I don’t know if you guys remember or not but this past January, 2013, I along with 18 other musicians from different countries along the Nile basin joined in a wonderful new project called The Nile Project aimed at redefining our understanding of the Nile river and its culture. Needless to say it was a truly inspiring experience. We gathered, we learned, we were forever changed.
Below is a recording from our first live concert in Aswan, Egypt. Please enjoy it, then support the continuation of this project by buying the album
Late last spring I was contacted by musician and rabbi, Zach Fredman, regarding a project he was working on inspired by his studies of the Oud and Judaic spiritual scriptures. He had written a collection of songs based on text from the book ‘the song of songs’ and his musings on north and east african music and wanted me to join his band, The Epichorus. We met up for coffee to speak about the project more and what was supposed to be a 20 minute meeting about details turned into a 2.5 hour conversation covering everything from the intersection of music and spirituality to the social and religious ramifications of guilt on humanity. It was an artist to artist connection from first meeting.
Needless to say I joined his band of heretics and began showing up for rehearsals and jam sessions fueled by coffee and homemade rhubarb pie. Today, the result of those sessions is realized with the digital release of One Bead. Enjoy.
A few months back, while on a trip to San Francisco I got the chance to spend some time and begin building with some wonderful people. Amongst those people is Meklit Hadero who in turn introduced me to the PortoFranco Records team. They invited my sister Nahid and I to come to their living room office and give them a little sample performance of Sudanese music. The video above is the result of that lovely afternoon.
It has come to my attention that a batch of blank CDs were sold today, Sunday June 17th, at the Clearwaters Folk Festival. If you are one of the unfortunate to whom this has happened, I am so sorry for the inconvenience. Please email me here: mail@alsarah.com with you personal email address and a digital file will be emailed to you for a download of the full Alsarah & the Nubatones EP.
My apologies again for this mix up and thank you so much for supporting our music.
All you have to do is create an account (just like in itunes), click on the “buy song” button in the music player, and proceed with flexing your consumer muscles…flex it flex it…oh yeah.
Alsarah & The Nubatones came together out of a collective love for Nubian music and a genuine belief that Soul transcends all cultural and linguistic barriers. Inspired by the pentatonic scale they blend a selection of Nubian ‘songs of return’ from the 1970s-today with original material and traditional music of central Sudan. Their set is a musical journey through diaspora and migration from an urban lens.
I don’t know if you guys remember or not but this past January, 2013, I along with 18 other musicians from different countries along the Nile basin joined in a wonderful new project called The Nile Project aimed at redefining our understanding of the Nile river and its culture. Needless to say it was a truly inspiring experience. We gathered, we learned, we were forever changed.
