Low G Bansuri & Free Improv on the Lower East Side

Timestamps ~

0:00 low G bansuri demo

0:48 talk 

1:44 bansuri//harmonics//voice//bowoodhouse//caravan_25/04/24

3:10 Toss the Feathers on Low D whistle 

4:28 Me and Frank Walker in New York New York on the Lower East Side on the street improvising on Alto Saxophone (me) and French Horn (Frank) in September 2023 on a Saturday night

7:48 Take 2 slightly up the road 

What I reckon ==

On top of the manual labour of dismantling a circus and rebuilding a circus in another field and then playing a few shows a day in that field I decided to spend the downtime between shows stretching my fingers around the low G Bansuri.

I think I’ve won a genetic lottery in terms of long spindly fingers and I can generally play flutes and whistles that other people can’t stretch around but the low G Bansuri is ridiculous and will probably paralyse my hand if I play it too much (or it’ll be really good for my hand like hand yoga maybe?)

I love the whistly sound of harmonics. It takes such little air blown across the top of a flute for it to start this weird little bird song. It’s the same sound as the wind whistling in the trees, it’s happening everywhere almost all the time.

The caravan in Bowood House is a world away from the lower east side where Frank and I were playing in the street but the circus and the lower east side have in common the fact that people don’t really bat an eye lid at anything unusual. Frank and I played on the street outside a gallery for about half an hour and people just sat down and watched and got their phones out.