The last month has been full of music, I've bought new drums and played several concerts. This week was an amazing one for me, because I played four concerts each of completely different music: Wednesday night was Fathy Salama, Thursday night reggae at a bar, Friday night went and saw a great concert of sudanese singers, Saturday played a Sudanese wedding, and Sunday played roots Sudanese music. Never had anything like that before in my life! things are going really well, and I'm going to buy, and make more instruments too, with help from some friends of mine.

Since coming back from Morocco I've been pretty busy. I met up with all my friends and have been hanging out as usual and played a couple gigs. The past  two days have been great, as I went to the North Coast, west of Alexandria to play up there, then yesterday morning came back and went straight to a rehearsal with the sudanese group, then straight to a rehearsal with Fathy Salama, and finally got home at 2:30 AM. Today same thing. Got a concert tomorrow night in a great space called Makan, which has traditional music concerts twice a week, and then playing a sudanese wedding on wednesday. The two concerts with Fathy (Fat-he) with be next week, and he has wonderful musicians on his band. So this week is crazy with rehearsals and stuff, and hopefully the guys will still be out at the north coast and I can go back hang for a while. The white sea is amazing up there, fine sand and super clean water, and the weather could not have been nicer. I'm seriously thinking about moving to a cabin by the beach somewhere.

back to reality, and it went by so fast

Morocco was craaaazy! I got to Casablanca on the early morning of June 23, and the flight was 3 hours late because the toilet was broken. I stayed with the family of my good friend of Miami, who told me to look them up when I was going. Unfortunately he wasn't there, but it was great to meet his folks. The first day I hung out in Casablanca, went to the beach, did a little shopping, and bought my bus ticket for the next day to Essaouira, a city about 6 hours south on the coast, where the festival was going to be. Every year this festival, called Gnawa and World Music, happens in this town. This was the 12th year, and every time it gets bigger and bigger. I heard that there were between 300 and 400 thousand tourists that came into town for just those four days. On the 24, I took the bus down to Essaouira, and within a second of getting off the bus was offered a room which I took at a little steep price cause I knew I would work something out for the other nights. The next day I started wandering around the medina, the old city. Essaouira used to be a sleepy fishing town which now has become a major tourist destination. I was approached by another dude to show me a room, in the home of a smiley berber lady, and I stayed there for the next 6 days. It was tough talking to her because of the moroccan accent, but we managed just fine. And then everyday I was out walking through the city, going to music shops, buying instruments, at the beach, jamming and seeing the concerts. Met lots of people who I would go around with which was cool. There's even a capoeira group in Essaouira and I played with them one day. The bummer is that I dont have one single picture from the festival! I left the battery to my camera in casablanca charging in the wall, and the disposable camera I bought broke. So I have but the memories in my head lol. I had bought a bus ticket to come back after the festival was over, was on the bus, had my bag under the bus and everything, and then decided about 5 minutes before the bus left to jump ship and stay a couple more days. And it was a good decision, cause I met even more musicians and got to play and hang out and felt satisfied. Met a kid there, 18 years, and plays Gnawa beautifully. If he sticks with it and gets a teacher, because he's completely self taught, he'll be one of the masters. every night there were people playing gnawa on the beach, or around the city, and I was amazed at how many people knew the songs and could play. Essaouira is THE Gnawa city and many masters have come from there. The concerts were terriffic: there was traditional, there was fusion, and there were also groups from other african countries and some from france I think.  I saw several of the Gnawa masters, and some from up close which was what I was looking to do the whole time. a great group from Cote D'Ivoire, I saw Paco Sery play, and Karim Ziad, who's been one of my idols for a long time, played in a Gnawa big band. Jazz big band, with full horn section and everything, but with Qarakeb and Gumbri. totally original, and with one of the best masters singing and playing, Hamid El Qasri. Really great time and lots of good people. When I went back to Casa, I had a great time with my friend's family, ate lots of good mama's cooking (couscous, tangine chicken, all kinds of veggies) and went out a lot to hang around town. It went by so fast I could not believe I was back in Cairo last night. I can't wait to go back. I almost stayed.

going to morocco tomorrow and I'm pumped, but today has been crazy busy getting ready and I have a gig tonight. I'll write again when I'm back after two weeks.  It's gonna be great! been looking forward to it for a long time. laterrrrr

My friend Nouri, Sudanese, has been longtime friends with a wonderful oud and tambour player named Hassan, also Sudanese, who has lived in Holland for a long time. Hassan just came to Cairo recently, and is putting together a roots Sudanese band playing some of the most beautiful songs in the world. Oud, bass, guitar, and two percussion, and accordion. The melodies are wonderful, the rhythms are deep and the vibe couldn't be better. We practiced yesterday and today, and it sounds wonderful. The Sudanese music has a set of three bongos, and Issam plays them beautifully, then I'm playing douf and assorted big drums. It's my first time really playing all hand drums, and I love it. Yesterday and wonderful accordionist named Ibrahim played. We practiced in a place called Makan, which means "place" in Arabic, which every week hosts great traditional music concerts. All the drums used in those concerts are kept at the place, so when we go I can play all of them. I love one particular douf they have there, and I've started getting pretty good at it. It's got it's own set of techniques, just like the riq and tabla. The band sounds great. the songs go on for 20 verses or something; you sing a verse, jam for a while, sing another verse, jam for a while. Hassan explanied that all these songs are stories, so they take their time. All the guys in the band know where the stops are, which always come out of nowhere when you've been grooving for 15 minutes. I go to Morocco on June 22nd, and while I'm there hope to find some nice drums, a douf in particular. It's going to be a great time, I've dreamed of going there forever. Until then I want play with these guys every day.

Ahhh... the ocean

It was so nice to go to sharm. I came back day before yesterday at night, after 5 great days on the beach. We had a nice bus hired for us, and got there last wednesday night. Each year, these two brothers that live out there throw a big birthday party at this private beach club, and had hired us to play for the party. The band was guitar, bass and drums, and another guitarist and saxophonist joined us there. We spent the day on the beach, did the soundcheck in the afternoon, and then went home to get ready to come back for the gig. The party was a lot of fun and the place was packed, and everybody seemed to enjoy it. The next day the other guys in the band went back, but me and my friend Hamada, who's Egyptian but raised in Minnesota (almost as random as being Spanish raised in Indiana), who had tagged along for the trip, stayed until sunday. Did a little snorkeling, swam, got sunburned, hung out more at the beach club, since we had sort of VIP status for playing there. I've stayed in contact with the owner, who had talked to another guy in the band about playing there again in a week, which would be great to get to go right back out there. As of now, that's not confirmed, but inshallah we'll be on beach again very soon.

So in the last week I've gotten food poisoning and a car accident, been to a farming village in the nile delta and hung out with a grammy-winning record producer. I was in the village all day monday, and when I came back I called him up and he was at a concert featuring various African groups, so I went and met him up. I had been up since 6 that morning, and I went to sleep maybe 6 or 7 the next morning. niiiiice. We got into the car wreck on the way up to the village, but no one was hurt in the slightest alhamdullilah. Today I'm going to Sharm el Sheikh, which is a resort town on the red sea, to play a gig with a little reggae band here. We're going for 3 days and it'll be great to get to the beach after two months in cairo. this village, which I went to two years ago, was nice and quiet, and I will go back sometime. apparently the people in the village, who are all farmers, had been asking about me for the past two years too. Egyptians do not forget.

I've finished my first week of gigs with Juliet Annerino here in cairo. Last night our last show was at a place called After 8, a bar in downtown Cairo. If only every week I could play four nights. Maybe that will happen at some point, but for right now I'm just gonna have to keep making my connections and getting people together and seeing where I can find a gig. I think sub work will be a good way to break in, and I can talk to my friends and let them know that they can call me if their regular drummer can't make it. It's already rediculously hot here. yesterday I left the house at 4 in the afternoon and I almost couldn't stand it. but it's nothing compared to what it will be like in june, July and August. good lord. I'm thinking about Ramadan now, and how many cranky people there will be out during the day. So May is half over, and I can't belive it. April didn't go by too quickly, as I was still figuring things out, but now that I'm familiar with the scene and things are going on, time is just flying. It's totally crazy. Tonight I'm getting together with Wa'el to have one my prized lessons, and I say prized because they're few and far between, as he's very busy. We will work on some music and maybe set a date to get some studio time too. I've got my recording gear, so we can do some of that at home. I'm gonna check out some friends playing at a studio today too. And maybe head to Wa'el's house from there. Wa'el lives on the other side of the world from me, and I live in the center of Cairo. It might take him two hours to get to my house depending on when he comes. I'll probably go by cab today, which will take forever also. But I'm just happy to get together with him.

crazy thangs

Haven't been too good about keeping up with this blog lately. I'm on a crazy schedule, in bed at 5 every morning and getting up at 2 in the afternoon. But it's great to be surrounded by musicians again; I had been out of the game for so long that I'm finally starting to get back in the groove, and getting inspired, and working hard to get rehearsals together with Wa'el and other guys. This week I have four gigs, my first gigs in Cairo, with an American singer named Juliet, who has booked her own tour through the middle east, first here, then Beirut, and finally Dubai. Apparently she put the whole thing together on Facebook, which is pretty amazing. The band made of guys from a working band here in Cairo called Cucun, which plays Latin jazz, and we're playing all her songs. Four different venues this week: a Cultural Center called Sakia El-Sawy, the Cairo Jazz Club, a big park in Cairo called Al-Azhar, and finally another bar called After 8. So this is great, because through the guys in the band I've gotten to meet all kinds of other dudes that will be great connections to have. I'm really hoping I'm going to get to play more, but at the same time my arms are a problem, because I don't think they're really ready to handle a ton of playing. I've been meeting some great musicians too, there are good players in Cairo. And everybody loves all kinds of music which is great. I've caught Wa'el at a bad time, cause he's about to have a kid and is trying to deal with all kinds of other things in his life, but I'm working to get together with him whenever possible. He's still the man! I'm planning a trip to Morocco for two weeks at the end of June, to go see a festival of Gnawa music, the traditional music of Morocco, which I've been listening to for a long time. That will be amazing.

one month down

It's kind of funny how things come around. I played in Jahfe in miami for two years, and now here in Egypt I'm playing with another reggae band of all Sudanese guys called United Nile Reggae. This band is just starting out to, and it makes me remember how it is at the beginning, trying to get a band together, learning the songs, getting your first gigs, etc. I'm not really in the band, as they have a drummer already, but I went with them to their gig last night and sat in on a couple tunes. Wednesday night I went to what I thought was a language exchange program, that these I met told me about, and it turned out it was the last night of their course, and they were having a party. The course is called Face to Face, and it's for Nubians to interact with Americans and for each to practice the other's language. Arabic, not Nubian. So they had the party and there was drumming and dancing and everybody had a good time. They are starting the new course today, and I will attend as this should be a good way to get serious about learning the language. I know a lot of phrases but I can't really speak freely yet. The people from the program are all cool and the other Americans there were cool too. I'll probably see most of them again today, as all the Nubians at least were really into it. It's crazy, I've already been here for a month. Still looking for a job, and hoping the gigs come through.

I've gotten my microphone working, so I've been recording at home and at the Sudanese guys' house. they just got all their gear stolen, so I brought over my equipment and we did some tracks with traditional instruments. Last night I jammed with two other guys in a rehearsal studio (which is only place you can get access to drums), and then went to check my friend Shams' gig at a nightclub. He was playing percussion with a DJ, congas and timbales, and so I sat in for pretty much the whole gig. It was my first gig in Cairo actually. My arms didn't hurt too bad last night, and today they feel ok. I think I'm ready to practice on a regular basis. Of course, getting home at 5 and waking up at 1 every day doesn't really lend itself to a productive day, but I'm going to try and make it work. The whole schedule for musicians is like that: up all night, sleep all or most of the day. If I get a real job like teaching in a school or something like that it's going to be rough waking  up at 8 or 9 everyday to work.

I am racing all over Cairo trying to maintain meetings with all kinds of people. It's really crazy, I keep making appointments with a ton of different people and end up double booking myself all over town, so I have to cancel. Wanting to play with Wa'el is actually causing problems, because I'm getting asked to play with other people and I have to turn them down. One part of me feels like, well, I'm here to play with Wa'el, so it's ok to turn them down, but the other part knows that it's a bad idea to limit your contacts right off the bat when you move to a new city. Losing the phone was bad too, cause I already had a ton of numbers in it. And to find some people again I have to go trekking through the city to their neighborhood, and since I lost the phone I haven't had time to do that, so some people might think I'm dead or something. I'm going crazy! Things have gotten out of hand so fast and I'm not good at handling it. I wanted things to be simple, to play with Wa'el, but since I took so long in nailing him down, in the meantime I met a bunch of other people that now want a piece of me, and as usual I'm out trying to make everyone else happy before myself. I don't like problems man. I want things simple. I notice that I really have trouble feeling at home, even with the ultra hospitable Egyptians, I can't let myself settle, even when I'm invited into their homes as their friend. The Sudanese guys that I hang out with are always so excited to see me, and I know they love me, and they're great people, but when I'm at their place I still feel like an outsider, like I'm just there to observe. We jam and tell jokes and have a good time, so I guess I participate, but I can't help feeling like I'm not part of the family. That's just me tho, it's not that they're showing me in any way that I'm not part of the family. Thats just me ragging on myself and not allowing myself to get comfortable. I'm in their home, I should feel at home, right? I brought over another friend of mine named Shams to their house, and I could see how immediately at home he felt. Of course, he knows some of them well from before and has played gigs with others. I think I'll feel more settled with time and things will become clearer. I had a great lesson with Wa'el the other night. he is just such a pleasure to watch, as he has the most refined technique and amazing sound ever. It just makes me happy to watch him play.  I really want this band to happen, I know it would be amazing. Little by little, shwaya shwaya, I know things will fall into place

Things are starting to come together. I've definitely found my crew here in Cairo, a bunch of Sudanese guys that jam all the time and have a reggae band that they would like me to play in. They live on the roof of an old building in downtown Cairo, and I love going over there to jam late. I've got some good videos that I'll be putting up too. This last week has been a lot of fun between music and chillin in random places and hanging out with new people. I still want to see more of Cairo, check out some of the big mosques. I also lost my phone with all my numbers, so there  are some people I will have to roam around Cairo to track down again. thinking about trips outside the city, to Alexandria or Sinai, which would be good to do soon before it gets rediculously hot.

I've already gotten a little sidetracked, cause I haven't been calling Wa'el every day to hang with him and tag along to his gigs, like was my original plan. There are groups right now that I've met that I would like to bring him to. I don't know if he'll have the time, but we're meeting today in order to talk about this . There's one group that's doing Nubian songs with a modern instrumentation, and another that might be more of a rock funk thing. Either one would be a lot of fun, and I just wish that Wa'el will be down for one of them. My first commitment is to him, and so I want some kind of band to happen. Each one of these groups comes from a different circle of guys, so there's a lot of musicians to choose from.

فرح مصري

I went to an Egyptian wedding last night with my friends Mohsen and Waheed. It was in the province of Banha in the Nile Delta, in a small village. The bride and groom basically just sit on a raised stage while everybody comes up to congratulate them. Apparently they had been sitting there for a good four hours when we got there around 9:30 pm. The second I got there I was whisked up onto the stage to meet the bride and groom. Then I was brought back down off the stage and given a mic to make a speech! It was so fast I hardly knew what to say, which I think was something like "Egypt is beautiful, I love it." The men were dancing while the women sat up near the stage. Somebody picked me up onto his shoulders danced around like that along with two others which were also on their friend's shoulders. The groom, named Hassan, was hoisted up too to come dance with me. They took us to eat at the groom's house, rice and meat. Soon after we went back to the dancing area the bride and groom came down from the stage to go back to their house. The custom is to give the groom money so that he won't have to work for the next couple of weeks. In the village, the mother of the bride will come out the next with the blood-stained bedsheet and wave it around for everybody to see that her daughter was indeed a virgin. The bride and groom were 21 and 25 respectively. After the bride and groom went home, I stayed around talking and drinking tea with a few other men there, and at about 12:30 we came back.  It was a short fun evening. Hopefully I'll get to see more weddings in the future! There weren't any musicians, just a DJ with a big soundsystem. It must have been tough to get all that gear into the village on those small dirt roads, but they managed somehow. 

I feel like I've been here for so long even though it's been less than two weeks. I've met so many people and gotten so many phone numbers that I almost don't know who to hang out with. I've been asked to join a band, playing some classic Egyptian songs, and it would be great, except that I've come here to play with Wa'el and if I dedicate myself to another band that would take away all my time to play with him. Today I have to get a haircut cause i'm going to a wedding tonight. My friend Mohsen and I are leaving Cairo at 8 pm, so I'm guessing it's going to be an all night affair. Pictures coming soon

So I came back to cairo to play with a great musician that I had met the last time I came, a guy named Wa'el al-Fashny. A few nights ago I talked to him on the phone and we met up. He told me that the next night he was playing a gig in Beni Sueif, a town about two hours south of Cairo, with a pretty famous Egyptian pop star named Ramy Sabry. It was funny how laid back the whole thing was. Wa'el told me to meet him at 5, and we'll go. I met him up, and over the next two and half hours the rest of the band showed up, sitting, talking, having tea, and it wasn't until about 8 that we left for the gig. The ride down was lots of fun, with everybody laughing and cracking jokes. I was kind of overwhelmed because I still really can't even hold a conversation in Arabic, and most of the guys didn't speak English except a couple. I was telling Wa'el how I would really like to start a band with him, or at least get together often to jam. Some of the other guys in the band like the bass player Amr Gamal, who I talked to for a long time on the way back, were also interested, and it looks like today we'll be getting together. The band travels with a full team of roadies, sound crew and camera man, and even though it takes a while to get everybody on the bus once we got to the gig the team got set up really fast. There were hundreds of young people at the concert, and some random old guys that I couldn't figure out why they were there. The crowd went nuts for the music, which, although I didn't understand the words, was pretty straight forward pop based on traditional rhythms. After the show, the stage was torn right down and everybody headed back to the bus. 

I started a language school yesterday, and they actually placed in a class that's a little bit too advanced, so I asked to be put in one level lower. Hopefully that will work out better. Days are long here, I wake up early and go to bed really late. But I'm starting to find a group of friends, mostly foreigners, who I can hang out with. I've met a couple other people that live in my building, and they came over last night to have dinner. Now I'm just at home, getting ready to work on some music, doing laundry, gonna clean the house. You know, interesting stuff.

I sat outside the mosque near my house to listen to the sermon. Everyone knows the prayer and when to stand and sing and kneel and touch his head. Only men pray outside, but I saw a couple women going into the mosque. After the prayer, I went around the corner and got my first Foul sandwich, just a piece of pita bread with sloppy beans inside. In many street stands you tell the guy at the cashier what you want first and he gives you a little reciept to give to the guys making the food. There are several things in the window, but I only know the name of the foul. At some point I'll find out about the other stuff. Noise is picking up on the street now that the prayer is over. I think I'll look foward to the quiet of Friday morning every week. Last night I went with my new roommate and the guy whose place he took to downtown to walk around and have a beer. Downtown Cairo is always packed with people out shopping, getting ice cream, going to the movies, or just walking. Although it gets pretty chilly at night, the days seem to get hotter every minute. I can't imagine how the women here can stand to go so covered up, wearing full length robes to cover their faces and even gloves. The heat is tough to deal with and I'm still a little sick, with a cough and a headache. Today I might go to Khan al Khalili, a great market, or maybe to a fruit and vegetable market that is near my house. I've sort of avoided going to the supermaket yet, but for example yesterday I spent $1.50 to eat and that was plenty. I could save money living here, which would be fantastic in case I decide to travel again after this time here.                                                                                                     

So much?

It's amazing how much I feel like I've already seen in these first two days. There are just so many people and sounds and smells that it's hard to process it all. It's hard to imagine how one would be used to this, but if you grew up here of course you are. This is Friday April 3rd, and as I'm writing this I can hear the muezzin giving the beautiful prayer calls across the city. There is a mosque near my house and so the streets are empty this morning. 

The first day in Egypt اليوم الاول في مصر

After spending a long day in London during my layover, I got to Cairo at 1 am to my hostal. The next morning, this morning, I called my roommate Alejandra, a Spanish girl, and made it over to my apartment. The cab drivers are almost as clueless as you are (Cairo's a big city), and mine had to make 3 stops to get directions to my place. We found it, and I spent the afternoon getting settled in and getting to know my neighborhood. Had dinner with two friends  who are living in Egypt right now, and it turns out we live about a 5 minute walk from each other. After dinner I wandered more around the streets, knowing that I wanted to find a cafe to sit and have tea. After passing several places I finally saw the one. Egyptian coffee shops are always small, dirty, and the best place to have a conversation. Started talking to one guy sitting there who couldn't really understand why this blond dude was speaking to him in broken arabic, but the great thing is that as soon as you talk to one guy all his buddies start talking to you, and that way two other guys sat down whom I chatted with for a long time. One of them tried to convert me to Islam, so I did, and that made him very happy. Al-Hamdulilla. These conversations made me remember why I loved Egypt so much the first time I went. People genuinely want to be your friend, and they love to talk and ask you questions. I know that I will be doing a lot of sitting and talking, which is more or less all the Egyptians do, during my 6 months here. I'm going to put up links, probably to a MySpace page, where I'll be posting songs that I record. Please comment or write back or whatever and keep in touch. Lotsa love