During the 6 hour drive from Chennai to Bangalore, I find some time to look back at the past few days. It’s not easy to type…our car bounces up and down and from right to left in the crazy Indian traffic. Not that I’m complaining; this is the only stretch that we do by car, all the other trips we have done comfortably by air.

On Thursday (the day after we visited the blind school) we arrive at Fisherman’s Cove, a luxurious resort at the seaside not far from Chennai. Friday night we play an open air concert at the beach. But first we go into town and visit a school for deprived children. The two events are a good example of my experience here in India: a big contrast between rich and poor.

When we arrive everything is set up; a nice tent has been set up to make a nice shady place for the kids. From the stage we overview the muddy fields. It’s great to play for the children and we explain them about our music, about our instruments and play some musical games with them.  After the show they come up to us and can’t stop asking us all kind of questions.

The next day we arrive at the well prepared stage on the beach. Around 45 (!) men are running around to prepare everything for the night. The place looks stunning; from the stage we look over palm trees, the beach and of course the sea. But we wonder how it will sound. There is a lot of wind, so it is hard to turn our sheet music and we literally have to play against the wind. Because of security reasons this concert is not as open as we would have liked, and it turns out that a lot of guests have come more for each other (and the food and drinks) then for the music. Despite the ongoing talking in the background there is a small crowd enjoying and responding loud to the music.

It is the moving in and out of these different worlds that makes this trip not only a musical but also an emotional experience. India is a country that is developing fast and a lot of people have become wealthy in a short time. The majority though doesn’t seem to profit. I’m glad we have performed for this group. I’m sad about their predicament. Ivar

After a short night we have a full day of workshops ahead of us. Today we are leading a workshop for members and guests of the India International Centre. At the breakfast table Anand proudly shows us a full page article in Time Out Delhi with a picture and an interview about the project with Tony and myself. The breakfast takes ages (only our friend Anand manages to get some toast and tea within a minute… ) and also setting up the room takes a long while (the truck with the drumkit got stuck in the traffic that appears to be problematic, and not only at this time of day). It is good to find out that it’s not only us that have a slow start today, also the audience comes in bit by bit and doesn’t seem surprised that we are still setting up our gear.

We introduce ourselves by playing Tourist point of view, part 1 of the Far East Suite by Duke Ellington. It is a very extraordinary experience to play this music here and now. This music expresses perfectly my feelings at this moment: of being overwhelmed by the experience of being in a completely different culture and world, of the excitement and joy of being in this world. Playing this music I see Duke Ellington sitting in his touringcar in 1963, looking out the window full of wonder. I realize he never played this music here, since he only wrote it after coming back from his Far East Tour. I feel privileged to be a messenger to bring over the inspiration that he and I experience in this moment.

And then the questions come: after my demonstration of the range of my clarinet; was that 3 octaves and 6 tones you just played?, after Raaf’s explanation about saxophone mouthpieces; in what way are you using the technique of circular breathing and in what way is it different on each instrument?, after Tony’s explanation about chord schedules; how do you manage to find a balance between counterpoint and harmony?, after Erwin’s explanation about improvisation; what about introspection? And so on and on and on. All people present in the audience take active part in the day and after lunch everybody rushes back into the room to continue. The people are extremely appreciative of our explanations and demonstrations.

We finish the day with a public rehearsal on a piece that came in just before our departure: Caravan in Style by the Libanese composer Claude Chalhoub. The people are swinging their heads in Indian style on the Middle Eastern patterns of Chalhoubs music. This is why we are here! After the workshop I take a walk in the Lodhi Park, next to the Centre. Listening to the birds, enjoying the late afternoon sun, I feel completely at the right place and I’m looking forward to tomorrows (open air) concert. Tomorrow is by birthday, and I can’t think of a better present.

The concerts in Guangzhou are all at different campusses of the Sun Yat Sen University. The campus where our hotel is situated is beautifully planted, full of nature. Very nearby there is a big lotus pond, surrounded by big palm trees. Combined with the temperature, we are having a tropical experience.

Also in the concert hall: during our rehearsal at the medical faculty the temperature is rising and rising. After three hours working ourselves in sweat, we find out they have an air conditioning system….which is good for the almost 1000 students that are starting to enter the hall. Every night here in Guangzhou we have a couple chinese solists: tonight we play the famous song Er Quan Ying Yue with the very sweet Erhu player Vincent. It is beautiful to listen to the tender expression this young boy manages to get out of this rather simple chinese folk instrument with 2 strings. The trio plays with two girls on Erhu and Pipa: starting off as traditional Chinese music, Tony, Wim and finally Maarten step in to change it into a melting pot of chinese folkjazz.

It’s also the first time this tour, that we play an encore. For this occasion Tony has made an arrangement of “Why is Flower Red?”, a well known tune, that breathes the sweet, singing harmony that the chinese like so much. After the concert I go back to the hotel…..all the chinese food is getting a bit too much for me….
Ivar

After a nice day of rest in Shanghai, we travel to Zhenjiang by car. According to the schedule this is a three hour drive, but it takes us three hours to get out of Shanghai! There are so many cars here, and despite the fact that China is big, we’ve been in a lot of traffic jams. After a quick lunch in the hotel we go straight to the venue; a big sporting palace. It’s a huge hall, with more then 1000 seats.  The entrance to this concert is free, we’re told that it will be full tonight!

Excited about this news we start our preparations for the concert. We still have to practice a bit on the new piece by Michiel Braam that we will play for the first time tonight. A -very sweet -  Chinese couple will do a dance performance during our concert. They do a nice job, improvising during our rehearsal, and appearing in several glamourous outfits during the concert. When we get on stage - as usually introduced by some young chinese girls - the hall is pretty full. Lots of young people and families with children. We play a mixed program: the first set consists of Dutch and Chinese music, inspired by Duke Ellington, in the second set we play his complete Far East Suite. After a few days in China, the band starts to sound better every concert.  We don’t realize it so much, but for most people in this audience our kind of music is completely new. In the break people come up to us and tell us how happy they are, and during(!) and after the concert, people are taking pictures with us, collecting autographs and expressing their excitement. During the break I ask Xianghua our tour assistant, what the chinese signs behind us are saying. Amused and surprised we find out it means: “welcome to the opening of World City Center”. It’s great anyway to be able to perform this great music to an audience that probably won’t be coming to official (and expensive) concerts, even when after the break only a small 200 (but very attentive listening) people rest in the arena of the basket ball field.
Ivar

Istanbul, October 12
On a beautiful and sunny day we have started our big project. Babylon is a popular jazz venue in Istanbul, small but with a lot of atmosphere. The first set was most exciting: for the first time we combined Ellington’s Far East Suite with new work by Tony (Solar Eclipse and Black Bird of Rotterdam) and Chiel Meijering: Arabazz. The audience loved it.
Soon we’ll know more about the details of China an Lebanon…. so keep checking this site!
Bye from late night Istanbul
Ivar