I am writing from Interstate 71 between Columbus and Cleveland. It is no small irony that last night Antibalas performed at the birthplace of Col. John Thompson, the inventor of the automatic machine gun known as the "Tommy Gun" used to exterminate Native Americans and Chicago gangsters.
It is hard to maintain hope sometimes, in America, because the hopeful and healthy seem very outnumbered. Bush and Kerry signs fight for space like Coke vs. Pepsi. The next organic apple lies a hundred miles away, while one finds 8 kinds of beef jerky and 20 kinds of soda at the next exit.
It seems sometimes, that those many who reject or oppose the dominant culture of white supremacy, instead of confronting it and addressing it, retreat into their own insular subcultures of style and consumption and sometimes heavy decadence, rather than moving forwards into something sustainable and inclusive.
When are we going to realize that in the end, there is no such thing as "them" or "us." We all bleed, eat, shit, die, and love, or need it, anyway.
Nashville, TN
Walking around the suburb of Old Hickory (birthplace of genocidal mastermind President Andrew Jackson), nearly all the lawns sported either Kerry or Bush signs. With Halloween a few days away, I can't help but wonder how much politics will enter the 2004 trick-or-treat season. Hopefully it rains everywhere. Kids all over America will be several pounds lighter, have a few cavities less, and be spared the ripple effects of this pathetic election happening in a few days.
Indianapolis, IN
This is one of the former areas in which the Tribe of Ishmael lived. The Ishmaelites were a mixed tri-racial society which lived in present-day Kentucky and Indiana from the very end of the 1700s until the very beginning of the 20th century, when westward expansion and forced sterilization and state kidnapping of an entire generation of children ended their existence. I asked a few people in town about this and nobody seemed to know of anything.
At our performance at the Vogue Theater, I dedicated that day's performance of "Pay Back Africa" to the spirits of the Ishmaelites and said a few words about who they were. There was an enthusiastic shout from somewhere in the crowd, but I couldn't tell where.
After the show, an Afro-American man approached me and told me how much he enjoyed the show. "I don't agree with your politics," he went on, "but I loved your music." A confessed Republican, he raved about how much is a universal language that brings all types of people together. I wasn't sure what to make of him. On one hand, I am always pleased to see people of color making enough money to fall into one of the elite income brackets that supports the Republicans, but on the other hand, it has been Republican cuts in social spending and affirmative action that have catalyzed the deterioration of black communities all over the country. The plot thickens...
We are at the Beachland Ballroom tonight. We've been here several times before. The crowd is very friendly. Matt and Mary drive up from Akron with interesting live concert recordings and other treats. Our Nigerian friend Charleston brings plaintains, rice, and chicken, and there is an older man (over 75) who saw among many others Thelonious Monk perform live and he comes religiously to our shows here.
Here in Cleveland the Cuyahoga River caught fire twice. The bigger fire was in 1952, but the 1969 fire was the one that shocked everyone and helped spur the national movement to start cleaning up American rivers and lakes.
Here we are in the Windy City. I have decided to keep this blog PG-13 despite the readers' collective groans for titillating stories about tour.
For the most part the stories are "you had to be there" type-things, and if there is something interesting or funny enough that I can possibly relate and not get anybody in trouble, I will.
We are in Chicago, performing at the Metro tonight. It's a pretty big place and a lot of national acts come through. We played here last fall with the group Yerba Buena. Our show was great, but I can't help being reminded of a mini-disaster which I caused. Outside the club after soundcheck, the Yerba Buena bandleader Andres asked me if we could give them 15 extra minutes to perform since they had 30 minutes and we had 90. I figured that would be okay, and got the okays of a few (but not all of the band members).
The group ended up staying on about 25 minutes, and took an extra long time getting offstage. When we were finally ready to play, a lady from the Hothouse (another Chicago venue) ended up talking for another 10 minutes, which ended up cutting our set short by nearly 40 minutes. Afterwards, the rest of Antibalas wanted to kick my ass.
To add insult to injury, most of Yerba Buena was completely rude and aloof towards us, as if we didn't exist. Mind you, they opened for us... The bari sax player, Ron Blake, was completely nice, as was Pedrito, the conguero/singer.
Other Chicago memories...4 years ago we came drove straight out and did 4 shows in 2 days...with 8 or 9 of us eating some LSD and walking around the city marvelling at the architecture and warped sights and chilly Lake Michigan winds. That was the first and only time we ever did something like that and it was a lot of fun...
Today I went with one of the saxophonists to his optician to get his glasses fixed. "I'll be at the show for sure," the optician said. "I have my Antibalas t-shirt in the car." He shook S's hand and whispered into his ear "...right next to my hash pipe."
Ladies and gentleman, we need to legalize marijuana and hashish, because men like this smoke freely from the law while poor folks and people of color spend years of their lives in jail for doing the same thing...
Qué mas...
The Ocote Soul Sounds got a little review in Latin Vibe website. Adrian Quesada and I have already started working on some new stuff to be fleshed out in late November at his lab in Austin, Tejas.
Thanks to Senta for putting me up at Gopala Yoga studio last night in Madison. I hope you aced your Veterinary Medicine exam today. Thanks to Mr. Bogie for treating us to breakfast this morning.
It's neither news to me nor to many people, but I feel like it is important to articulate this:
Americans MUST consume foreign news sources if we are to get a clear picture of what is going on.
After spending a week and a half in Western Canada, I felt more informed about the US political situation (trade, environment, agriculture, foreign policy) (both from the media and through discussions with everyday people) than I ever have in the USA.
It is frightening, but true. And after driving all over seeing the USA falling apart at the seams, while the Bush/Cheney (and VIVA BUSH) signs grow larger and more prevalent, I grow more and more frightening for this country.
We must overcome the politics of fear and manipulation...
more later from Minneapolis...or Madison
stay strong
I greet you this afternoon from the Canadian prairie in the town of Saskatoon. It is currently -1 degree C, and I am very very underdressed. People here are still wearing skirts, open toed shoes with socks, and look quite at ease.
The dilemma about the blog is this: it's hard to write about the tour on this blog because:
1) The shows are pretty similar from city to city. Packed or nearly-packed houses, exuberant audiences, good-to-very-very good performances. The uniformity makes it tough to write every day. Makes for a boring blog.
2) There are lots of mundane things that happen every day. 10 hour van rides peppered with beautiful scenic sights experienced at 80 mph and wondering which of the 7 of us just farted. Makes for a boring blog.
3) There are a few scandalous things of which I should not write. Makes for incriminating and potentially damaging blog.
So there it is.
I write this in an empty restaurant adjacent to the club where we'll be playing tonight. We were here in summer 2003 for the Saskatoon Jazz Festival and played an amazing show to a sold out house. After the last number, we were rushed offstage so that the DJ could go on and the next event could begin. The DJ begin playing the loudest, most tasteless music, and within 5 minutes, the entire room was clear...
I wonder what's in store for tonight...
Vancouver is always one of the most anticipated shows of the tour. The venue (Commodore Ballroom) always delivers, and the crowd is great. We have lots of friends here (Que viva Mexico y Venezuela!!) but we didnt' get to hang this time.
The border crossing was a drag, as usual. Despite a gazillion dollars in Homeland Security funds, the border officials on both sides still can't figure out how to be courteous and on top of things. I remain hopeful.
The hotel has in-room internet, so I am up way past my bedtime writing in this blog, and the last of the drunken hangers-on have left the hotel.
boa noite...
We listened to the debates this afternoon while stuck on traffic on Interstate 5 between Portland and Seattle.
Kerry came out swinging from the first question, but he has also absorbed so much of Bush's rhetoric of fear. He seems so conservative. More on this later.
Time for a bite to eat before the show...
Out of the wireless loop for a few days. My camera battery charger has mysteriously died so I apologize for the lack of pictures.
Portland and Eugene were both very good shows. The openers in Eugene were a local Eugene-based group playing music of the Shona people of Zimbabwe for the past 15 years. Their teacher, a Shona, adapted traditional mbira rhythms to a set of marimbas so the music could be naturally amplified and shared with larger groups of people. I have little knowledge of Shona music, but the group sounded very good. The pieces, especially the traditional ones, were overwhelmingly beautiful.
The venue WOW Hall was a beautifully crafted room and used to be the Woodmen of the World Hall. Thanks to Morning Glory for a delicious breakfast.
Portland was hot as well. The March 4th Marching Band played in between sets and rocked! They are a huge punk-rock eclectic marching band (brass, woodwinds, bass, drums) with crazy homemade costumes. They remind me a lot of the Hungry March Band which has a similar approach to the music. Keep it going.
The tour continues to be a blur, with the minutes and the hours running slow while the weeks speed by. Thanks to traffic, the drives seem really long, even between cities that are close by.
We haven't made it to any hot springs, either, unfortunately. The little bits of free time we have have to be used for catching up on the necessities like laundry, sleep, and communications...
Greetings from Oakland! Everybody I know here seems to have a garden, and a living room, which I have never had in New York City. Is that too much to ask?
The shows have been amazing, especially San Francisco with Tunde Williams, the premier trumpeter of Afrobeat music and one of Fela Anikulapo's longtime bandmates from the mid-60s till 1978.
He lives here in the Bay Area and we met him for the first time in June, via Deen Ipaye, a Nigerian of Fela's generation who lives in the Northwest.
Since then, we have performed with him on four occasions and are growing closer each time. Yesterday, we met up at a studio and he recorded some solos for an Antibalas song called "Sare Kon Kon."
It has been amazing to meet up with all of Fela's ex-musicians, but the contact with Tunde has been the deepest because he has been the most lucid of all the musicians, and the one that we have been most able to spend time with over an extended period of time. (Some sort of interview, either online or in print, about his experiences with the Koola Lobitos/Nigeria 70/Afrika 70 is in the works).
The San Fran show was great. The audience definitely has a different vibe than LA audiences. They are more open, and we are able to get to an space of intimacy much quicker than in LA. The audience was a lot whiter this time compared to our performance at Yerba Buena Center in June and at Bimbo's in San Francisco this past July. I wonder why this is, and how the show was promoted. Nevertheless it was diverse and was a wonderful party, but the differences in the audience were very noticeable.
My camera is out of batteries, but as soon as I charge up, there will be some photos.
¿Que mas...? Breakfast is being served.... I'm out for now!
