Last Sunday was also rainy in Tokyo. But I was determined to catch my friend from home, Shen play a show. Shen was part of the travelling posse in my trip to Varanasi, Spiti Valley and Dharamsala, and he is a serious Tabla student. Anyway, he is based here in Tokyo now for a while and I haven't had a chance to catch up with him for almost 3 years. He played as part of a classical Indian Concert at The Edogawa Heisei garden source heart hermitage in Kita Kasai. It was a beautiful show.

more photos here.

Shen Flindell started learning tabla in Australia from Sri Debu Bhattacharya in 1994 and soon went to the holy city of Varanasi in India to study under Pt. Kaviraj Ashutosh ("Ashu Babu") Bhattacharya, a great tabla master of the Benares Gharana and senior disciple of the legendary Pt. Kanthe Maharaj. Since then he has been to India 8 times to continue his tabla education and his Guru-ji has guided him to quite a high level. In July 1997 on Guru Purnima, Shen was initiated as a Gandabandhan disciple of the Kanthe Maharaj Baj of Benares Gharana, a rare honour for a Westerner. In February 2004, Shen was at his Guru-ji's side when he passed away at the age of 86 and since then Shen has taken lessons from his Guru-ji's senior students Sri Manishankar Tripathi and Sri Debabrata Bhattacharya. Shen's tabla playing is noted for his clear sound, comfortable rhythmic sense, intuitive accompaniment, sensous bayan (bass) and an emotional depth drawn from his respected Guru-ji's devotional approach to Indian classical music.

Read more about his project, Ethnosuperlounge and heres a link to his upcoming shows.