Jake Shimabukuro - Live in Concert

For those of you who don't know who Jake Shimabukuro is (don't worry I recently found out about him as well), here is what wikipedia says about him:

Jake Shimabukuro is a ukulele virtuoso known for his complex finger work.

When they mention "complex" they really really mean it. We decided to attend the concert and see how a solo ukulele concert sounds like!

He played a lot of tracks from his recent album "Peace Love Ukulele" including "143", "Boy Meets Girl", "Go For Broke" (awesome track by the way), "Trapped", "Five Dollars Unleaded" and believe it or not "Bohemian Rhapsody".

He also played a song that is called "Blue Roses Falling" and was the most amazing track I feel. He told am story behind each of the tracks he played and quite honestly I think he has a good voice as an RJ :)

Here is a picture from the concert (not that good considering it was from phone camera):

I have a couple of more concerts to go to next month including concerts of great musicians like Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer and Amjad Ali Khan (with his sons Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan) and can't wait to attend and enjoy them :)

Zakir Hussain's Masters of Percussion - Pure Bliss

It was a long and tiring day at work but I was motivated. It was time to experience the magic again. After full day of work, and almost one and half hours of driving, I was in for a treat. Zakir was performing at Herbst Theater in San Francsico downtown.

http://www.sfjazz.org/concerts/2010/spring/artists/hussain.php

Artist Personnel:

Zakir Hussain: Tabla
Ganesh: Violin
Kumaresh: Violin
Sabir Khan: Sarangi (he could not make it due to Visa issues unfortunately)
Sridar Parthasarathy: Mridangam
Navin Sharma: Dholak
Taufiq Qureshi: Percussion

Featuring the Motilal Dhakis of Bengal
Gokul Chandra Das: Processional drums
Ranjan De: Processional drums
Sankar Das: Processional drums

I have been fortunate enough to attend many concerts by Zakir bhai, and he always brings so much new and different to each of his shows. This show was no different. Taufiq started out with an amazing piece by calling "breathing as a form of rhythm", and what a rhythm it was! He used sound of his breath along with a tambourine and creating rhythm, it was amazing.

Zakir bhai came in next and he created magic with his hands on tabla. It was a long and beautiful piece. Taufiq and Zakir played for a bit after the solo performances.

Gokul Chandra Das, Ranjan De and Sankar Das (from Motilal Dhakis of Bengal) came to the stage with big Dhols (similar to the ones you usually see in Indian weddings, processional drums) and they played folk music, it was good. People started thinking there may be one or two more pieces and the show will be over, but show just got started after almost an hour of amazing percussion magic.

Zakir and Taufiq were accompanied by Ganesh and Kumaresh (both on Violin) and Sridar Parthasarathy (on Mridangam). They played Raag Janaranjani and then Raag Kalyani. Zakir and Taufiq were playing along. Violin is one of those instruments that soothes the whole environment, and along with tabla and Mridangam it created such a momentum that audience was in awe of talent on the stage.

The last addition was Navin Sharma on Dholak, who also gave a nice solo performance. The show was ended with a long and beautiful jugalbandi and a combination taal.

It is time to sleep and relax now, the sound of Ustad's tabla will be ringing in my ears for sometime now :)

Happy Independence Day America!

I always liked fireworks, not only because of the lights but the colors it imparts and the heights it achieves!

So we decided to take a long drive (yes in this economy as well, its been a while I went for one) to Marine County (north of SFO), where the fireworks are supposed to be good. It looks like GPS does not always help and with this stupid piece of electronics we did get lost. Being hungry and away from anything close to proper civilization it was scary thought that we were away from SFO at least hour and half and the route was not very pleasant to drive after dark (mountains and lonely routes are not the best bets for safer driving). So anyways, we found this nice Italian restaurant in the middle of nowhere, called Olema Farmhouse and Deli. I know it sounds weird for an Italian restaurant but trust me they claim to use the finest quality ingredients to make pasta sauces; they buy tomatoes for Marinara; fresh basil, garlic and extra virgin olive oil for the freshly made Pesto sauce and this is evident in the taste of dishes as well as the prices they charge for each of them :)

Anyways, the lady at the deli told us that we got the wrong location for the fireworks and need to drive half hour to get to the Marine County fairgrounds. So after dinner we barely had enough time and I was definitely very full and sleepy after the nice pasta. But anyways, we had to go see fireworks after so much driving, so we started. By the time we reached and tried to find a good parking spot fireworks already started. We decided to do a smart thing and took the car to a nearby McDonalds parking lot and watched the fireworks from there. It was not that bad afterall.

Here is the total route we took that day, which was really beautiful to drive on:

And here are some pictures from that scenic route:

The Uncomparable SFO

"Cool fog. Hot restaurants. Neighborhoods to explore. Cultures to experience. Always more to discover...Only in San Francisco." is what the official visitor website says and they are not wrong.

San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the fourteenth-most populous in the United States, with a 2006 estimated population of 744,041. Personally I also think it is one of the most beautiful city in the world. Every time I visit SFO, it offers something new and something different. This is great city to stroll around and enjoy one of the best sea food in the world, especially sushi (if you like fish that is).

Mark Twain once said: "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.", so true. It can get really very cold in the city even with a very high temperature just south of the city. Never ever be without a jacket in the city.

One of the best places to hang out in the city is probably Pier 39, very nice shops, great sunset view of Alcatraz and Golden Gate bridge. You can spot many people showing their music and arts talent in terms of live bands playing (not the greatest ones but they are still good), and some street shows to entertain you. You should definitely take the cruise ride which starts from Pier 39 and goes under the Golden Gate bridge and around the Alcatraz.

Another place to see would be the Presidio of San Francisco and across the Golden Gate bridge Golden Gate National Recreational Area. From the Golden Gate National Recreational Area, you can see unimaginably beautiful views of the bay and the city.

Here are some pictures of the city I took sometime back: