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Microbus The City
Living in Peru is like constantly trying to piece together a puzzle, only your puzzle pieces constantly change and you realize that it doesn’t matter what pieces you connect because one way or another it’ll all work. This is how I first felt upon my arrival to Lima. It was this vast expanse and everyday I tried to have it all figured out, my housing, work, running paths, but you realize that the city moves as fast and uncontrollably as the micro-buses that zip through its streets, and while planning is good, sometimes you just have to be.
My knowledge of Spanish helped me communicate to a certain extent, yet it was also the one thing that set me apart from the Limeños of the city. I knew that Spanish accents vary from country to country yet I didn’t realize how different Mexican and Peruvian accents can be. Fortunately these differences in language helped spark conversations between me and people from many walks of life in Lima, and during each of these conversations I made sure to bring up the topic of Afro-Peruvian music. And almost all of the people I spoke to, whether it be a restaurant owner, cab driver, or my landlord, had something to say about this musical genre.
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If My Eyes Could Sing
What role does Music play in our world? How can a story change lives? Check out this trailer for the upcoming documentary film, If My Eyes Could Sing, from Jon Haas. Following my concept music album project entitled Stories of AIDS through Music, this film attempts to offer a voice for those that are oft-ignored. Through the lens of music, witness a message of hope. If My Eyes Could Sing, this is what you’d hear.
Tangier-America Day! (and my 1st academic conference, ever)
As it happened, the US Cultural Attaché in Morocco caught Nacim and Zakaria’s performance at the Fulbright Symposium (see previous post for videos). A week later, the American Embassy in Rabat contacted me to help organize a fusion performance for Tangier-America Day in – you guessed it – Tangier. I happily obliged. The idea was to showcase American and Moroccan collaboration, so we brought together Nacim Haddad, Zakaria Aktoui, Aicha (a Watson Fellow from the States/phenomenal singer), and myself. Aicha brought a soul-stirring addition of jazz vocals and spoken word to a Gnawa 3-piece band: Nacim on the haj houj, Zakaria on the qraqeb, and yours truly on the tabla (hand drums). The result was quite a spectacle (YES, that was a double entendre in French!), and we even had the honor of playing for the US Ambassador, Samuel Kaplan, and his wife Sylvia. Believe it or not, Zakaria did his first ever Gnawa toe touch less than a foot away from them. Check it out. Oh yeah, we called ourselves Gnawa Voyageur…and Zakaria and I just might be the greatest dance duo in Tangier-America Day history (see video 3).
Here’s the opener, a variation on “Bu Lila. Aicha comes in with the 2nd chorus on English:
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The Day That Hunger Died Of Thirst
Eletrocactus
Since February, I’ve been following a local rock band called Eletrocactus. I met them while they were working in a recording studio as they started mastering their first CD. I was attracted to the way they drew on regional imagery in their music. Almost everything they do refers to the sertão, the semi-arid hinterland, of the Brazilian Northeast. One of the members of the band explained to me that they use regional rhythms like the baião to musically evoke Ceará’s interior, and maracatu cearense for Fortaleza and urban life. Songs have names like “Calango Eletrônico” (Electronic Lizard), “Fogo do Sertão” (Fire of the Sertão), and “Seco Sertão Sangrado” (Bled Dry Sertão). The title track of their new album is called, “O Dia em que a Fome Morreu de Sede” (The Day that Hunger Died of Thirst). At times the singers’ vocal style mimics rural traditions like cantoria and embolada, and the melodic and harmonic foundations are mostly blues and rock. They’re constantly combining images of the city and the sertão, tradition and modernity, local and global.
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India on Shuffle
The beauty of music lies in its ability to provide feeling across borders, classes, and races, and to resonate where words fail. I remember hearing the Gypsy Kings playing live at a Merkato 55 brunch party in New York; I remember dancing to Cuban band Las Orishas at Poble Espanol in Barcelona; I remember listening to Australian rock from my tent at Glastonbury in the U.K.; I remember singing “Beautiful” along with Akon, live at the Indian Premiere League Launch in Mumbai. With such an eclectic fusion of sounds crossing the globe, I wondered about India’s spot on the playlist. While Bollywood music is certainly a global export, my time in Mumbai has introduced me to a new, innovative, and increasingly popular scene that is gaining momentum all over India and on the international stage.
Indian Ocean Performing
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