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.