Most of my friends are artists and musicians, and so when I meet new people–usually a friend of a friend–they often ask me if I’m a this or a that. No, I say, not really…and then I go on to explain that I’ve learned things here and there, but no, I’m not a [whatever]…
I taught myself the basic blues harp long ago, fooled around with a wood flute my parents picked in Indonesia, and learned some Moroccan rhythms through osmosis. I’ve collected 3 frame drums, 2 classic Quentin drums, a set of quacaba, a mizmar, nirra, and ghytta, and then some cow bells and a Chinese stone flute and some Moroccan horn that I can’t even remember the name of. Then there’s the coconut shells and the weird gray dowels I found at work that happen to be excellent claves.
Still, I’ve always considered myself an outsider. I’d jam with my friends, but when the spotlight was on, I’d be in the back or dancing off to the side.
But this Sunday was the first performance of the Chicago Aissawa Project, and since I am one of the founding members, I have promoted myself to musician effective immediately.
OK, it was 15 minutes, in a gymnasium with kids hula-hooping as we played, and it was for free…but it was also loads of fun, people liked us despite most of them having no experience with that style of music, and things went pretty well for a first performance.
There’s about 15 sometimes members, and usually about 5-6 at any given practice, but we had 10 for this Sunday’s show and that’s a good number. 12 is better (add a nefar, add a tasa player), but 10 works fine.
With any luck, you’ll be seeing more entries about Chicago Aissawa.
Here are some short movies that Sara shot of the performance: