Gigs! Gigs! Gigs!

In the past month, we have had some really lovely shows. The CRAFT AND FOLK ART MUSEUM show was acoustic-with-dancers in a gorgeous space upstairs. Brilliant young Senegalese Magatte Sow (14) drummed and stunned everyone with his tama playing. One dancer fell on her butt and then, to the audience's delight, made a funny scooting move on her bum as if it was perfectly planned. Everyone was merry and the whole evening was fresh and intimate.

We came on after an electrifying belly dancer for our show at UCLA. It was fun to have Alecia and Kara (our dancers) come out and keep the rhythms flowing in another groove/tradition.

Playing at SAN GABRIEL was a pleasure, as the woman booking there is so kind (Tymeri Cuervo). She had everyone in the band sign a picture of me, which made me feel like a Star! A warm and friendly local festival.

Roberto Montero and I played at the TORRANCE ART MUSEUM show on our own. Great sound, sun going down, a sweet attentative audience of people who had never heard me before. They bought CDs, showered me with compliments, and covered my mailing list with exclamations like Powerful! Great! Lovely! Delicious!

Our performance at THE VIC was one of the best we have ever done. We presented the music as a jazz lineup and everything gelled like magic. Otmaro Ruiz, Andre Manga, Roberto Montero, and Walter Rodriguez were mesmerizing on their respective instruments, the crowd LOVED it, club owner Ray Slayton was ecstatic, people who had never heard of me bought my entire collection of CDs outright, and I was so high with happiness when I left at 1am, I didn't sleep all night.

Finally, we did a show downtown early Sunday morning for the LA BIKE COALITION BIKE RIDE...invited by Aaron Paley at CARS. There were very few people there, but the band had a ball, the organizers were delightful, we put on a great show, and everyone left happy.

Keep 'em coming!