Two gigs coming up!

I’ve been very busy recently as I’ve got two gigs coming up. The first one is here in Bristol and it’s going to be great fun. I’ll be playing a few tunes with Paddy and Jimi then we have a fantastic flamenco set from Flamenco Loco.

Our upcoming gig at Khan!

Then at the end of May we’ve been invited to play at the Bath Fringe Festival. We’re going to do a similar format with a set from me then a flamenco set from Ganesha & Co at the Old Theatre Royal.

We’ve also been recording an old song which I’ve never worked on before.

Peter and I have been on a great drumming weekend and have a long weekend coming up of sabar playing over the bank holiday weekend.

Last Few Weeks and Merry Christmas

Hello again – as promised I’m updating my blog a bit more regularly and remembering how it helps me to reflect on what I’ve been up to myself!

Since I last wrote I’ve been up to my usual things such as regular studio sessions – I’ve now got 10 tracks virtually finished for the second album – just have to put the tracks into an order that sounds right  and get the final masters agreed.

I’ve been going to the Percussion Orchestra run by Alphonse Daudet Tuna in Bristol – great fun with people playing all sorts of different percussion instruments.

I had a lovely visit to my daughter while P was away helping to plan Kartong Festival in Gambia.

My lovely daughter and grand-daughter

He was gone for three weeks and I really missed him but got tons done! After visiting my daughter I went down to Suffolk to a great day of sabar drumming, a night in London with an old friend and a couple of nights with my dad and wife in Sussex before finally driving back to Bristol. It was a long road trip but got to see loads of people before the Christmas rush.

In between all this, Paddy (my music partner) and I organised our sixth Electrosonica evening with a great line up of artists and some rather experimental electronic music! Paddy and his partner also held a “Crafternoon” where people made lovely seasonal cards and ate mince pies and mulled wine at their house. Yummy.

Rozaya Hopkins singing with Elegance

Peter’s brother came to stay for a night and exchange presents and we went to the Colston Hall and saw Fily Cissohko play a wonderful lobby concert on kora with an Asian sitar player – beautiful.

Sunday morning we visited Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre near Bristol where we’er members and saw loads of beautiful birds and Sunday afternoon we went to the annual Bristol Gasworks Choir Christmas Concert at St Georges, which has the best acoustics for live unplugged music in Bristol.

Bristol Gasworks Choir

All weekend I couldn’t stop thinking about the poor little children shot to death in Connecticut and being so grateful that here in the UK although things are not perfect – the huge majority of people don’t believe it’s their “right” to be armed to the teeth.

Now it’s the Christmas preparations, shopping, wrapping and cooking with visitors from Sunday 23rd right through to the New Year – so don’t expect to see me here again till 2013!

Happy Christmas and a brilliant 2013 to everyone. Bye for now!

Dombondir and Kartong Festivals

Well at last it’s that time of the year again when I pack up my bags, try and remember everything we have to take, sort out the things we leave behind for a few weeks and fly off to the Gambia to help organise and support the Dombondir and Kartong Festivals.

Dombondir takes place in a beautiful quiet village in the Casamance area of Senegal bringing together amazing music, dance and wrestling in an extraordinary, colourful explosion of joy and culture! This is happening at the end of January closely followed on Feb 11th – 13th by the vibrant Kartong Festival just over the border in the Gambia.

We are very much involved with the organisation of Kartong Festival and gradually encouraging the local people to take more and more of the responsibility for it so that eventually it will hopefully happen whether we’re there or not! This year will be the sixth one so they’ve got lots of experience now.

I always feel a bit nervous going and leaving home for so long (back end of February) but excited at the same time and looking forward to seeing old friends and no doubt making some new ones. The music and dance are just wonderful and I’ll have the chance to play flute with my friend Moriba who plays the Kora (African harp) and hopefully we’ll play a set at Dombondir. We’ll also be having a week of sabar drumming workshops with Modou Diouf at Mama Sanchaba’s too.

We’ve said most of our goodbyes and have only tomorrow left for any last minute panics or shopping then it’s off we go from Birmingham airport early on Tuesday.

I’ll be sending text updates to Twitter regularly which will automatically update my Facebook status even without being able to get to the internet very often and hopefully be able to check my email every week or so but in the meantime goodbye for a while – keep well and I’ll bring back lots of lovely photos in a few weeks time.

African Linx One Day Festival 2010 at Cropredy

What a brilliant time we had on Saturday. The weather had been really crap for the two days before and really cold so I was keeping everything crossed for a good day.

We’ve been organising this for weeks and you always get that last minute butterflies in the stomach feeling just before a big event hoping it will all go to plan. On the Friday Peter went over to Cropredy with the van to start decorating the stage and doing another ton of things that had to be done. I stayed home to rehearse as I was playing a set on Saturday night with Paddy (keyboards) and Lee (bass). It was great fun practicing – Paddy knows most of my stuff from when I lived in Bristol but Lee had played none of it before so had to learn seven songs in two short practices!

On Saturday morning the grandchildren woke us up bright and early (eeek) and went off with Leah to run a stall at the morning Table top sale and after another quick run through the set we also set off for Cropredy.

Much cake was made and sold! The sun came out!! Everyone had a great time!!!!

The afternoon programme started explosively with a great drum and dance set from Africa Junction from High Wycombe, followed (late due to awful traffic problems) by the marvellous Rachel Gittus with Tim West. Then I was also involved playing sabar with our drumming group Sankofa. An eight piece ukulele band from Essex called The D’Ukes played next and they were brilliant.

The next set was a magical performance from Diabel Cissokho on Kora with virtuoso guitarist Ramon Goose featuring guest artists Solomelo Sowe and Vieux Bakayoko.

The afternoon session was rounded off with a set of reggae and dancehall from Oxford-based band Jamatone who got everyone dancing to keep warm in the cold sunshine!

The evening session kicked off with a stirring set from Miranda La Mutanta accompanied by the Scapegoat, Barney Newman singing the blues, Chandra Moon (little old me) and finally a rocking set from Tommy Allen and Johny Hewitt singing “American Blues”. We all danced our heads off in the pub till midnight.

Believe it or not, we had a drumming workshop on the Sunday afternoon and I don’t know how I got through it with a hangover from hell!!

We actually raised £1,000 for Kartong Festival which will go a long way in The Gambia so it was all worthwhile.

Video From Sabar Tickle 2010

Some of you may remember a few weekends ago we went to an amazing sabar drumming summer school. Here’s a video of some of the highlights from the week. Roll on March 2011 when we have the next one!

Dumming at The Watershed

Just a quick line to let you know I’m drumming today at Bristol Watershed as part of International Womens Day. We’re doing the opening ceremony – a half hour slot playing 4 different singing and drumming pieces. We’re a very small group so I’m a bit nervous but I guess it’ll be ok!

I’ll try and get someone to take some photos.