and my poster design:

Floor seating!

Cheers!

Farukhabad Chalan-Kaida, Punjab Kaida, new Dha Dha gegenage AND Funky Lucknow Rela

Four-in-one super-special mega-simul-post extravaganza!  

Featuring: Exotic Locations! Triple Gharana Action! Spicy Photos! Silky Dilruba! High Fidelity Stereophonic Sound! Mad Experimentation!

Farukhabad Chalan-Kaida

Punjab Kaida

Dha Dha gegenage update

Funky Lucknow Rela

All four recordings feature super excellent, Zen-master-esque musician George Koller on Dilruba, with a pair of fretless bass treats...look for more GK in the future...

Notes on the first recording, Farukhabad Chalan-Kaida:

Things open with a Lucknow Paran taught by my first teacher, Ritesh Das, who I believe learned it from Swapan Chaudhuri. KeTageDhatunna KeTageDhatunna KeTageDhatunna KiteDha = tricky! But ultimately satisfying.

The main composition I very recently learned in a 3 day workshop with Subhajyothi Guha. He originally ID'd it as a Peshkar-Chalan but the way it's presented here is more Chalan-Kaida in character. I fell deeply in love with it immediately. Farukhabad Gharana. 

This was composed by Subhajyothi's teacher, Pandit Sankha Chatterjee, himself a student of Ustad Masit Khan, Ustad Keramatulla Khan (the son of Ustad Masit Khan), AND Ustad Allarakha Khan (more on this below...). All super heavyweight tabla players. Wow. Holy lineage, Batman.

I have to share a story here...Subhajyothi very generously asked me to perform in a Saraswati Puja celebration concert at his home in Kolkata in 2002. I was nervous (1st tabla solo in India, at my teacher's house, on Saraswati Puja...talk about pressure) and I had no idea who was playing lehara. Turns out that Pandit Sankha Chatterjee was there, and very generously volunteered to play harmonium. Oh dear. Still...it went fairly well...he was of course an awesome accompanist and very gentle and encouraging, even when the wheels came of a couple of tihais right before the finish line....{blushes}

Pandit Sankha Chatterjee, and some nervous guy...

Back to the composition. Really really lovely composition. The phrases are Peshkar-like for sure (and yet have a folk-y quality, no?), and I love the way it moves...very spaciously funky (Tabla Space Funk? you heard it here first people!). I'm going to work on the Peshkar side with Subhajyothi when he comes back in September. 

Where this was recorded:

Family vacation cottage rental, Oxtongue Lake, Ontario, Canada.
Tala-Wallah Studios, Algonquin Branch?

Yes, I took not only my drums on vacation, but also my recording studio! My family is soooo tolerant...very grateful that they put up with my antics. ;) I was staying in a tiny cabin that was apparently (if the owner, who we dubbed The Big Lebowski is to be believed) the original Algonquin Park rangers cabin from something like 1908. An honest-to-goodness log cabin, people. Great for capturing that...ummm...woody log cabin sound that is so sought after. That carpet really ties the room together, does it not?

Disclaimer: I usually like to sit with a new composition for a long time before I attempt to perform or record it, and this is brand new in my repertoire, so....it will mature with age. ;)

Notes on the second recording, Punjab Kaida:

Up next is another composition I learned from Subhajyothi Guha, a Punjab Kaida, composed by none other than the great maestro Alla Rakha, who taught it to Subho's teacher, Sankha Chatterjee.

Let's talk oral tradition for a second here...This composition isn't very old compared to some tabla compositions out there, but has been passed down over 4 teacher-student generations: Alla Rakha->Sankha Chatterjee->Subajyothi Guha->moi. Pretty cool to be able to trace the path through time and people, no? 

This falls squarely into the Very Challenging Kaida category. "Two kinds of 'Ghe Na' " was how Subhajyothi prefaced this in class. It took me a long time to feel this...it's so technical that it demands a ton of practice before the hands get comfortable and the ears can open up...that's how it was for me, anyway. Total left hand burner, with all the deep, open Ghen strokes. Boom! Very Satisfying! Very grounded feeling too, while still floating over the tala...interesting combination. Of course, the sur Ta is sweetness and light!

By the way, Alla Rakha was my introduction to tabla. Story time! (what is with all the stories?? I must be getting old...)

When I was 18, a good friend {waves at Karen} recommended I listen to Indian classical music, which I had never heard. I picked up a Ravi Shankar cassette on the Deutsche Grammophon label, and lo-and-behold, 3rd track, side A: an Alla Rakha tabla solo. Totally. Blew My. Mind. Karen knew a fellow named Art Levine who knew Ritesh, got his phone number, and my journey started. 

Here's the album. You can listen to a sample of the tabla solo in question....notice anything unusual? No accompaniment! Just pure, raw Alla Rakha 14-beat tabla awesomeness! 

I love this, however....I think that some sort of accompaniment is really important for tabla solo repertoire...without the framework of the tala cycle clearly shown, a beautiful composition can turn into a blistering stream of notes, especially to non-tabla players. Plus, I find a good lehara completely hypnotizing, allowing some sort of deeper listening, not to mention helping the tension and release that is so important. not criticizing this recording in any way....just saying the lehara is the canvas on which the solo is painted. Of course, Alla Rakha could pull anything off...

This is an excerpt of a much longer recording (45 min) I did in June as prep for a tabla solo concert at Musidium in Toronto. I wasn't planning to do anything with it, but this is at a sprightly tempo, so here it is....

This was recorded in my brother's living room while I was house sitting....not quite an exotic enough location for the new tag, but, every space sounds different, plus it features a rented AKG 414 microphone. Still....to be perfectly honest, the Sennheiser 421 proves itself again and again as the best tabla recording mic I own. I always end up using about 75% 421 in the blend, even with a +$1000 mic on hand. 

Notes on the Third Recording, Dha Dha gegenage update:

This is an update of the previous post, Dha Dha gegenage, with a new, vastly improved lehara. If you bought the old version, and want the new one, drop me an email and I'll send the new file. Thanks to the folks who buy tracks, by the way. Especially those folks that invariably buy each one as soon as it comes out. The support means a lot. You did know you can buy these, right? Pay what you want, starting at a buck. There's a 'Buy' link right on the player!

Did you know you can also embed these fancy Bandcamp players anywhere you like on the web? Click the 'Share', link on the player, pick your destination, pick a psycho-tastic visualizer and you're off!

PS listen for the bonus George Koller quote right at the end of the recording! I had to...just HAD to keep that in! :D

Which leads to my favourite recording of this little quartet....

Notes on the Funky Lucknow Rela:

This is a Lucknow Rela I learned from Subhajyothi Guha in the recent workshop mentioned above. Once again, it was love at first hearing. The Terekite is a real treat in here. I was practicing this at the cottage, but didn't get to record it, mainly due to the increasing difficulty of waking up early as the trip progressed. :P

While this is a Rela, I've given it a bit of a different treatment here (heh...'different' to say the least...): introduce the skeleton of the composition, and then fill in the body (aka Rang...I think....definitionally challenged, again. Anyone confirm Rang is the right term?). 

Here's the deal: In the case of a kaida, the thematic material is presented at 1/2 or even 1/4 speed before the final performance speed is reached via doubling. The approach used here is different...example using a sentence: 

Tarun And Bikram Love Appalum. 

Just the first letters?

 T A B L A! 

So...rather than playing single-double, this approach uses just the first letter of each word, then fills in the rest of the letters. The trick is that the speed doesn't increase...just the density. When the maestros do this, it's like a blurry picture suddenly coming into sharp focus. With 3D glasses on. Deeply cool. 

The underlying groove of this composition is so completely funktastic that I spent one whole practice session just playing the skeleton, and thought to myself...what would the skeleton and the body sound like together on different pitched tabla? 

So....the experimentation part: There are 4 tabla parts on here...2 low D tabla tracks, playing the skeleton all the way through, and two high D tabla parts playing the full Rela. 

I knew the funk was strong with this once the tabla was recorded....then George laid down the bass track, and my head exploded. Let me put it this way....George took the funk, distilled it into 100-proof tabla-funk moonshine, lit it on fire and launched it into orbit. Killer bass playing George...wow. And yes...that is a single take on bass. No edits. He did 2 takes, and I used the entire 2nd take, blending in parts of the first take in the alapana and at the end for extra phatness.

oh man....my brain melted all over the camera
shortly after this pic was taken

While the core is traditional, the addition of the fretless bass definitely makes for a non-traditional presentation, but I make no apologies. If a more modern interpretation brings people into the world of tabla, I'm all for it. Funky Lucknow Rela needs Funky Treatment. Who am I to resist?

One of the things I like about having a recording studio perpetually set up and ready-to-go is that I can embrace spontaneous ideas like this, fire up the studio, and have a result in a pretty short time. One of the best things a musician can have at home, as far as I'm concerned, is a recording studio...no matter how basic.

While the tabla parts are not quite up to my usual standards of cleanliness and precision (high speed unison is fun...but can be messy...when the train goes off the tracks, it ain't pretty), I was inspired, it was spontaneous, and it'll do for a first attempt.

I composed 2 variations in here, and I break down to the skeleton and back to the body for both...one variation has increasing Taka's...1-2-3-4, (akin to Srotogata Yati in Carnatic drumming; lit. 'stream becoming a river') and the other  has increasing and decreasing Taka's...1-2-3-2-1 (à la Mrdanga Yati in Carnatic drumming, a shape following the shape of the Mrdangam)*.

So, many thanks to Subhajyothi Guha for teaching me the three main compositions presented here, George Koller for absolutely knocking the accompaniment out of the park into outer space, and of course to Ritesh Das, who guided me expertly and patiently in the early years.

Tabla....iiin....Spaaaaace!

UPDATE: Now with video:

Peace.

*Yati definitions from The Principals and Practices of South Indian Drumming by Dr. Trichy Sankaran


Once again, all the lehara melodies are transcribed from the indispensable iLehra iPhone/iTouch/iPad app.


Special thanks to Memsaab for her razor sharp proofreading...my brother doesn't actually have a LOVING room...but he does have a living room. ;)