tourqoise saris and guests of honor

Two nights ago, I went with Nayan and Jyoti (our gurus) to a concert at the Nehru Center. Jesse had a gig so he couldn't come with us. I did not catch the names of the performers as I was admitted into the concert as a guest of Jyoti's and I didn't have my own invitation. Nayan had told Jesse however, that this is one of the 3 best Sitar players along with himself and Parvez (who we saw last time with Zakir). And of course, he was quite a phenomenon. His speed and agility on the Sitar was amazing. I especially like the way the classical indian concerts begin with the alap. This is the section where the instrumentalist takes time to introduce the sounds of the upcoming piece with slow improvised melodies. The tabla player accompanying the sitarist kept looking at Nayan and showed him respect by putting his hands together in "namaste" before he began to play. I feel so honored to be in the presence of such a respected musician.
At the intermission we went out to the lobby area to drink chai and eat samosas. I had the opportunity to ask Jyoti all kinds of questions about things I have been wondering about. For example, why does everyone here speak to each other in English when they can speak Hindi? She said it is mainly a question of proving status or affiliating with the west. Also, many of these people have been speaking English since childhood.
The next part of the concert was a singer! Yay. She was a mature looking woman with graying hair and a beautiful tourqose sari. She had with her a younger woman playing harmonium, and two playing tanpura, as well as a tabla player who is one of Nayan's students. She gave some kind of indroduction in Hindi and began her alap. She has the kind of rough voice I love and I was moved by her tone and phrases. As she continued singing I was drawn in more and more by her voice and the way she moved her body along with her singing. Then when she began doing some of the crazy indian vocal gymnastics that I normally can't relate to, I actually enjoyed it. It was the first time that I really felt the passion in those strange sounds and I look forward to learning how it is done.
After one vocal piece, we left as it was getting late. We snuck out through the backstage enterance. Nayan has performed at this venue a hundered times so of course he is well known there.
On the way home we picked up a very senior musician who was waiting at the bus stop. Nayan and Jyoti introduced us and the old man was friendly and began telling stories about his trip to America and how he is always humming becase he can't stay still for a moment. Nayan explained that this man plays harmonium very well and accompanies him during many perfomances. After we dropped him, we stopped for a bite to eat. This was the most time I had ever spent with Nayan and Jyoti and I was so happy to have them as company. They are very warm and intelligent people. It is easy to talk to them and at the same time, I really felt that I'm in the presence of greatness. Finally they took me to the Natural Ice Cream shop that happens to have a secret pathway straight to my house!! I came home glowing from the whole evening. Jesse came home just a few minutes after me.
The next evening I went with J to his gig. They throw some pretty fancy parties in this town! and you'll never believe who the guest of honor was... WILL SMITH. Ha! I was within arms length from the superstar. I felt kind of bad for him and how he can't go anywhere without being recognized and bombarded. His choice I guess. I don't know how Merlin gets these crazy gigs. Both jesse and i never expected that this is what we would be doing in india! Anyway, the wine was great and the food was good. I even got my jiggy on with some old high class indian guy.
And now, it's time for me to go back to my singing practice. Last lesson I learned "meend" which is the sliding between notes. I have another lesson with Jyoti this evening. She will not be teaching me for much longer as the teacher I was appointed, Krishna, will be coming back from leave in a few days.
It's very very hot here in Mumbai and only going to get hotter. We're staying under the fans as much as possible.
Namaste!!!

more pics

Here are some more pictures from our trip. The picture of Jesse with tea is where we eat 75% of the time because it is cheap and good and right by our house. There is a photo of the Zakir Srinivas show and some silly boys with a popsicle. Teek Hai.

good old mumbai

we are getting around the city quite well although it is exhausting. last night we went to a free classical indian concert of a woman vocalist. it wasn't that great so we left and tried to make it to a different concert. after a crazy drive through the city's smallest streets we found the site of this other tabla performance which had of course just ended. apperantly it was held by the only people in india who actually start on time... then we went to get some dessert at a restaurant that was full of white people. and finally we went into a movie called "mixed doubles" about this married couple who have a non existant sex life and the husband is searching for another couple who wants to try wife swapping! we couldn't understand most of it since it was in hindi but what i could understand i did not like. so we left that early too. the entertainment was not successful but jesse and i had a good time together none the less and at least i got a good night sleep finally after such a night.
i started my vocal lessons a couple days ago. basically i was given excersized for daily practice. Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa. up and down and all around the scale. i've been practicing daily for about 1.5 hours. hopefully today i will have another lesson. eventually i think i will be joining a class as well.
and for some exciting big news!! Jesse got a gig in Dubai...at some fashion show. we didn't even know where it was at first ;) so he's being flown to a gig for the first time in his life. i'm really excited for him but sad that i won't be able to go and also it happens to be that he'll be gone on my birthday. that's the way it is in show business, huh? anyway he's gonna make some good money once again so it's worth it. we can celebrate any old day!
namaste

what a show!!

so... last night we went to see a concert at Nerhu Center. It was U Srinivas on Mandolin, Zakir Hussain on Tabla and on Sitar Shahid Parvez. Wow. That sitar guy rocked the house! Srinivas is the first to do classical Indian music on mandolin and it's beautiful. He is one of Jesse's favorites and after the show he told Jess he'd would be happy to teach him if he comes to Chennai!! And of course Zakir Hussain is a legend. The guy who's tabla playing first caught my attention with Shakti in Gal's room on the kibbutz 5 years ago. ;) The Indian audience is beautiful as well. Whenever there was some impressive piece of music, be it a beutiful overtone, a fancy embellishment, or an impressive lick, the audience nods in a agreement or makes "mmm" sounds. The place was completely filled to the brim. We were lucky to get 2 last seats because a friend (sitar player from the other night) is a disciple of the one we heard.
Jesse's got another gig tonight! Bombay is a city that is bustling with business and all the hotels seem to be in demand of jazz and fusion musicians.
Well, I'm off to practice and I have my first lesson tonight...
namaste

pictures

FUSION

well, you might have guessed, we have skipped yoga for the past few days... ;) it is hard to wake up that early. the yoga place we signed up for is about a 20 minute drive away so that makes us not only have to get up early but also pay for the ride to and from the school. both of us were disappointed that the yoga they do there is not focused on physical stretches - many of the ladies come to yoga in sarees or dresses. so we may go back or we may try to find a different place that is walking distance.
jesse had another corporate gig last night. it was also at the hyatt but the musicians were a bit different. the woman who is organizing these gigs is merlin. she's a keyboard player. she is great fun! she seems to be in the know about everything in bombay especially the music scene so she's taking jesse on all her gigs and introducing us to many different musicians. the other players last night were a tabla player (didn't catch his name) and a sitarist, ravi chary, great funny guy. also hip. merlin also put together the music for some katak dancers to perform to. they did traditional indian dancing to some crazy variation of Take 5! it was really nice. the music is fusion of indian classical and western jazzy kind of thing. it's definitely different than de la buena and the chicken! (those are jesse's latin and funk bands in milwaukee) they opened with a shakti tune, a VERY difficult one called luki. then originals... i love the indian influences, it really opens the music melodically and rythmically to allow infinite possibilites...(you just have to watch out for the cheeze which slips in there sometimes.) the whole thing lasted about minutes. then we got to EAT!!! the food there is worth waiting around 4 hours for, believe me. and again, jesse made some great moolah.
i got some pics of this, i'll try to get them up. i also made friends with chary's student, a 26 yr old woman who has been studying sitar for only 1 year. i asked her to take me shopping...
today jesse finally has another lesson with nayan ji, the guru, and hopefully i will have a teacher within a few days. in anycase, we are continuing my guitar lessons and i'm learning how to read jazz charts. :)
we've got a bunch of fun things lined up for this week - but i'll keep you in suspense...

kurta dress

i got my first indian outfit today. it's very cool. i should get some pictures sometime soon. it cost 650 Rs for the material and tailoring. it's nice to have something sewn perfect for your body. (and cheap!)
jesse had a gig last night and made 6000 Rs! that's almost our whole month's rent. it was a corporate event at the Hyatt for some magazine. it was pretty strange but we got GREAT food at the end of the night. the band threw stuff together but pulled it off pretty well. i video taped for them. he's got some more gigs lined up too and i hope to sing with him at some point.
he's giving me guitar lessons. today was lesson one and i practiced for 2.5 hours. maybe i'll actually consider myself a guitar player by the time i leave india.
we've gone twice to yoga classes. we're going at 7:30 every morning. it's not the kind of yoga i've done before. so far it's a lot simpler and more relaxed. today we did breathing. jesse is with the men and they do completely different stuff. i guess they've been telling him all of these discipline things, about diet and stuff. today he renounced smoking for a month. i didn't have to renounce anything... yet.
indians speak english in a crazy cool way. so we're picking up the sideways headbobbing gesture and adding words like "is there" and "only" to the ends of our sentences. maybe eventually i'll start working on my hindi too.

juhu

I now live in Juhu, Mumbai, India. It's a cute little neighborhood of this crazy intense indian city. We're renting a one room place that is really nice, much nicer than anything i expected. 2 beds pushed together, a closet that locks, two windows with curtains... We've got our own bathroom with western toilet and shower. we're paying something like $4.50 a night, 2 months paid in advance which is steep for india but it's worth it i think. we're not in a touristy are. our neighborhood is relatively clean and there aren't many beggers or people sleeping on the street.
at the moment, i'm listening to Jesse rehearse with a couple musicians for a show they are going to do tomorrow. there was a singer here before who was ok-they're doing sting, U2, alanis morrisette-, and once the singer left jesse has just been trying to teach these guys how to play. pretty much. indians trying to play jazz... it's worse than israelis trying to play jazz. oh well. hopefully he'll get paid at least :)
tomorrow we're starting yoga lessons. we're gonna do yoga 5 days a week every morning from 7:30-8:30. it's a big yoga school about 20 min. from our place. bus costs 4.5 rupees. that's like half a shekel which is ... i don't know. the yoga cost 300 Rs for the first month. That's 30 shekels. eventually i'll stop converting.
we are only about 4 min. walk from the music school but i haven't started lessons there and jesse has only gotten one lesson so far but when Nayan (the Tabla master) gets back from touring next week hopefully we'll get into a routine with lessons. We sat in his office and talked with him for a while the other night. He's a really cool guy. He has a real Guru air about him.
he's really busy with performing but hopefully we'll see more of him and Jesse will get to have at least a couple lessons a week. i'm still waiting to get a voice teacher too.
food here is great...obviously. i'm still not used to the spice though so i get full really easily. i guess it's nice. we usually get thali which is the standard dinner or lunch. they give you a bunch of chapati and all different vegi things to mix with the bread and rice. i don't know the names of it all yet. but this is definitely the place to be for a vegetarian. the indian food is really like a crazy celebration of flavors all at once. maybe we'll learn how to cook a bit.
i got my measurements taken to have a kurta (indian dress) thing made for me. it'll be ready by saturday. we'll start taking pictures soon i guess.
ok, looks like people are packing up their instruments. i'll get going too. write me friends. miss you.
namaste

before yonat left for israel

leaving israel ototo (soon in hebrew)

i'm boarding my plane in 28 hours... but who's counting?? ;)
jesse is already over in mumbai staking it out and making connections. it's been 2 weeks since i've seen him. i wonder how long his beard is by now.