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.