It’s Sunday afternoon here in lovely (and I really mean it) Boston. It doesn’t really feel like Sunday afternoon, though, but that’s because of the crazy schedule I managed to keep in the past week. Briefly, it involves a drive to NYC on Tuesday for a 5 hour rehearsal, a gig at Lincoln Center on Wednesday followed by a return drive to Boston that night (arriving home at 5pm Thursday). Thursday afternoon, I caught a flight to Dublin that arrived on Friday morning at 5:30am. Spent the rest of the day in Dun Laoghaire and played a concert that night. Caught a flight back to Boston Saturday morning, arriving mid-afternoon yesterday. So, I’m not sure what it feels like right now, but Sunday afternoon is not really where I’m at.
Last Thursday, just before I left for Logan Airport, I managed to post something about our Lincoln Center gig. Again, it was unbelievable, and deeply gratifying. It turns out that Nate Chinen (excellent music journalist at the New York Times) thought it was pretty great too. On Friday, the NY Times published his review of the concert. It is here.
And much to my surprise, there are four additional videos of our concert on Youtube. Let’s watch them together (I haven’t even seen them yet, I’m just posting first, listening later).
Here is the first one. Starts with Addis Ababa Bete (“Addis Ababa is my home” – about a beautiful girl in “my” neighborhood):
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obgcZBnbx9g]
The second one starts with Alemayhu’s rock tune “Mekeshyn Selawq”:
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqSw65y0g8M]
Up third in Youtube land is Mahmoud Ahmed with “Atawurlegn Lela.” I asked him about this tune yesterday at breakfast and he said that the lyrics – “Atawurlegn lela, Keswa zena beker” – mean something like “I don’t want to hear any news about her.” Apparently, it’s another tale of heartbreak:
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf4bDlb_iCU]
Lastly, my all-time favorite Mahmoud Ahmed song, “Ere Mela Mela.” This was so powerful on this gig, and to have a huge crowd of fans singing along is something from another planet (or at least, another country!):
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDQn0OxpdsA]
Again, excellent camera angle…
Best, R.