Weston & The Gnawa

Tuesday night there was one of those free concerts that NYC does sometimes,
sometimes very well ...
Randy Weston African Rhythms Quintet and the Gnawa Master Musicians of Morocco performed joyfully at the World Financial Center Art & Events series.
First I saw the info on Flavorpill, then I heard some clips on Weston's website and that got me moving on downtown.
It was a rainy evening,
office workers streaming towards me on their way home, out of the Center.
Inside under the tall palms, a diverse audience was growing to fill up the seats
and the show began.
It was great !
Both Weston (80) and the Gnawa played well and lots of smiles all around, The Times gave it a nice review today too
Emotional , flowing , well rounded set , great players and a great setting

Weston has observed
"In African music , there aren't the categories of the past ,
the present and the future. Music is a timeless thing"


Hats off to Randy & the Gnawa for being so good and so chill

Traummaschine and other tales

MD has been bringing me all these CDR's ...

CLUSTER sowiesoso 1974 -'79 (Avanti - Rote Riki)
CLUSTER 1971 -'72 (7:38 - Nabitte)
POPOL VUH 1978 -'78 (Aquirre Sdtk - Mantra II)
Ash Ra Tempel '70's (Amboss - Interplay Of Forces)

Have been playing one cut "Traummaschine" (Dream machine) alot ,
eerie ambient and yes - prog.
Then I hear the woman's vocal , first chanting along with the trippy music ,
then speaking and I realize it's Rosie who I knew in the early 1980's
and who now also ... lives here in Stuyvesant Town.
Now that's a small world , from the Tempel to here and now

DCC Single "Drag Racing" out July

Berlin's Meteosound combined with op's of Shitkatapult will release a 12" vinyl EP with DCC's "Drag Racing" (The Rammellzee's Drag Racing top of the head rap off)
and 3 more tracks from the label , including one of Daniel Meteo's own .
He has the track and it should be released in July.
Meteosound does Club 12's with a dub/tech/Berlin flavor and has remixes by artists like Berlin techno -dubber Pole and others.
Shitk , of course, home of T.Raumschmiere & Apparat (new collab with Ellen Allien out now)
The track Drag Racing is our 'Surfin Bird' (old early '60's track , later covered by the Ramones) a crazy tune stuffed with Sound fx, Shout outs , guitar riffs
twin synth & bass lines and DJ High Priest's hyped -up scratching.
A rave up party tune for sure

DCC is set to play Berlin June 9 @ Club Maria.
That's first night of the World Cup (Germany vs Costa Rica),
so i hope the Game is earlier, anyway, the town will be filled with soccer er, fans.
Last fall when we were there it was Berlin Marathon time and rooms were as tight.
DCC tour set to end June 17 in Portugal

The new Album is progressing , month by month , track by track , no label set yet -
but we see how it goes with these guys in Berlin !

The last man in Lop Nor

Noyuri was reading to me an article from ANA's Wingspan mag on The Silk Road.
The author had found the last man living in a certain Lop Nor ghost town out in W China . 104 years old or was it older ? long yellow bearded Muslim man who used to fish and live on the land , but had been moved by the Gov. and now lived isolated and dry place on the edge of Lop Nor dried inland sea where the Chinese did nuclear tests