Hyderabad is a city of contrasts. 500 years ago a Persian sjah met an Indian princess in Hyderabad. He decided to stay and live there. And conquer the place. Why not. He was there anyway. After a big plague because of which 4000 people died our good ruler built a monument for this. The Char Minar. It stands in the middle of an important crossing of roads between different routes from Asia to the Middle East, just outside one of the four gates to the old city of Hyderabad. One gate is for the poor people, one for the traders, one for higher placed people and one for the travellers. It is a nice symbol of the many different worlds that make out this city, and India at large. So many different worlds are living separately together in this city. The extreme variety of people and contrasting cultures give way to likewise emotions.

Our stay in the wonderful Taj Krishna hotel is a delight, we feel like the band of Duke Ellington that stayed in similar wonderful old fashioned hotels in the sixties. The kind of hotels that remind you of old movies. We have a beautiful concert in one of the large halls of the hotel. A very dedicated audience listens to our set that night. Some of the members in the audience actually have heard the concert of Duke Ellington in 1963. It gives me goosebumps to hear them speak about the concerts of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Duke Ellington himself was not at these concerts in Hyderabad, he was replaced by Billy Strayhorn. The reason why the Duke wasn’t there is subject to many rumours. In his autobiography ‘Music is my Mistress’ the Duke himself gives the least romantic explanation. The Delhi Belly kept him in New Delhi. In other words, food poisoning. Some of the things that didn’t change in India. At least 3 of our members already had this during this week.

After our concert we have a meeting with local musicians. A wide variety. An Indian flute player, tabla player, and a man on a slide guitar who customized the instrument to make it sound more Indian. We play a raga. But who would have thought later on we would end up jamming ‘Quanta na mera’ with a calypso Band from Sri Lanka? A mixture of Raga’s, cha chas and calypsos and of course ‘Yesterday’ from the Beatles with Kate the Australian singer who sings in the bar of the hotel. Why not. Music transcends all barriers.

Our organiser was kind enough to make last minute arrangements for us. We felt we should also play for ordinary Indians. Most people from lower classes can not come to our concerts because of the strict anti terrorism rules nowadays. (It was actually a hotel of the same chain as ours that was attacked recently in Mumbai). At very short notice he found a school for blind children from poor families that were open for a concert and workshop. Because of the Holi festival. The festival is a celebration of the disappearance of the devil, a colourful event where people throw paint and coloured powder at each other. In this colourful country this is an even more colourful day. Many young people walk around painted in bright greens, pinks and blues.

We are really happy to go to this school. We spend some hours there playing music, explaining about our instruments, listening to their songs and doing musical games with them. Wim plays a rhythm and they copy it. They have lots of fun with it, speeding up the tempo, slowing down. It’s a great event.

At the end I really don’t feel like leaving. The kids are playing ball games with rattling balls and we have lots of fun looking at them. After the head of the school thanks us in a beautiful speech, one of the teachers thanks us as well and starts crying and saying she is so grateful we came. I nearly started crying with her. When we drove back to our hotel, it was quiet. Everybody in his own thoughts. A mixture of sadness and happiness. Sad to leave them and not being able to do more for them. Happy because they seem to be in good hands there. The wonderful staff of the school radiates love and devotion for these children. Being blind and from poor families, they still seem to be much better off than all the children we see begging in the streets.

India, a land of contrasts, conflicting thoughts and puzzled emotions.

Tony

This morning Erwin and I promised each other to get up early and go to the park to do some Yoga and exercises (i am more into Taichi). We managed to get up at 7, beating our jetlags and we strolled to the park. In the park we came across this group of people doing exercises. They invited us warmheartedly and we accepted the offer willingly. But by then the exercises were done and we were sitting down crosslegged on the cold morning grass.  A young lady arrived sat down on a little raiser and started leading us into a meditation. Half English, half hindi.

Thank god we could understand the English part. It was great to sit there, sinking into an unexpected meditation. Surrounded not only by the people who joined this meditation but also many other Indians doing there morning excercises. ranging from traditional Yoga, regular sit-ups, jogging with a loud radio in their hand, people doing some kind of laughing meditation, some people just having breakfast. Everybody emerged in there own morning rituals. It was hard to keep my eyes shut and keep my concentration on my Heart Charkra. I was too curious to see all that around me and too excited to be part of this all. Then the meditation changed into a service, a reflection, all in Hindi. We sat there for at least another 30 minutes just listening to her sweet voice. Not understanding a word. It turned out to be her Holiness Didi. One of the many enlighted people in India. And wether I believe in that or not, I was touched by her presence and by the whole situation. Believing is not even that relevant. Experiencing is the only thing counting at that moment. It was beautiful although I was shivering in the morning breeze and my legs were REALLY starting to cramp up. Not being used or sit like that for an hour. But I was delighted and I smiled all day (something that for the people that know me is really hard to believe).

I smiled and rejoiced even more at night. When we had our first official concert in Delhi. An open air concert at the IIC right next to the park. During the quiet moments of the concert we could hear the parc and it’s birds, the city, cars, sirens. All adding up to a great concert where we finally took ‘the Bluebird of Delhi’ home. This composition from Billy stayhorn never sounded so right at home and so inspired as this night.

For me this was an historical concert, a memorable night and day. A moment I will remember forever.

Tony

We’re packed and sacked. Full of new energy, new compositions, and even a new bandmember. India is one of our big dreams at Far East Revisited. Here it all started. Here Duke Ellington played with his band and wrote most of his Far East compositions. Here Strayharn heard the bluebird sing in New Delhi. And here Anand Singh Bawa, our organiser, heard the Duke Ellington orchestra, twice! On a trip I made with the Yuri Honing Trio to the Taj Mahal in Agra the idea of the Far East Revisited was born. Mister Singh Bawa inspired me with his stories. And right than I knew, this is where I want to go, this is where the Far East Suite needs to be played. Because Ellington never played it here. He just wrote it but only years later he recorded the music.

I am excited, honoured and relieved that this tour is now finally going to India. Please follow us the coming weeks as we will keep you updated on our adventures.

Tony Overwater

This tour has been a great event. For all of us. In many ways this tour has been a meeting. A meeting of cultures, of music, of musicians, of ages.

Never before did I travel in such a big group. Eight musicians and three or four organisers, one or two of the local universities and Irene and Xianghua of Wu Promotion. Although Calefax and my trio met before many times, we never actually traveled together. Tours like this make you either drift apart or get closer. With all the travelling, stress, fatigue and changing conditions you really get to know each others lesser flattering sides. It was great to realize that we became one group instead of two right from the start. Each musician naturally taking his place and responsibility in the group. The first few days we were wondering whether we should appoint a leader or central spokesperson but before we knew it everything worked out organically in a quite democratic way. Important decisions were taken centrally or by small subgroups, depending on the subject. For me it was a great lesson in sociology.

Musically we also grew much closer. During some of our many meals together we would discuss improvisation, harmony, studying and many other things. These Calefax guys are so disciplined rehearsing and studying that it also inspired the trio to get into new music. Almost every day we rehearsed together, made new arrangements, adjusted old ones. It was like music lab on the road.

Meeting new guest musicians every day was great. In one or two hours, but usually less we had to prepare a new piece that would go the same night, with musicians we didn’t even know by name and instruments we’ve never seen. ‘Just call me Vincent.’ or ‘You can call me Mary’; they would usually say, as they are used to do with foreigners who will probably not be able to remember, let stand pronounce there Chinese names. We tried several times which usually ended up with an audience shamelessly laughing at us.

After every concert we had the ever popular meet-and-greet sessions on stage. A moment to make pictures with giggling V-signing girls and boys, and of course sign many signatures which they oddly enough mispronounce as ‘ sick natures’ which leads to hilarious misunderstandings of which I will spare you the details. But the best are the conversations, the questions and the comments. With some it brings out there poetical Chinese side. One boy tells me he had a near death experience during our concert but our music drew him back to life. I was glad to be of help..

Playing for students who grow up in these turbulent times in China, a time full of changes, a society slowly opening up to other countries and ideas, is a privilege. Compared to their fellow students in Europe they are so eager to learn new things, experience new music. It was great to be able to play for them and tell them about our music. To give Ellington’s definition of jazz: jazz is freedom of ideas, and freedom of expression. A concept still under developments for most Chinese.

Music says it better than a thousand words.

On Sunday the men in  Zhenjiang go to the park, play cards and take their singing birds out.

Once a Korean company remastered a cd I made with maarten Ornstein and Yuri Honing. This cd ‘Up close’ was renamed, remastered and redesigned to fit the Asian market. The cd was renamed ‘Over the Rainbow’, a lonely bass under a colorful rainbow made quite a difference to our European version, . Today we met Rainbow. Rainbow is the name of a talented young saxophone player. A girl pretty as if she just walked away from a japanese cartoon. Untill the finest detail she managed her style, succesfully so. She played some beautiful Chinese songs with us. Our first international guest with the Far East revisited. It was quite an event. The auditorium of the Shanghai university was filled with a young and very attentive audience. Patiently and tenderly listening to our music.

The biggest compliment came from our contact May, a painter and teacher. She told me she loved the transparancy of our music, that she could actually see all the layers. It’s a great compliment from a great person. We all were taken by her charm and directness and almost unchinese sense of humor. After our concert, at the dinner, she treated us with the local speciality that is only found in the month of october. Shanghai Crab. A delecacy not loved by all of us, it included some precise cleaning of the longs and the heart of the crab, but appreciated by all. I am a lover of seafood and especially lobster so it was defenitely a treat for me. Only to be enhanced by the chinese rice wine.

All in all a memorable start of our Chinese tour.

Today we started our most Eastern part of our Far East Revisited tour. Shanghai, the huge city on the East coast of China is as far east as we will get. And also as far as possible from the Duke Ellington tour. He never played in China on his tour in the sixties. But to be able to experience the same contrast between east and west as Duke experienced on his trip, we are well off here in China. In a country that is only just opening up to the rest of the world it is still a real alienating trip. As stated on our application form for the arrival and departure card: ‘Aliens who reside or stay in China shall carry with themselves their passports for possible examination’.

We will be playing at the Shanghai university on thursday. The first day we arrive we have time to get accustumed to the timezone and climate and we are indulged by one of the topattractions of China, the Chinese Kitchen! within 12 hours we eat three hot meals. All of them different, all of them exquisite. Our evening dinner is at a restaurant where one of the attractions is, besides the delicous spicy red peppered food, is a chinese opera show, the mask dance. A dancer is changing masks so fast you can’t see how he does it. About 15 different masks appear and disappear in a great show that is still one of the secret arts of the Chinese opera.

Today we had our first concert of the Far East Revisited tour. We played in Babylon in Istanbul, Turkey. Great venue. A perfect place to start the tour. Turkey really is the gateway between east and west. Here you feel, hear, smell and taste all the cultures that pass through and have been passing through in the past.

We played 3 new songs that will become part of the new  Far East revisited suite. Music inspired by Ellington’s original suite but taken to the 21st century.

I can’t wait to go to China and Lebanon, hopefully already in a couple of weeks. It’s such a joy to be with these musicians and to play this wonderful music.

To be continued!

Last few months we have been working really hard with out team to get started with this great project. This is probably the biggest project I am part of so far. These coming months I will try to keep you updated on the latest developments.Tony

These pages will contain blogs of the musicians traveling with the Far East revisited project

Log in