Old Town School – On The Road

Dispatches from the road from our wayfaring travelers.

Musical Exchange in Ahmedabad

We trekked out of Rajasthan, a long two days of driving punctuated by stops at Mt Abu, the Indian honeymooners equivalent of Niagra Falls, this one in a high mountain retreat in the middle of a tiger preserve; Rani-Tki-Vav, an enormous eight or nine storey well, carved out of solid rock with every surface displaying images of the avatars of Vishnu, really overwhelming; and the Modhera Sun Temple, a lot like the step well only it rises from the earth rather than descending into it.  The state of Gujarat is a total contrast to Rajasthan’s desert — lush green farming country, lots of animal life.

We arrived in Ahmedabad for several days in residence at Darpana Academy, a school founded in 1949 by Mrnalini Sarabhai, the dancer who introduced Indian classical dance to word audiences.  The space is stunning, created by artists with both traditional Indian imagery set into the walls at every turn, and whimsical mosaics, modern sculpture and functional components like seating and tables all created by artists.  There are maybe 8 or 9 classroom spaces, most of them outdoors, shaded by canopies and trees, or occasionally by cantilevered office space above.  They run a whole gamut of classes, including ones taught by visiting international artists.

We spent a couple of days working with the Darpana house band to assemble a joint performance.  These are world class muciains, and they are well accustomed to collaboring across cultural boundaries, having previously worked with jazz, rock and hip hop performers.  You all would have been proud of the way Reggio jumped right in, organizing the team of percussionists (2 Indian drummers joined by an Australian who was also in residence at Darpana during our stay) into a really dynamic performance. We played in the Academy’s outdoor ampitheatre, a real high point.

While in Ahmedabad we also offered a workshop at a wonderful school, and performed at an Institute of Rural Management which is a training center for small scale dairy farming operations, funded through a dairy cooperative with 13 million members.  Then it was off to Baroda where we had by far the largest audience of the trip, more than 1000 people who could not have been a more energetic audience.  It was a great gig, but this is India so it also had its strange moments:  in the middle of our set we were interrupted by a local politician who got up and gave a speech for 5 minutes; and then a famous cricket player showed up and about a third of the audience swarmed all over him for autographs.  Dan responded by pretty much shredding his guitar on a smokin’ version of “Pinball Wizard.”

Now we’re in Mumbai, the last stop of the tour, with a gig tonight at a place called the Blue Frog Club, which we’re told is the hottest club in town.  They’ve got us advertised as the “Chicago Fold Ensemble” — I guess somebody hit the wrong key on their computer to make us “fold” instead of “folk” — maybe it will attract a huge crowd of curious music fans.

Thinking fondly of Chicago.  We heard it was snowing there!  It’s 95 here.

Filed under: India,Notes from Bau by Bau | October 12, 2009 | Comments (1)


1 Comment so far

  1. steve rosen on October 19, 2009 2:04 am

    what amazing and touching tales of your trip. it all sounds otherworldly, like an experience that can’t be described unless you’re in it, and you are, and i’m just getting enough of the emotion of your experience to know how you must be awed every day. i want to retrace every one of your steps. can’t wait to see pictures.

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Share your thoughts