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.