Pavaka

Hi Folks,  My friends in the Gandharva Loka Orchestra are about to put on some large and historic concerts in Dhaka, Bangladesh on February 10 and 11.  Check out their website by clicking here.

The next planned concerts are March 4th in Kingston, Ontario and March 11th in Toronto, of the same province.  I’m pretty sure that The Tragically Hip and Blue Rodeo do not have conflicting concerts in their respective hometowns, so there’s no reason not to come!  Estimated showtime in Kingston is 5:30pm, but check back here to be sure and of course to find out where to go!

The Toronto concert will be at 1pm at the Centre for Culture and the Arts
which is located at 918 Bathurstncert.  This is 1 block North of Bloor St.   Looks like an awesome venue!

Both concerts will feature Sangit Surabhi.  Once again we’re not sure who is opening for who, but I think the Pavaka Ensemble will open for Sangit Surabhi.  We will probably have to play some Trivial Pursuit to settle it again.  Oh and Happy New Year everybody!

Just a little note to let you know that both CD’s are now available from Bandcamp.com. check out:

http://pavaka.bandcamp.com/

This means you can stream the albums or buy the downloads.  This should be the highest resolution available out there.  Also Vol. 2 is cut down to 10 tracks and is offered at a discount.

(check out new photos and blog under the Japan title)

I just got back from a short trip that brought me to Moscow, Kharkov (Ukraine) and Eberbach (Germany).  Such a warm welcome and a great time (even if the weather was a little chilly).  Most people get on a plane for 15 hrs and leave Canada in order to get some nice weather.  But not me, no siree.  I fly East and a little North where it’s pretty much the same weather.  I can see why so many Ukrainians made their homes in central Canada.  It’s very similar – right down to the maple trees.

The House of Music in Moscow, where we played

Moscow was a pretty epic concert.  Although non-flawless and a little long, there was very cool stuff going on.  Including:  Rezwana Choudhury Bannya – the foremost authority in Bengladesh and the world on the music of Rabindranath Tagore,

www.rezwanabannya.com

The Blue Gold Shore of the Beyond – multi-instrumentalists from Siberia, Pravin, Premik and friends – smokin’ East meets West wind players, and the Gandharva Loka Orchestra – international orchestra and choir.

The Gandharva Loka Orchestra

I had the good fortune of playing bass with the Gandharva Loka Orchestra, and also provided some faux-tambura on the acoustic guitar for Premik and Pravin.  I really enjoyed that.

The Orchestra was mostly made up of musicians and signers from Russia and the former Soviet Union and I was really impressed with their hard work and great musicianship.  We put together almost 2 hours of music in a few days.  Actually I and other so-called Westerners arrived a few days before the concert, but the Russians put in about 10 days of dedicated rehearsing.

(l. to r.) Pavaka, Vapushtara (Amsterdam), Shamita (Vienna)

Red Square Goof - I can't help it!

In Kharkov we had 1500 people attending the concert and it was a tighter affair than in Moscow.  Different program too.  Alap from Switzerland did a number on the duduk and Mandu and Vishudhi from Austria also did their haunting harp and erhu performance.  I got to play some of my arrangements with Premik, Pravin and my friend and great percussionist Anton.

The day after the concert I spent the day in Kharkov and had a nice time.  Sadanand and I played a little music at a meditation class that was held in an art gallery showing original Jharna Kala paintings.

Then it was off to Germany for a week-end retreat with 500 of my closest friends.  That was loads of fun too.  Naturally it involved playing some music also, in a more impromptu way.

All in all, a lovely trip and I am grateful to all the people who welcomed me and help me along the way.  See you all again soon, I hope!

On The Path In Germany

Good day good people!  Please mark you calendars for this upcoming show on Sunday September 18 at the Tanna Schulich Hall in the McGill University School of Music in Montreal (527 Sherbrook).  Show starts at 7pm and will feature Sangit Surabhi (playing their own brand of what I like to call angel music) from Ottawa and The Pavaka Ensemble from Montreal.  Admission is free and seating is on a first come first serve basis.  Great opportunity to get your meditation on!  Tell your friends!

Here is a  photo from our last concert at the Yoga Garden near Wakefield Quebec which also featured the excellent group Sangit Surabhi. This concert was meant to be outdoors in a natural amphitheater, but just as the music started, a crazy summer storm blew in.  The same one that brought down the stage at the Ottawa Blues festival, for those of you keeping score at home.  Luckily no one was hurt in Ottawa or in Wakefield.  We were able to put together a concert for the brave souls in spite of the rain and it turned out to be a most memorable experience.

Left to right: Diego, Mahamukha, Pavaka, Sukhdev, Vidura, Medur

The real blog is yet to come, but in the meantime you can check out pics by Jaitra at Flickr or the Songs of the Soul website.

You can also check out this article in the Japan Times by clicking here.  This article preceded the concerts.

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I hate to make promises I don’t keep.  Here is a little blog on the Japan trip, through the filter of time….  So we are now in November and the tour was in June.  Japan is such a cool place.  For the world’s second largest (or is it third now?) economy and clearly a leader in the world’s capitalist majority, I was surprised and impressed by how much it has maintained it’s very distinct culture and society.

This is a famous place of which I forget the name - blog faster Danielsan!

Concerts took place in Tokyo, Kamakura and Kyoto.  My favorite was Kyoto, mostly because by then I had my equipment working correctly.  The organizers had rented a really nice fender tube amp (Deville, I think), so my telecaster sounded great.   The only glitch was that the amp was right next to me on stage with a mic on it.  That mic was also close to my pedals, so each time I clicked an effect pedal we would get a huge clunk in the monitors.  It was funny more than disrupting (at least I hope).  I was using a looping pedal, an analog delay, a tremolo with an e-bow at times.  Gadgetfullness like this went over well in Japan.

The touring gang’s primary hobby on this tour was trying weird drinks.  Here is Homagni doing his very own commercial:

Buy this super happy fun drink

Of course no trip to Japan is complete without spending one night in pod hotel.    Looked like the place was designed by someone at Apple.  It was cool for the novelty, but traditional hotels are pretty good too.

My 'room'

So thank you Japan for a great time and hopefully there will be more.

On Tuesday April 12th, I had the honor and privilege of being part of the band for Samir and Sanghmitra Chatterjee who played an hour-long concert at the United Nations.   This concert was hosted by the Indian ambassador to the UN.

The couple has just released a CD called Guru Pranam which features compositions by Sri Chinmoy.  Most arrangements of Sri Chinmoy’s music have been done by Westerners (such as myself) so far, so I find it very refreshing to hear a really authentic Indian rendition.  For this particular concert, Samir and Sanghamitra were backed up by Austrian, American, Canadian and British musicians.

The CD has similar instrumentation and to my taste the Westerners add just enough Western structure to make the music accessible to our ears.  I’m a fan.

Samir is a world class tabla player and works tirelessly as a teacher and performer.  We were treated to a solo during this concert.  Sanghamitra has an amazing voice.  Her musicality and intonation really impressed me.  Really amazing.  Auto-tune will never get anywhere near this performer!  Plus, the Chatterjee’s are super sweet nice people.

There was no rehearsal for this concert so I for one had to be quite focused to pull off something acceptable.  Here I am with my friend Mandu.  I’m focusing on rapidly scribbled notes about the songs.  I depended a great deal on Saraswati’s (goddess of knowledge, music and the arts) grace for this performance!

Under the watchful eye of Saraswati - Photos by Adarini

I would eyeball the crowd at having been around 400 people.  The hall was apparently a large meeting room with translation equipment at every seat with glassed-in translator’s booths above and all around.  Very UN-y (or Imperial Senate-like  (Star wars fans, you know who you are)) .  Click here to have a listen.  It’s really nice music (and I’m not just saying that because I play a little bass and some heavily auto-tuned cello on 2 tracks).  Thanks to Adarini for the pictures and Happy Easter everyone!

Check out my nascent social networking:

http://www.reverbnation.com/pavaka

and on Twitter:

@pavakamusic

“The Internet – is that thing still around???”  H. J. Simpson

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to go play 2 concerts on the west coast.  One on Galiano Island on March 12th and the other in Victoria, British Colombia, Canada on March 15th.

Take the A-Frame (Rehearsal)

It was really great to be out there.  I didn’t even mind all the rain and the mud.  The Canadian west coast is so lovely at any time.  Particularly the gulf Islands (the smaller islands between Vancouver Island and the mainland).

Sound Check on Galiano

If you ever have a chance to visit, I highly recommend it.   The band we put together was centered around Panchajanya from Switzerland and Shambhu from California (Shambhu’s album Sacred Love is on fire right now (in a New Age kind of way).  click the link to his website).  Added to the mix was myself, Moni and Abhijit (Victoria only) from Seattle.  It was a quickly put together show but it was very well received by both crowds.  We played in the Galiano Community Centre and a lovely Unitarian Church in Victoria.

Concert in Victoria

A big thank you to our hosts and organizers in both places.  We all really enjoyed our time in BC and meeting all the great people.  It was lovely to talk to the folks from the audience after both shows.  Hope to see y’all again soon!

The View From Galiano