Our video’s are now on line. check it out!

The rehearsals

The concert

We had two more concerts in Dehli. One at a amphitheatre at a mall and one at the IIC (India International Centre). Our last concert in the garden of the IIC was a special one. Many people we met the last days, at the other concerts and at our workshop showed up. Unfortunately we had to leave straight after the concert to the airport for our flight back home. As I am writing this I am back at home sitting behind my desk. Our Next tour will be to Tunisia in 2 weeks. We’ll be keeping you updated with a new weblog.

The Old Delhi is a lively place; markets, churches, mosques, temples. Joost and I visited a Sikh temple and stayed for an hour sitting on the floor looking at all the people passing by. Two singers and a tabla player were performing while people where worshipping. It also took us in a state of meditation and peacefulness. My mind was blank, just slowly processing the events of the past days. One thought comes to mind repeatedly, a quote by John Lennon. ‘Live is what happens to you while you are making other plans.’ Even though not actively religious it always is a great feeling to get to a temple, church, mosque or any other holy place and let your mind concentrate on higher thoughts. We couldn’t make pictures inside so we just have this less attractive picture of the outside.

After this we went across the street to the silk market buying some presents for our families. Little dark streets filled with shops with silk and kasmir, at least that is what they say it is.

At the end of the market, between old houses a beautiful ruin and an old man.

Today we had some time off. We squeezed ourselves in a riksha, a three wheeler taxi, and went to Old Delhi. Here some impressions from the riksha.

Today we gave a workshop at the India International Centre. A beautiful complex for international cultural and intellectual activities. It has a guesthouse, a library and various places to have concerts, workshops and events. We did an extensive workshop today, Jazz history in the morning, a workshop about jazz instruments in the afternoon and a listening jazz workshop tonight. I was amazed how interested everybody was in the tiniest details, even people with little musical knowledge had great interest in the theory for harmony and such. Interesting debates and lively discussions about Jazz right here in Delhi.

Today we traveled back to New Dehli to play a concert tonight at the Jazz club. Both Yuri and Joost are feeling quite sick. I am suprised I am still OK, last time I was here I remember I was sick after 2 days until 2 weeks after I came back.There was no taxi available so reluctantly we agreed to take this Riksha. The driver was really very nice and he drove slowly. The bass was on top without any ropes. And Joost and I plus our luggage were in the backseat. It was quite funny Although pretty risky.For my birthday Joost gave me the book ‘Holy Cow!’ which I am reading now. I recognise a lot of it. India shows the worst and the best in people. 36 percent of the people live for less than 1 $ a day. You always need to be on your tows here, look for your belongings and for people who try to hassle you but at the same time there are many very friendly and helpful people everywhere. It is sometimes hard to know who to trust and who not to trust.This driver turned out to be a great guy and we had a good time. Now we are at the India International centre for a couple of days. We have a concert tonight, workshops all day tomorrow and 2 more concerts on the 1st and 2nd of April.

We rijden de stad uit. We passeren stalletjes met bloemen, eten en felgekleurde sari’s. Overal zijn mensen, wonen mensen. In tentjes langs de weg of gewoon op straat. Midden in een dor landschap met hier en daar een koe die tussen hopen vuilnis scharrelt op zoek naar iets eetbaars slaan we plotseling linksaf een landweggetje op. Het lijkt alsof we over een kerkhof rijden. Langs scheef gezakte grafstenen komen we bij het huis wat beschikbaar is gesteld door een Indiase tabla speler. Samen met zijn vrouw, een Française en hun twee kinderen woont hij hier al twaalf jaar. Achter het huis is een grote lege witgepleisterde ruimte waarin wat vloerkleden liggen. De muzikanten met wie we graag wilden spelen zijn er allemaal inclusief de twee danseressen die morgen mee zullen doen. (more…)

from left to right:
Babita and Lachmi, the dancers
Dara Khan the Sufi singer
Gahzi Khan, leader, translator and player of khartal (kind of castagnettes)
Goram Khan plays dholak (percussion)
Kheta Khan plays morchang (mouthharp)

Sajjan Dasji, father of Sumita, plays tambura and dances.
Shamsuddin plays sarangi (bowed string instrument)
Sherukhan Langa plays Algoza (a double windinstrument)
Sumer Das plays manjiri (little bells)
Sumitra, our wonderful singer who accompanies herself on a little organ

The day of the concert. We had our final rehearsal today with the folk musicians from Rajasthan and at night we played a magical concert in the Amber Fort in Jaipur. Here are some impressions of the rehearsal and soundcheck. A video and pictures of the concert will follow.

Today we met the singer Sumitra we saw on a video at the office of the organiser. We were so impressed we asked him to invite her for our concert. She came along with her father and her brother and some other family members

The Stage at Amber fort was one of the most beautiful settings we ever played in.

Today Joost and I walked in the center of Jaipur. It’s a beautiful city, people call it the pink city.

This is the beautiful Palace of windows. The Maharadji would sit in such a place that he had a natural air conditioning created by opening strategically placed windows which would cause a draft.

(more…)