Opening for BAABA MAAL @ The Knitting Factory

Flew home on Monday from dancing in a feature film (set in the sabar dance scene) all tired and happy ... only to find Martin Fleishman's invitation in my inbox to open for Baaba Maal the follow Saturday! Backflipped with excitement in the tiny space between our bed and my desk.

Given the small budget, we did a scaled-down show without bass, piano, perc. What a lovely evening. The band played beautifully, the sound was excellent, the crowd super attentative, sold a good number of CDs (thank you!), and met lots of friendly people. Aziz Faye's set after us was electric, and then onto Baaba Maal himself.

His dancers blew me away. Both of them were so cheerful, energetic, creative, entertaining, NON-STOP. Baaba looked tired. Not only was he on tour, but he had already done a show at the Hollywood Bowl the same afternoon! However, he utterly threw himself into his performance. His voice was a beautiful as always and they really threw a party until 1am.

Happy sigh.