Kaslo Jazz etc. floating stage with Breakwater

Thank you Jeff Faragher & Breakwater for the opportunity to perform on the floating stage at the 2015 Kaslo Jazz etc. festival. What a treat! I had to jump into the lake off the back of the stage after the show.. it’s tradition!

Dreamtree Project at Starbelly Jam

Gallery

This gallery contains 12 photos.

Photos by Joel Pelletier www.joelpelletier.ca Featuring Adham Shaikh, Uwe Neumann, Gurpreet Chana, Marty Carter, and yours truly, Ben Johnson performing at the 2015 Starbelly Jam music festival.

ROM with Adham Shaikh

June 21st 2013, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, ON. Season Finale of the ROM’s Friday Night Live series. There were between 3,000 and 4,000 people in attendance! People lined-up around the block, hundreds did not even make it in..

The whole show featured Adham on beats’n’bass with his new Arturia MiniBrute, Ben Johnson on Persian santoor, electric oud, çümbüş and darbuka, Torontonians Jacqueline Levitt on vids and Akimi and Amanda sporting the ultra-tribal bellydance moves.

Notably we beat the odds and highway closures on the road during the Great Calgary Flood of 2013 to get there!

Photos courtesy Jonah K
http://www.jonah-k.com/

Unity 2012

This year’s Unity festival in Winlaw, BC opened with world music improv group “Shrutrio”, composed of Prashant Michael John on vocals & resonator guitar, Marty Carter on flute, saxophone, Akai Ewi wind synth and djembe, and Ben Johnson on oud and tabla. Building on repertoire developed during Kirtan night performances together, the trio took some traditional song forms along with some of Prashant’s original pieces into extra-dimensional sacred space.

What a wonderful way to open a festival! Photography by Bohdan Doval.

Drumming with Youssoupha Sidibe

What an honour and a workout to perform with the kind and powerful Youssoupha Sidibe, playing his Senegalese kora, with Robbie Roots on bass guitar.

Shot on iPhone by Christine Hamilton – July 24, 2012 at the Royal on Baker, Nelson BC
After one 4-hour rehearsal!