Twice the tabla

The rollicking rhythms of Indian music will be filling the The Nix twice this month, with events on consecutive Sunday afternoons. It seems that tabla players are like AT buses: you can wait for ever for one and then two turn up at once. Although in this case, the destinations are quite different.

First up, Basant Madhur will be the special guest at the next Transglobal Music Session on Sunday 13 August. Basant was born into a family of musicians and received expert guidance from Punjab Gharana tabla maestro, the late Pt. Pawan Kumar Verma. If you haven't been to one of these interactive music workshops before, they're an opportunity for musicians of any level of experience to learn from diverse traditions and to share their own.

Then the following week (Sunday 20 August), the Ockham Collective's resident piano man Ben Fernandez (pictured left) will be teaming up with Manjit Singh (pictured right) to lead a Masterclass on Indian Music. Both are acclaimed musicians in their own right. Manjit tutors at the University of Auckland and is the director of the Rhythm School of Indian Music. Ben is a noted jazz musician, with a special interest in the intersection of Indian classical music and Western traditions.

Topics to be covered include an overview of Indian music (Hindustani, Carnatic and folk); ragas, rhythms, beat cycles and other musical devices; the use of elements of Indian music in jazz and Western music; and practical tips on how to incorporate these elements into your performances and compositions.

Says Ben, "It's an opportunity to add flavour, colour and style to your musical vocabulary".