Damn, September already???

As you may have noticed, I have not followed through on an official "band line-up" announcement from Jo'burg yet. I've been working it from every angle since I got here to make the band happen but there have been logistical hiccups, scheduling conflicts, incidents of miscalculated musical chemistry and well, inadequate marketing for the album.

Not to worry, I've made some adjustments to the original plan and have shifted marketing strategies (and personnel). This sets the timeline back a bit for the official launch of the album and band here in South Africa, but I'm confident that in the long run, this is going to set things up for a much more successful launch. (and journey).

In the meantime, I'm going to try to be a little more diligent about blogging here and share some of the good things that are happening. So to start: while the band isn't yet complete, we have begun building and there ARE four skilled musicians who have not only committed to this project (and with whom I have begun rehearsing), but believe wholly in the music and its success. I'll introduce them all over the next couple blogs, but for now:

Mar Gueye - master Sabar drummer of Dakar, Senegal
I have known, toured and recorded with Mar Gueye for many years now. He is my friend and my brother. We've always expressed our friendship by jokingly calling each other Sama Boor - "my king" in his language, Wolof. Mar provides the West African flavors/grooves to my music through his Sabar drumming - a Senegalese tradition of playing the drum with one bare hand and one stick - as well as other Senegalese styles such as Bougarabou (both hands). He's also a formidable Djembe drummer and regularly demonstrates the West African origins of Latin styles in his grove patterns (remind me, I'll tell you about the recording of the Brasilian section of "Everything That's Broken" sometime).

After his drumming contributions to "Ownership" I could not see going out live with out Mar. I'm so fortunate and grateful that he agreed to not only be in the band, but was willing to leave his family (including new born son Mohammed) in New York for a couple of months to come to Johannesburg and help me build this thing. It hasn't been easy - there's been a lot of down time while I'm working the business end of things.

So let me finish up here by sharing one of those moments that make it all worth while. The other day we were set up in the rehearsal space, wood-shedding "Jozi". Mar didn't actually play on the recording of the song, but I began playing the Maskanda guitar part of it just to warm up and he followed suit. The pattern he started playing was unique and totally unexpected (by me anyway); but more importantly, magical. It took the song to a deeper and more exciting musical place. We smiled at each other, both knowing what most musicians know: just because you've finished recording a song, doesn't mean the song is finished. Once you start playing a song live, it evolves beyond its original reified state, usually (as in this case) to a deeper, richer place. It demonstrates the continually transformative nature of music. Process, not product, is why we're musicians and we live for those magical moments.

Of course Mar wouldn't express it that way. He'd say: "yeah it's nice man".

More later...
Uxolo
Ema