We, the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, have had various collaborations with our colleagues from the East and, I’m speaking frankly here, they were long and quite boringly orchestrated concerts so not very interesting for us. So when the Symphony of Love concert featuring ‘the sensational songstress from India, Pratibha Singh Baghel‘, came up in our schedule most of us were foreseeing another long and boring evening. The parts that were given didn’t promise much so when we went into our first rehearsal on stage with Pratibha and her band members little did we know… or expect … 🫣
On stage the drum set and bass guitar set up was right in front of us basses and the more traditional instruments on the other side. It was a pretty impressive set up which caught my curiosity immediately. Then the guys came and started sound checking. This bass guitarist starts walking up and down the stage and requesting things left right and centre, flipping his beautiful longish Indian hair back occasionally, but in a really pleasant way to be fair (both the requesting and flipping 😉).
So we start playing and boy, these guys know what they’re doing and it’s very enjoyable to watch and hear them play and practise their craft. After the rehearsal I quickly say hi and introduce myself in the passage way as I’m heading out and went home.
Once at home I remember reading ‘Pratibha will be joined by a team of nine of India’s current leading musicians’ … hmmm … 🤔 so I google ‘India bass guitarist’ and try to locate the one with the beautiful, shiny and longish hair. Bingo! Sheldon D’Silva … let’s check this guy out. Oh… he played with musicians like John McLaughlin, plays hectic fusion/funk stuff (and really well!), has thousands of followers 😳
Ok, let’s find this drummer … Darshan Doshi … hmmm … 54.000+ followers on instagram, 17.000+ followers on YouTube … 😳 😳 😳 ah, I’m not the only one liking his playing! 😉
After watching a short video on YouTube where Sheldon explains setting up sound for a performance I then also understand why he was walking around etc.. He explains in interviews on YouTube about when you sound check you should get to the front of stage to hear how you sound there and not just stay in your own spot.
Needless to say it turned out to be a fabulous and very enjoyable couple of days and concert! Long, again very long, but very enjoyable, hanging out with the band and making new friends.
Go check out these guys on YouTube via the links 👉🏻 Sheldon D’Silva and Darshan Doshi! I am now looking forward to our next collaboration! 😃
To be continued … 🙂
Roxane Steffen 