This is part of an ongoing effort to bring fresh and fun musical education to schools and home schooling networks. Lee and Brian both teach private and group lessons in a variety of schools and situations around Northern California. For more information contact Lee Bob @ brahmarecords [at] gmail [dot] com.

]]> http://brahmapura.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/1390/feed/ 1 brahmapura mc13 mc12 mc9 mc7 music_children mc5 mc4 mc2 mc1 http://brahmapura.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/you-can-never-hold-back-spring-tom-waits-cover-by-lee-bob/ http://brahmapura.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/you-can-never-hold-back-spring-tom-waits-cover-by-lee-bob/#comments Mon, 02 May 2011 00:03:15 +0000 brahmapura http://brahmapura.wordpress.com/?p=1335 ]]>

Some songs get you through the winter, the distance, the waiting… A good song goes a long, long way. I thank the master Tom Waits for writing songs like this one. View in HD @ VIMEO.

IN CELEBRATION OF MAY DAY, I put together a collection of some songs of mine that you can LISTEN to, SHARE or DOWNLOAD for whatever $ suits you, including FREE: The BEST of LEE BOB {15 SONGS; name your price}

Pass it On.

It’s been a few weeks since I touched down in West Africa. I’m working on a crew producing a film on music in Mali for KSK Records. The production is based in Bamako, the burgeoning, polluted, hot dry and dusty capital of Mali that spreads over the Niger like two overstuffed packs on the back of a donkey.

We are recording in various locations—on rooftops, in courtyards, nightclubs, recording studios etc. We’ll be making trips to other parts of Mali, including Wassalo, the ancestral homeland of some of the music featured in the film.

The first weeks here have been an obstacle course of trials and adventures. I’ll detail those events elsewhere but the short story is we’ve moved numerous time, lugging sound and camera equipment as we go. Now the whole crew is settled into a large house in a newer development of Bamako called Golf. The air in Golf is far cleaner than in the thick of Kalaban Coura, the older, vibrant quarter of the city where we spent the first days.

At night, I see the sky and stars. During the day, there is evidence of blue through the haze. In the morning, through my eastern window, I see a burning orange globe come up over the shoulder of the unfinished cinder block mansion across the street. The air cools enough through the night and the breeze blows so that the sun feels good on my face, not as threatening as it will be by Spring.

In the past two weeks we’ve had sessions with General Diabate [master djeli/griot dun dun player], Madou Diabate [son of kora master Sidiki Diabate and younger brother of Toumani Diabate], Djeneba Seck [one of Mali’s most beloved singers], Zoumana Therete [soku fiddle], Sali Sidibe [Wassalo singer] and a djembe group lead by Mache. I’ll detail these sessions in the coming weeks along with my impressions of the music and people I come into contact with. Each session and life in general is full of hurdles and slow downs, but the overall process is exhilarating and the results are better than I could have imagined.

I get so caught up in the technical execution that sometimes I have to pause and remember what I’m doing: I’m in West Africa recording masters of a musical tradition that few people on this planet are capable of executing and many music lovers may not even be aware of. In addition to being a sublime and living musical force all its own, this music is the direct antecedent to so much of the music that I have loved and cut my teeth on back in the states. It’s a complete dream, recording masterful musicians in a live and natural setting. Set the mics up, get levels and go. Musicianship is not an issue. Ego and stylized gestures, false-starts and rockstar bullshit does not factor here. Not to say that the music doesn’t have style or that there isn’t a constant hustle involved.

It helps to have Oz Fritz at the controls as Sound Engineer. I’m assisting Oz. We have compatible approaches though he carries with him years more experience and a golden set of ears, not to mention a unique outlook on most anything and a sense of humor as dry as the Sahel.

The film crew consists of David Nicholson [Director of Photography] and Camen Hodges [Third Camera] both from Nevada County. Jim Fabio [Co-Producer] arrived a little over a week ago to complete the team.

The project is headed by Executive Producer Aja [Asia] Salvatore and his brother/Co-Producer Eo [Ee-Oh]. They have made a 10 year effort learning the music of Mali in extended annual trips, building relationships with the musicians, learning Bamana in-depth, recording a tremendous archive of material and supporting the musicians and their networks to facilitate this long-range project. Aja an Eo act as an indispensable conduit between the Malian musical and cultural milieu and the recording and film medium that we are trying to the artists to operate in. It would be impossible to distinguish between their passionate connection to this music, this place and these people and the essence of the project itself. This is the latest chapter in an ongoing labor of love. Being here on the ground, seeing all the obstacles against doing something of this scale, it amazes me that this project has come as far as it has already and will soon be completed, Inshallah!

Photos by David “Douda” Nicholson and Camen “Boy-Wonder” Hodges

Here are a few videos for a warm and cozy night. I invite you to pour a hot toddy and peep the following few videos back to back. One is my uber sincere holiday song from last year with me burning sage out in the woods. The other is a cover by Ricky Reed – aka Wallpaper. – who is a creative cat from the Bay who is known to seriously rock parties. I’m very tickled (platonically, in a bro kind of way) by his beachcombingwitboozzze take on the song:

Radio Voice: OK, welcome back and thank you for your generous donations. You’re tuned to the second annual Andy Williams-Kaufman-Dick-Partridge-Osmond-Jackson Christmas Special featuring yours truly blah blah blah and special guests me + my camera, a dude named Ricky and the solitary preambulations of Old Man Never Takes Vacations preparing for his work related holiday.

[I made up the word preambulations, I think. Oh, nope, looked it up, real word.]

To all my devoted listeners who called in with concern, NO, I’m not drinking again. My beloved editor was out of the office this week so this is what you get.

Happy Holidays, Love to the People. Please send me your private thoughts / art / recipes etc on the theme METAL RABBIT ~ y’know what I’m sayin?

According to Bill McKibben in his latest wake-up call Eaarth, the energy in a barrel of oil is roughly equivalent to 25,000 hours of human labor. By extrapolation, we (I, you, Americans) use up 300 years worth of human labor in a year. In other words, we live more lavishly than feudal lords. In terms of energy consumption, we live like a nation of single-family Napoleons and Genghis Khans. What do we get for it? Immediate stimulus followed by strife and dissatisfaction. We get attention deficit, heartache and longing. We get hours on the freeway and 2 weeks of paid vacation, if we’re lucky.

It’s time to reinvestigate what it means to be happy and successful on this planet. Today is Black Friday, the day when the onslaught of consumerism rises to a feverish pitch. The day when credit cards come out to stave off the stinging pain of malaise and depression. The day when we make a hasty calculation and come up with the result: “Yes, I do deserve to live like the Pharaohs of Egypt. I deserve to have what I want now, and f#$k all else”.

As always, there are certain choices that many of us are at liberty to make. Today, I’m staying in. Maybe I’ll walk to the river. If you’d like to celebrate Buy Nothing Weekend with me and my family, I invite you to partake in a new collection of songs meant to cut through the madness and amplify the earth ringtone in your life [ right here ].

This will cost you nothing. You can share these few songs with friends if you like. Do it in public on FACEBOOK if that’s your thing. It aint much, but it’s something. Let me know how it goes, ok? Stay strong. Buy Nothing.

click thru to LISTEN SEE READ about TRAVEL

WORLD CRIT is a series of music offerings and events curated by the San Francisco based producer Colossal Frequency. TRAVEL { WORLD CRIT VOL 1 } is a collaborative album featuring Nasim Irani, Anonymous Rex, Santa Cruz Gospel Choir and others.

WORLD CRIT will be wheeling out TRAVEL offerings in the coming weeks and months. For now, you can listen / share / purchase TRAVEL at worldcrit.bandcamp.com.

You can look, listen and read about TRAVEL and find out about a limited edition TRAVEL PACKAGE here.

Shifts in perspective are needed, lives lived in the blink of an eye and many assumptions abandoned. If you are wise you will not think of this as another week-long runway, you will not assume another romance sans chance? You will say Are you ready? and jump in as if the rest of your life depends on it.

And as the sunlight reflects off the bay and soaks into her bronze-black skin, And the intuition that this is no ordinary human begins to set in, You won’t jump to conclusions or you’ll miss it:

She’ll let you carry her for a minute, She’ll speak with care about small things and laugh about people back home, She’ll speak of Mama and you’ll listen and wonder when you should go into your usual things – which now seems senseless, like wiping down the table before a hurricane. Save your questions and listen. No one knows just how far she has come.

In honor of Leonard Peltier’s birthday, many people are gathering in this country and abroad. Maybe you’ll find a way to one of these gatherings to show your support for LP or visit WHO IS LEONARD PELTIER to follow what’s happening.

Over at worldcrit.bandcamp I put up two songs for the occasion. You can play them, get them for free and share with amigos. May You Find Your Sun Dance and if you talk with Creator please ask Him/Her/Is to allow Leonard a few Sun Dances on the outside.

…

Que nous répondions présent à la renaissance du Monde
Ainsi le levain qui est nécessaire à la farine blanche.
Car qui apprendrait le rythme au monde défunt des machines
et des canons ?
Qui pousserait le cri de joie pour réveiller morts et orphe-
lins à l’aurore ?
Dites, qui rendrait la mémoire de vie à l’homme aux espoirs
éventés ?
Ils nous disent les hommes du coton du café de l’huile
Ils nous disent les hommes de la mort.
Nous sommes les hommes de la danse, dont les pieds
reprennent vigueur en frappant le sol dur.

- Leopold Senghor

This poem popped out at me last night. It was previously unknown to me. I guess I needed to know. You can read more of Leopold Senghor’s “Masques” here.

English translation by Melvin Dixon.