Hi my name is Alan. I live on the island of Maui in Hawaii. My back yard is a cow pasture to the top of the mountain. For the most part the sounds you hear at my place are the sounds of the country, chickens, geese, goats, cows, and you also quite often hear music wafting from this house.
My roommate is a Bengali woman who sings the songs of Rabindranoth Tagore, and other Bengali and Hindi songs as well. I play the tabla for her. We also some times have a Middle Eastern / Turkish / Gypsy / Sufi band. I say some times because keeping a group of musicians together, that play this kind of strange stuff, is kind of like herding butterflies.
I play the tabla for Indian music and the doumbek, bendier and other percussion for the Middle Eastern – Gypsy – Turkish music. For the last 27 years I have been playing the Turkish Classical Music that is used to accompany the Sema ceremony of the Mevlevi Dervishes. For the last five years I have had the opportunity to play this music with and tour with some of the very best musicians from Turkey. This sounds like a resume!
So how did I end up going to Morocco with a bunch of people that I mostly don’t know?
I had been contemplating getting off the rock, traveling off Maui, for some time. Then one morning I got this email form Elisabeth Cutler, a dear old friend of more then 30 years. She was thinking of going to Morocco to the Fez Festival. I have a lot of friends that have been to the festival over the years and I had heard so much about it, so I sent her an email saying “I will meet you there”. So here we are!
Here is a Rumi poem for you.
Who is more miserable
Than the lover without patience?
This Love is a disease
Without remedy or fantasy.
The cure of Love
Is neither hypocrisy nor moderation.
Aloha
Alan
p.s. I am also a Feldenkrais Practitioner so we could do that if you want.
My roommate is a Bengali woman who sings the songs of Rabindranoth Tagore, and other Bengali and Hindi songs as well. I play the tabla for her. We also some times have a Middle Eastern / Turkish / Gypsy / Sufi band. I say some times because keeping a group of musicians together, that play this kind of strange stuff, is kind of like herding butterflies.
I play the tabla for Indian music and the doumbek, bendier and other percussion for the Middle Eastern – Gypsy – Turkish music. For the last 27 years I have been playing the Turkish Classical Music that is used to accompany the Sema ceremony of the Mevlevi Dervishes. For the last five years I have had the opportunity to play this music with and tour with some of the very best musicians from Turkey. This sounds like a resume!
So how did I end up going to Morocco with a bunch of people that I mostly don’t know?
I had been contemplating getting off the rock, traveling off Maui, for some time. Then one morning I got this email form Elisabeth Cutler, a dear old friend of more then 30 years. She was thinking of going to Morocco to the Fez Festival. I have a lot of friends that have been to the festival over the years and I had heard so much about it, so I sent her an email saying “I will meet you there”. So here we are!
Here is a Rumi poem for you.
Who is more miserable
Than the lover without patience?
This Love is a disease
Without remedy or fantasy.
The cure of Love
Is neither hypocrisy nor moderation.
Aloha
Alan
p.s. I am also a Feldenkrais Practitioner so we could do that if you want.
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