Greetings from NOLA lovely people. I’m going to be performing tomorrow, Wednesday Jan 25th, at this one of a kind book launch party for the collection of poems “The People is Singular” by Andy Young. I will be performing music along with folk/protest singer Tao Rodriguez-Seeger at Cafe Istanbul. Please come by and say hello if you are wandering the french quarters.
MORE INFO
Cafe Istanbul
2372 St Claude Avenue,
New Orleans, LA 70117
(In the New Orleans’ Healing Center) Admission $12.00; $20.00 for book and admission. Followed by a reception with Egyptian sweets and other light fare.
We are going to be making our Washington D.C. debut on Sunday January 29th at the Kennedy Center and you are all cordially invited as our honorable guests. Show starts at 6pm sharp! on the Millennium Stage and will end at 7pm sharp! And best part of all…its FREE!
So come out and bring your energy, your laughter, your kids and your will to live.
So in November after we had worked so hard on releasing our EP, we packed all our things into the back of Rami’s van and took ourselves on a mini tour to Montreal (by mini we mean one city, one show, one night…boo ya!). We skipped in the crisp winter sun, we gloried at the wonder that is fast food, and we all made it to the hotel without getting lost even once. We had our debut show on Thursday, November 10th, 2011 with the Festival du Monde Arabe at Cabaret du Mile End with a surprise special appearance by our friend Jowee Omicil.
Today is the day! As independent Artists we never take a recording project as a given thing, so when the times comes to release new material we do a little song and dance in celebration (if you come to a show you can see our happy jig). Have a listen, do your own little dance, and buy the music if you like it. If you will be in Montreal on Thursday, Nov 11, 2011 then make sure you join us at Cabaret Du Mil-End for our combo Canadian debut/ CD Release.
We had our San Francisco and East Bay debut on Saturday October 1, 2011. We started with an afternoon show at the 17th Annual Arab Heritage Festival and then quickly packed up and crossed the bridge later that day to La Peña Cultural Center, a gorgeous building that had us running around outside like little kids. We had the pleasure of sharing the stage with the beautiful Naima Shaloub who opened for us.
For those on the west coast that came out and supported us, thank you so much for coming and giving us your energy, and most importantly for dancing and having a good time. Below is a free download from Saturday’s show at La Peña featuring an unplugged arrangement of “Alkoan Kulu” with Haig Manoukian on Oud, Rami El-Aasser on Percussion, Nahid Elgadi on backing vocals, and yours truly on lead vocals. This recording wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for Oscar (my new favorite sound engineer of all time second only to Kamilo) and his quiet stealth.
At the beginning of August we decided to put together a small recording (commonly known as an EP). 4 tracks, 3 weeks, and 2 natural disasters later (ok so the hurricane was only a thunderstorm but the subways in NYC were shut down for a full weekend, and if you live here then you know that’s definitely a disaster!) we finally finished recording this little bad boy. It features a brand new song I wrote for the occasion that was arranged by the Nubatones titled Fugu (Shams Alhurria) [Wake up (Freedom's Sun)] as well as traditional pieces and covers we find inspiring. Below you will find a list of tracks and credits, and make sure you check out the photos above of our recording process.
I want to give a big shout out to the band for being the bad ass musicians that they are, and especially to Mawuena Kidjovi for not only playing the bass (among other things) on the recording but for also being an amazing sound engineer and allowing us to use his beautiful studio (Collective Home Studio NY).
We are planning on having a big release party at the end of November with more details to come but until that time comes you can enjoy listening to the songs on here, and here, or you can come to one of our shows and snag one of the very limited edition pre-sale copies we will have (only 100 copies will be made).
Track Listing
+ Fugu (Shams Alhurria) – Wake Up (Freedom’s Sun)
Written by Alsarah, Arranged by the Nubatones
+ Nuba Noutou – Nubians Unite
Written by Fatih Malik, Arranged by the Nubatones
+ Rennat – Droplets of Sounds
Written by Alsarah, Arranged by the Nubatones
+ Yanas Baridou – O People, I want him
Traditional
More info as well as sneak peaks from our debut Ep will be coming over the next few weeks, so stay tuned
