Hi folks,

Bangkok has become my interlude between chapters. Yesterday I was in Brisbane,
tomorrow I'll be in Tokyo, and now I'm in Bangkok, city (for me) of Thai
massages, great food and a visit to my travel agent to pick up the next air
ticket.

Back to early June... After more than 2 years away in Japan and India, I flew
back to Brisbane with some trepidation. I had no idea what to expect - some of
the gigs I'd had booked had cancelled and I wasn't feeling too optimistic. My
first impressions after such a long absence were the wide open spaces and the
wide loud people. My first gig (in Byron Bay) had a very small audience, more
gigs were cancelled and I was feeling distinct "non-culture shock" (shock from
lack of culture). But it was very nice to be back with my old friends and to
enjoy the relaxed atmosphere, great fresh food and those wide open spaces.

Despite all that, I managed to keep myself busy jamming with all my old musical
friends and I really enjoyed making cross-cultural music again. In Japan and
of course in India I've been playing Indian classical music almost exclusively,
so it was a fresh change to be playing with Persian, Turkish, Tibetan, jazz and
Flamenco musicians again. I've really become fascinated with trying to adapt
tabla to those different styles of music. Suddenly there are no rules except
our own musical sense, which can be both challenging and liberating.

The solution to "non-culture shock" came when I decided to organise a series of
EthnoSuperLounge home concerts. The house I managed to move into in Brisbane
was perfect for home concerts, with large spaces inside and a big deck
outside. The four home concerts were : Bhakti (Indian jazz bhajans and Persian
music), Indian Ocean Session (South Indian female vocals with Zimbabwean
mbira), Jazzy Tibet (Tibetan vocals/music with electric guitar and sax) and
finally Turkish Flamenco (Turkish vocals/music with flamenco guitar) - all
featuring myself on tabla of course. We didn't use any sound system so the
audience were really part of the music. Their silence added power to the
music, and occasionally members of the audience joined in (generally invited
musicians, of course). There was also plenty of question and answer about the
music being performed. My favourite comment was "I've never enjoyed music as
much as that." (Kudos to musicians - Cieavash Arean, Yani, Vijaya and Menaka
Visvanathan (and Sen), Mbira Soul Music, Tenzin Choegyal, Matt Hill, River
Petein, Feridun Avar and Andrew Veivers, plus the guest performers, audiences
and housemates!)

Apart from the EthnoSuperLounge home concerts I performed in a few Indian
classical functions at BEMAC (Brisbane Ethnic Music and Arts Centre) and Yoga
in Daily Life. I was especially honoured to have the chance to perform tabla
solo (accompanied by my guru-behen Liz) at BEMAC in honour of our late Guru-
ji. It was part of a series of Indian classical concerts there involving
members of the Brisbane Indian community, and the positive response to my tabla
solo was really encouraging. I'm so happy to get the chance to show Guru-ji's
style of tabla and to try to carry out his wish that tabla be recognised as a
solo instrument. I also got another great chance when I was asked to perform
with Afghani sitar player Khalil Gudaz and tabla player Bobby Singh, two of
Australia's top Indian classical musicians.

I'll be back in Australia from late November to early January. The positive
response to home concerts means I'll definitely try to do more of them and
we'll hopefully get some really good recordings for a new EthnoSuperLounge CD.

In the meantime I'll be in Japan for 3 months. I have a number of Indian
classical concerts, starting with a 7 show tour of northern Honshu with sitar
player Michiro Kimura. After that I'll be staying mostly in Tokyo with my new
love Orie, and trying to play as much music as possible. I've been really
inspired by making world music fusion in Australia with EthnoSuperLounge so I'm
going to try my best to meet more world music artists in Japan, and hopefully
start a Japan EthnoSuperLounge.

[For further info on the musicians and organisations above, please find the
relevant links at www.ethnosuperlounge.com/links.htm]

Love to all
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

shen@...
http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com