Welcome June! The Grand Jam of 1st June 08

So No more visiting! Come Sunday and I get a "We're Jamming" SMS from Tarun (Great coordination!) and I left Borivali to make a halt at Andheri collect a newly bought Guitar (So the guitar has been bought!) (!) and was at Bandstand in time, venturing into the battlefield alone! Got some heart warming welcoming glances from an elderly couple and I was eager to get on! Suddenly find Deepti (great to see her after a long time) zoom in (with her great bubbly energy!) with her mother and we were ready to go! For a change we started with a bit of 'intrumental' playing; the guitar (new) was sounding great and the sound of guitar over the murmur of the sea and drifting in the sweet moist air as always makes me see the beauty of this whole thing about jamming by the sea! OK!

So after that we sing the by now 'standard' opening : 'Write about it' and 'Simple Man'. Then I make some frantic calls so see why no-one's coming (from the gang I mean) and then we jump in to speak about the concept and start playing, Deepti cheering up everybody and the jam catches momentum! We begin and then Gauri floats in and I say oh great! Plenty of participation and some people saying 'sher-o-shayari'; a notable instance when a girl from the audience, not wanting to come down to the stage, opened up to render a song when given so much encouragement from the crowd, It was a very nice incidence in the jam.

Then we sang 'Bandeh' and spoke about reflecting a bit about our habits and the energy footprint and making a bit of effort about carrying that jute bag to the market instead of gathering all those messy plastic bags.
And then all the ganag poured in gradually (mmm..late attendance register! !) Gajendra took over the guitar duties along with Pulin and a friend (oops cant recall his name).

Kekoo came in with Pradeep as well and he was really glad to see the jam in its glory! He joined in and we continued till it was 10!
All in all a great jam and great to see things happening so well, great coordination, though missed Chintan, Monika (who takes over the 'Jam leadership' often..! ) and Aditya's great playing!

So there's music for meaning for us, with its lively spirit, music for particiaption, music for oneness, music for forgiveness, music for tolerance! The jam goes on with forces

Here are some pics Could shoot towards the end of the jam:

The Jam of 25th May : "In the words of a visitor"

"In the words of a visitor" here has two implications: one that i was almost a visitor to this jam, and the other -Aditya , who's now in Mumbai, was amazingly blazingly nice to make a writeup of his experience of the jam(all by the great arrangement of Vinay!). And amazingly encouraging words are they! But before I let those precious words be seen, I will obviously do my customary ranting!

The Sunday I had gone to ISKCON Temple's Youth Forum to be part of their activities, attended a great lecture, did some dancing(They have a 'Kirtan' which is just like our jams) over beats of the Mridanga and Kartaals and had the hounour of doing some 'Seva': Serving food to the people who came to the lecture. Then I left rushingly to get some sleep and then head for the Jam, But back home I felt rather low and undecided about the jam-Tarun was in Gujarat and I had not brought my guitar back from Bhopal, so I thought maybe the stars are not aligned for the jam and since I had arrived unnannounced (I guess nobody knew I was in Mumbai), it was a chance to see how the jam was being coordinated..err..mmm..

I liked the idea that everyone had decided regarding the coordination: "everyone is coming by default-but people who are not coming phone in"

And great to have Sada Vinay Jee in the jam!

Before I go ahead, some news is that when I was in Bhopal, with the enthusiasm and drive of Naveen (our self appointed band manager!) we jammed by the Shahpura lake- and with great results, a lot of people came over and joined in, although with my earlier memory of jamming in another city, chandigarh that is, I was not really expecting such a great turnout! People just loved it! lots of people wanting to know if the jam will go on the next sunday as well!

Now, in the great words of the " second visitor" (Aditya that is) (no one remains a visitor in the jam for long! we're all soon part of the jam family, like it or not!)

I was standing outside the Andheri station at 6:15to visit a friend there, waiting for him to come and pick me up last sunday when it suddenly stuck me that visiting the MFM Jam is a huge possibility!Boy! how on earth could that slip off my mind? SO immediately i scrolled through my phonebook and dialled Vinay's number, finding much to my surprise, our Dear Dharmendra Pa Ji answering the call!! Whoa! Vinay was too much in a cinematic mode so th best thing to do was to ask him for aapka Suraj's number and call him up to know the JAM's whereabouts.The phone rang and Suraj picked up, a bit confused when I tell him my name but relieved and happy when I remind him which Aditya this is ( ;) )I'm surprised when Suraj says he was skeptical about the JAM happening but now that even I'm coming, said the JAM should go on and that he'll make it to our favorite spot opposite Camp Juice Corner in a short while as soon as he's bought a guitar, without which the JAM is quite impossible. Now this is Suraj an this is what we talk about when we talk about his enthusuasm for this initiative.When he says 'The Jam must go on', he truly & deeply means it!So we hang up on the mutual promise of meeting up at the same place in about a hour.It's 7:45 and i suddenly realize that it's a bit too late and that I should start for the JAM and so i say the byes and leave for the JAM in an auto who promises to take me there in not more than half an hour irrespective of the evil traffic that engulfs Mumbai on a busy Sunday evening.I was growing impatient by the patient. Impatient due to 2 reasons:reason a :: The last (and only) time i jammed was more than a month ago!reason b :: It was an electrifying day!So here i was sitting in the auto waiting to meet the legends of MFM rock with the clock now showing 8:50.Oh yes, my dear friend and Classmate from NIFT, Anshuman Srivastava was also intrigued by this idea and my descriptions of the JAM that he too was excited and eager to join in, was already there before me and sitting there with Vinay (Dharam Pa Ji) and Aapka Suraj.So finally I reached only to find the Jam in full swing with the numbers ( I don't remember but i guess it was some song by strings). The stage was set.The mood was there.Everybody was seated.. and those standing, on their feet and hands in the air.The Hellos happened and as soon as this song finished, Suraj and party requested me to wail out Toota Toota ek Parinda. So Suraj plays and Aditya Sings and so does everybody else and this is where u realise that its not your voice or his voice.. It's our voice. Its Unison. Period.The Jam proceeds and suddenly there's a new instrument in my hand. The Bongo!It's painful if u have'nt played this Beat Instrument in a long time and for my delicate fingers.. ouch!!But with Suraj and the other cheerful and Energetic lads backing u up.. the pain does'nt feel and every good song ended up with a Guitar-Bongo combo JAM which was amazing fun (though i got a swollen index finger for three days)!!

P.S.: I did not buy the guitar, just the belt and we mamanged to strap it over kailash's guitar, which was the lone guitar of the jam! "Kailash Meri belt wapas kar! hahaha!" and I DID bring a Bongo to the jam, which I was playing alone, with Ali watching in despair, (before anyone turned up) and got a a very nice and sweet "please could you stop playing this for a while" from an aunty (while she might have wanted to say "could you please stop banging on those 2 cylinders which make noise of the most exquisite nature like a madman?" haha!)

P.S. 2: And thanks Aditya for Christening our crazy guitaring as "energy"! We often compromise nmusical presentation for the sake of the engulfing energy and that has become a habit!

Bandra Chalo!: The Jam of 6th April 08

Happy Navratras to all! So we jammed the Sunday gone by, With a lot of the old people on board again..Vinay, Me( Suraj that is!), Tarun, Kailash and Vijeeth and it was great guns! ..but Missed Chintan, Monika, Gauri, Pulin.
It was great to have Aditya Dipankar ( http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=9125229749940862084) come all the way from Bangalore to jam with us! He is great on the guitar and rendered beautiful numbers like 'Teri Deewani', 'Dooba Dooba'; 'Hey Bhagwaan' and 'Im in Mumbai Waiting for a Miracle' two beautiful songs from Raghu Dixit's self titled new Album! and not to forget 'Khudee' by Junoon
Just the day before, Id gone out with my roommate, Madhur, to the Juhu beach
and we'd taken the guitar along..and we had a great nice session of playing, mostly for ourselves there, squatting on the beach, when we gradually broke out into playing in our frantic frenzy style...and made some friends there, and talked to Tanya, one of our few appreciative audiences about the concept and asked her to be there at Bandstand for the Sunday's Jam; It was great to see her in the jam!

We started with "Write about it" from Lynyrd Skynyrd and I just feel so connected to that song..It makes we wish the whole world were a village, living at a pace which shows respect to the pace of nature..see this article on 'Appropriate technology' : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriate_technology

We moved on to our by now tried and trusted and rusted intro of the concept: "aap thodee der ke liye bhool jaiye kee aap kitni badi gaadee chalate hai, ya kitne chote ghar me rehete hai" and "for once forget all the judgements in your mind and become one on this platform of music" etc etc.
and then we moved on to playing some popular stuff, 'mae ree' (Tarun wont let one jam go until I wail out that song) and then we moved on to taking some requests, which Vinay and Aditya were pleased to play. We had Anil Swami who took to the djembe intermittently and it was great jamming with him!
We had great participation, with some real original compositions by some real people from the earthy, dhoti-kurta facet of India, accompanied by our unruly team of guitar toting (and drum bearing), disorganized, wanting-to-wail-out-a-message-to-the-world team of 'musicians'!

We finished with Vinay playing 'Baadshah in Jail' by Indian Ocean, Aditya Playing 'Khudee ko kar Buland' by Junoon and me with 'Laal Meri Pat' and 'Sanu Ek Pal Chain naa Aawey', done in our own "we are our own music" style!
Thats what Music For Meaning stands for me in a big way, a simple small scale platform to bring out creativity from all across-from the untrained, rusty folk innards of India to the refined Gharanas to us 'Moderns'; to become a fuzon melting pot enabling small community events-a platform for unhindered social interaction.

Here's the pic-story!:

The 'Band' is sprinkled like pepper in salt!

oyeee! attitude? noooooo! thats some real 'song acting' (=acting out a song!)

This Guy who incidentally collects stuff nobody wants lying around, lying around (repetetion is intended) (which somebody throws) has ART inisde him! Khai ke Paan Banaras wala!

This guy from (a Village who's name I forget) in Bihar had some real neat compositions..about mata pita kee seva nahi karoge tau chaar janam tak dukkh paooge and some real nice bhajans! Incidentally you see me (jee haan aapka pyaara Suraj) standing encouraging company to the little uncertain performers!

Swami (On the Djembe) was a one from the audience who played with us! Vinay (stooping over the guitar) and Aditya (Arm over the guitar) give great company!

Cheers! Tarun finally makes it in this pic!

No Windup pic this time! Sorry! from all of us at MFM..take the cares and keep the faiths and be Good and May God bless all!

Resurgence of Hope: Bandra Beckons

Monika called for an early start of the jam, lets be there by five thirty for it gets late by the time we pack up,she said. So I engaged express gear, had a mysore plain dosa all done in ghee at my favourite restaurant, with guitar lying silently by my side. I reached bandstand sharp at five thirty. While en route from bandra station to the promenade, the autorickshawala who did the courtsey of locomoting yours truly, gave me oodles of gyan about lending money and applying your mind in some cases. He was one major music lover and would not let me get off before I rendered and cramped in the auto version of 'ik hasina thee'.

At the peomenade alone and wondering what to do..to wait or start my customary wailing of my signature song 'simple man' I remembered to call Kekoo, told him that most of us were gathering that day. Then when i sat down to write something, Mark, a Pastor as I later discovered, came up and asked me what I was upto. He told me of the miracles that started happening in his life when he 'surrendered to the kingdom of God'. A very nice man he blessed me and promised to come and check us out later as we played. Prashanti and Pulin, silent witnesses to this episode were lying low, camouflaged as the audience. Some time later, swiss time miss Monika came, only to be reminded by me of the Indianness in her swiss time.

After some customary greetings and all we begun, with the song simple man, and the energies grew. We went on to play mae ree, and when we had a nice crowd, introduced the concept. We picked up issues..said stuff about not judging each other and forgiveness which was well recieved with specific incidences in the jam to relate to. Most of us think our lives are working exclusive of the community and the society and we fail to relate that all that happens to all effects all.

As an old uncle came down to sing some beauts from the retro zone..there were cheers all around..we picked up tempo and the jam erupted when people could not contain their energies any longer and we all stepped down to dance. Vinay came somewhere towards the end of the jam and took to playing Bandeh by Indian ocean which I had played already and much more nicely (hehe) , Pulin was in good mood and swing as well, with Prashanti taking to the photo duties. Monika, her usual bubbly self got everybody cheering with her energy.

Kailash and Pulin did some songs as well, though we missed Tarun. The jam goes on, it brings people together, it gives belief to all of us with the meaning in our music. It gives us an outlet to say out what we want to say, it ignites the musician hidden in many people..the jam's a good thing! We talked to Kekoo after the jam, and he gave his inputs regarding forming a core group of people who work on MFM and its growth. With all his love he promised that he will continue to support us on MFM...he is God's hand to us!
Here are the pics:

Words of Wisdom: I listen to Pastor Mark

Pulin 'Strikes a Chord'

Great Guitar fingers! there is potential there, Kailash, Prashanti and Monika



We 'Roll with it'. I sing and dance while Monika cheers everyone.

This guy came up and did a great job, while his girlfriend cheered! great to have people contribute to our frog's croakings!

Chakk De Phatte. All the way from Sada Punjab. This guy has become a regular contributor and sings with a lot of heart!

'Maei ke Laal Jaikishan' , Thats our desi Michael Jackson.

Vinay entered late and started hoarse screaming!

The Return of MFM - 10th Jan 2008

Well well well...to begin with I would like to apologise on behalf of all MFM members for being very very late to post a blog here...
For all those of you who thought that MFM and its members have disappeared we are back...We have returned...The return was not all that a full fleged rocking jam and we couldn't manage to gather a large audience we still managed to capture the hearts and bring back smiles on the faces of those many regulars who have been coming sunday after sunday waiting for us even in our absence...
The jam started off with Yogi who sang all alone for a while until Pulin and Monika joined in...I was late though...We our regular songs, introduced MFM and for sure - played people's requests...It was fun and more importantly the mark of a new begining of MFM which will keep going on and on and on...
Hope to see you all wonderful people soon back there...Same time..Same Place - 6.30pm, Bandstand, Bandra[w]...
sorry, no pics....

Classical Takeover: The venueless Jammers: 18th Nov @ Bandra

Now there is this Bandra fest going on, (obviously in Bandra!), and there was a fair-fest like atmosphere all along the promenade. This is something unique I've noticed in the spirit of Bandra-the place is full of small scale community events that something or the other is always happening there.

And the fest has made us homeless, or shall I say venueless, for our good old artiste's court was the venue of a classical vocal recital, a full fledged event and there was amplification and all (long craved for by us!) and a beautiful stage and all of that! We decided to be audience for once and obidiently sat down on the rocks with our guitars in restrain, under the covers. After sometime, we (Sanjay, Ali, Yogi, Gauri) collectively agreed to attend something a little less heavy (hehe!) and started moving to see a fuzion band playing at carter road. En-route we decided to play ourselves (and to hell with someone else playing!), chose a place, on the rocks by the sea and had a little jam. Yogi was in good mood and swing. Vijeeth joined in later, the weather was great and it was a nice little lonely jam. Alok, the good old photo pro joined in later with his sister and his parents.

We packed up our jam by 9 30 and went on to have our food at the legendary national Dhaba at bandra station and joked, while eating paan at the shop outside that it will be in our autobiographies (when we write them, hehe, and that is when we become big time musicians), that we used to thrive on simple daal roti from this place. hehe.

And while we were on the train, in the luggage compartment, Yogi, continuing in his wild and free mood, initiated a jam in the train, and we were playing and jamming on the train! wow! and, ladies and gentlemen, that was the third time I played during the day-one at a little concert in the morning at Ghatkopar, which Chintan coordinated and was great fun to be part of, we rocked with the crowd! and then at Bandstand and then in the train! Pretty tight schedule, hehe, and not to mention that we got a fee to play in the morning! yippie!

Here are the pics, no pics of the jam at bandstand though.

The classical recital at the artitste's court

We jam in the train! Thats the luggage compartment!

Face to face with the music!

We got video covergage! hehe!

Wah Wah!

Hang on there! There is more to come in the next journey!

The post Diwali blues Jam of 11th Nov @ Bandstand

I came back from Nausari at around 2 O'Clock to Mumbai, and having played the very night before, and when I contemplated playing again in the evening @ bandstand, felt like some journeying rock star with a tight schedule! haha! The stages are 5 feet by 5 feet, the audience is our very own desi people and the fee is the cheers and the satisfaction, and a feeling of having conveyed something, made a difference somewhere..

From the song 'Guitar Man' by bread

"Who draws the crowd and plays so loud, Baby its the guitar man.
Whos gonna steal the show, you know Baby its the guitar man.

Then he comes to town, and you see his face, And you think you might like to take his place. Somethin keeps him driftin miles and miles away Searchin for the songs to play.

Then you listen to the music and you like to sing along, You want to get the meaning out of each and every song. Then you find yourself a message and some words to call your own And take them home."

Whatever!

When I called the gang up, almost everyone was busy, thanks to the post festivities stuff, and only Kailash, Gauri , Bharti and I made it. Gauri had observed another group playing on the promenade and thought it was a band, but it turned out to be a group singing Christ songs..we went there thinking we'd jam up with another band, but still, there seemed nothing wrong to me with the message of these guys and I sat down and did guitar duties for some of their songs.

We got up and we returned to our place, and belted out some songs, I was not singing too loud or too good, and the energy was not kicking, but we did our bit. And then I took this oppurtunity to play some beautiful songs I enjoy playin..Love will keep us alive, Waiting for so long, Words, Peaceful Easy feling, Train leaves here this morning, New Kid in Town and really enjoyed myself!

There was a nice couple who requested "Killing me softly" which I did not know how to play and promised to prepare for the next time.

So that was that. A small bluesy kind of jam, and I walked alone along the Promenade after saying bye to the rest of the gang, and had a moong dosa at the Amrit Sagar hotel like a hundred times before. After my post dinner walk to the Bandra station, Punched my coupons for 5 Rs. for Goregaon and I was home. Home to a room with me and my guitars. Put my head down on the mat and poof! I'm traveling in my dreams...

Here are the pics:

The Lord Songs Group and me belting my guitar

A rather small audience..where's the gang??

Kailash!

I've leartn this new pose for playing...Its rather comfortable!