The valley is filled with musicians and it seems I have been lucky enough to meet and play with some truly beautiful ones. Every night in my last week is filled with various jam sessions - huge tribal jams / dance offs at 'Sky Pie', casual relaxed Punjabi-lassi inspired jams at Roza cafe or small scale sessions at 'Sky HIGH', the latter of which often ends up turning large-scale much to the chagrin of the non-musos staying there...
As stated, there are loads of musicians around, but I have a core crew in a few of them. Matt, a sitar player from Florida, is one of the first players I meet that I truly gel with. He is tall, curly haired and never to be seen without either his sitar or a guitar strapped to his back. I first meet Matt at Roza cafe on the full moon, or see him at least, playing with Vladi and Lapsang, a guitarist and flute player respectively. Their music is beautiful that night, but I remember being 'on a mission' to get to another full moon party - a musical evening at Shivam's house - and don't remember staying around too long despite the beauty wafting out of those instruments. As I leave I lament my evening's commitment and vow to make NO future plans unless I have to - it's very hard to walk away from such beauty.
Anyway, I first play with Matt and Vlad a few nights after the full moon, at 'Roza'. Our first jam is actually quite a healing experience for me as I'd had a kind of a crazy evening prior to this, and nothing feels better than to sit and sing my heart out to their improvised licks. The three of us seem to run into each other a lot in the coming days - usually at 'Roza', and we sit and eat breakfast together and philosophise. I am quickly told the story of what happened after their legendary full moon jam and hear of Vlad falling down a cliff right after he warned the others not to get too close to the edge! Well, the others are laughing away so I feel free to join in - it is pretty funny... especially because his precious guitar was unharmed.
Another wonderfully talented man I love playing with is Shyan, always armed with his array of flutes in various keys. Sometimes I try to mirror what he does on flute with my voice - our jams are always beautiful. Peter is another flute player, and Shreeti box player, and 'Halluci' player (an instrument that truly sounds like its name!)who travels with about twenty kilos of instruments, building them as he goes... ahhh, it's a good life we all lead... as we are all taking singing lessons from Manoj, a wonderful teacher based in Varanasi most of the year, the idea gets bandied about to all go and live there and study music together. WHY NOT??!! I'm currently entertaining this notion of moving to Varanasi in time for Christmas (after earning some money teaching somewhere first...) to study for three months or so. How amazing would it be though, to all live in a big house together, play music every day, in one of the craziest cities in the world?!
So, it seems it's mostly men that I've been jamming with, although Uma joins us for a few nights, her freestyling lyrics an inspiration to me - totally free, she raps about being the queen of the world (making us all keel over in laughter), being limitless and ever-changing and sharing a house with some funky monkey junkies - actually, that last one was Peter and I, very funny... and Selina from South America joins us for my last couple of nights as well - a full power goddess woman who I totally connect with vocally. We harmonise together, and sometimes shriek a bit, and end up dancing to the music we're creating, letting our inner banshees out - hooray!! I am LOVING these musical nights...
Although not everyone is. I must admit we get kind of carried away one night when it is raining and the sound of the monsoon covers our volume. There are dozens of people all crammed onto a verandah near 'Sky High' and by the time the rain dies down we have forgotten about the time, the djimbes have started up again and unfortunately we have to be told by a pretty upset neighbour whose sleep has been interrupted by our bangin'. I feel terrible about this, and wonder not for the first time what the locals think of us - we must seem to take over their beloved valley for up to six months of the year in high season. They have to put up with djimbes banging at unruly hours, mad trance parties, blissed out hippies climbing up and down the mountains all through the night... I mean, we have a pretty amazing life here in Bhagsu, but I think we should remember those that have lived here all their lives. Food for thought anyway...
Actually, it's reasonably common for police to come and close things down anyway, something I found out on my final night - I had invited people to come and play at 'Marley cafe', but because of getting my hands hennaed by my lovely guesthouse maitre-dee, I was over an hour late so we didn't start playing until after ten o-clock, the official closing time around these parts. Sure, we were playing quietly (I wasn't going to take any chances after our 3 am finish a few nights before), but we were soon plunged into darkness when the cafe owner turned out all the lights and shushed everyone. Expecting to hear a simple conversation between a police officer and the owner, we were all shocked and horrified to hear the sound of someone being pretty heavily beaten up, just on the other side of the canvas covering. As soon as it was safe to leave we did, there being nothing we could do (after seeing my rickshaw driver get beat up by police in Delhi, I knew they wouldn't listen to us if we told them to stop). We later found out that it wasn't because of us, but rather that the police had been videoing someone smoking charas through a guesthouse window, and a worker had thought that they (the policeman) was a common thief. So, the worker hit the policeman, not knowing who they were, and a heavy beating and an arrest followed. We're all pretty bummed out by this time, me especially, having invited everyone to this cafe to play some music! But unfortunately this stuff happens all over India... we visit the next morning to see how things are, but who knows... who can win when facing the Indian police?!?
Suprisingly, we do end up having one more beautiful jam for last night, all cramming into Dipender's room (he owns a guesthouse near 'Sky High), and even more suprisingly, we manage to keep it really quiet, and disturb nobody. For me it's a really nice warm up to my upcoming 'busking tour of Europe' as I play song after song for everyone towards the end of the night - Leonard Cohen, Simon and Garfunkel, Beatles... we all finally leave around 3 a.m, completely satisfied, completely happy...
SO, I leave Bhagsu in the best possible place - completely inspired, and very creatively... I really feel like this bunch of musicians I will see again, for sure... I catch my night bus to Delhi reluctantly, but also knowing that all things must come to an end as well, and that there are bound to be many more beautiful experiences ahead of me in Europe, a land completely different to the one I have been living on for the past three months, but a canvas waiting to have new musical stories painted on. Life is changing for me now as I move to new lands, but not for the first time I say bring it on, sweet universe... bring it on indeed...
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