Sat Aug 21, 2010
the roost gig on four videos
All in all, I think it was a good performance (we could have been a tad bit more relaxed) and shows a new phase in how we approach what we do.
Our aesthetic at the moment is to not play our repertoire in a standard "set list" fashion, but to spontaneously reference portions of tunes -- or not -- within the context of a performance that's approached as a purely improvised set. Interesting things happen this way :)
The effect seems to be supple, tight, running from abstract to groove, back and forth, on a dime. A brisker rate of development. My wife said the balance made the whole thing work for her, and that's encouraging, because she's never been a fan of the freer, more abstract stuff.
Here is the bulk of the concert, spread over four clips. In the interest of disclosure, what's not included is a little more of the oud section, and about 20 minutes that would have followed the end of the last clip, including some fairly extended rendtions of "Five" and "Yaman". For some reason, the DVD they gave us from the performance ends a few seconds after the clip. Bummer.
This is the opening of the concert, using the oud. Free opening but groove-based, followed by an untitled piece we've been doing since late last year ( the predecessor is in the solo Husseini oud video), then a touch of " Her Words..." before the clip fades.
The opening of the electric section. If you've checked out our other you tube videos or our ReverbNation playlist, you'll hear echoes of 'Bhangra Jam" and "Mist":
With a few seconds of overlap from the preceding clip, here's the next section. The only one we hit upon is "Garden Of Eden" ( see the KISS Coffee House video). Whoever thought you could make a ragged alt rock/country/punk free jam from the Indian raga Brindabani Sarang :) Telecaster fits perfectly!
Picking up right where the previous video leaves off, here's the last section available. The only tune referenced caught on film here is "New Heavy" (see our Reverb Nation playlist), right after the guitar switch. Its about to move into "For Tagore" when the vid runs out.
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Tue Jul 27, 2010
Sama Duo Live Next Monday!
We've been busy, hunkering down, enjoying the Tele, and finding new ways of doing what we do...
Join us for a rare live performance on Monday Aug. 2, as part of the The Roost Series at UNM ARTS Lab! This time around we'll be doing oud and Telecaster with and drum set, seamlessly weaving between pure improvisation and spontaneous occasional flashes of Duo repertoire from the past seven years.
We don't play out much these days, but we're continually evolving and morphing what we do. Come see the latest!
The venue address is 131 Pine St NE, Albuquerque NM, one block west of University, just north of Central. All shows begin 7:30 pm. Admission is $5 minimum donation.
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Wed Jun 09, 2010
Mustafa and the Telecaster
I never thought I'd see the day when i would get a Tele, much less be swept away with it, but there it is.
I'd been opening up to getting a Tele since i ran across a Tele fretless neck on ebay for cheap...i have a strat body i thought id put it on ( a lovely transparent green, and whatever it morphs to, it will probably be called the Islamocaster, lol), but as I started researching and listening and asking, it became more and more clear that those magical ( and seemingly contradictory) elements that can come together in a good Tele -- warmth/sustain coexisting with clarity/articulation -- are also qualities much discussed in the fretless realm, not only in terms of seeking them in instruments but in a general discussion of what a lot of fretless players are shooting for in their head, regardless of genre --, so im thinking that Teles are a great match for fretless guitars.
While the Tele fretless is still in process, I did pick up a regular Tele a month or so back -- and was sooo hooked. Its everything i hoped and imagined, as described above. I AB'd it against my other guitars, and in terms of tone, they all are coming up short in various ways.
I don't say this lightly: This could well be the tone I've been searching for, for 30 years.
Amazed at the extreme dynamic responsiveness, the surprising tonal versatility depending on how you dial it in, its immediacy, its presence, its sting, its warmth.
Jefferson was intrigued when I told him about it, so we did about four or five sessions, back to electric and drum set. Relaxed: no pressure, no recording agenda, no tunes, just pure playing... but we always let the recorder roll.
I hope you'll find the new pieces from the sessions, uploaded in the music player to the right, as intriguing and fun as we did! On the whole, a little more funkier/punkier/Mid-eastern than last year's electric material.
I've only made one public appearance with it --a last minute non-attended solo gig at the Orchid Chamber (see pic) , though poetess Yasmin Najmi did come out and read some of her work with me. But it will see more light of day when we get back to live work.
A more detailed update on our plans in a day or two -- in the meantime, enjoy the Tele tunes!
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Thu Apr 15, 2010
solo electric set this Friday!
just in -- I'll be doing a solo electric set this Friday at the Orchid Chamber on the west side, 3296 Coors Blvd. NW. Headlining that evening is Coles Whalen from Colorado, and also on the bill is Earth Rise and the Rudy Boy Experiment. I'm scheduled to hit circa 10:30ish.
Not only will I be doing the fretless, i will also be bringing out a new Telecaster. Just acquired one of these and it's been a great guitar -- maybe the best guitar tone for me ever. Tele fretless in process.
I'll have clips of what Jefferson and I have been doing with it soon, but come here its solo incarnation Friday!
Hope to see you there!
click here for details
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Tue Mar 09, 2010
Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion tonight in Santa Fe
Unfortunately, I can't make it this time, due to the start time, when I get out of work, and the commute, but i've seen this presentation twice before, and it's always musical, educational, and compelling (and different from year to year). He's bringing some Bengali drummers this year, so im particularly disappointed I cant get there...but everyone should try to make it!
Tuesday, 7:00pm March 9 2010
The Lensic Performing Arts Center Santa Fe
$50 •$40 $30 $20
$5 DiscountMembers & Students
Available at Lensic Box Office (505-988-1234)
www.ticketssantafe.org
OR
Outpost Performance Space
(505-268-0044)
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Sat Feb 13, 2010
Benefit performance for Zimbabwe Nkenya
Benefit performance for Zimbabwe Nkenya
Sama Duo -- Some of Santa Fe's most compelling musicians are gathering for a benefit performance tonight for Zimbabwe Nkenya, a well-known musician in the area for years, who recently suffered a stroke back home in St. Louis. Proceeds will help with Zimbabwe's medical expenses.
Sama Duo will be doing a set as well -- oud and percussion.
i've been running the oud through the electric guitar and pedalboard set up, and im quite happy with it --- reverse delay, phase and wah work well, still trying to dial in the right distortion:)
Come hear for yourself tonight!
High Mayhem Studio, 2811 Siler Ln, Santa Fe, art auction at 6:30 pm, music at 8:30. Feb 13.
Also see here for more details and directions
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Thu Dec 31, 2009
New Side Project, Solo Oud Piece, Guitar Votes
quick random updates/news:
1) Solo oud piece inspired by and dedicated to those struggling for truth in Iran should be up in a few days.
2) Is thinking of a side music project ( like i really have the time for it lol)... Is NM ready for a taqwacore band? I'm hearing it, tunes are coming. It's time, brothers and sisters, you know it. Metal/improv/groove/ improvised poetry, VERY LOUD and VERY HOLY. Last Exit meets Hafiz. Looking for performers inspired to extreme states of fearlessness of the duniya via Allah's love for creation; and we'll take that fearlessness onstage to transform others.
Some personnel options are coming into play; stay tuned for details.
3) Sofi, sweetie that she is, voted for her dad Mustafa Stefan Dill in the guitar Player Readers poll after seeing me cast my vote for fellow Albuquerque musician Ryan McGarvey in the blues category.... sofi put me in the experimental, world and new talent categories, and if you're inclined, so can you, here.
We have a great fan base here, thank you all -- if everyone voted, this music could spread far and wide, thanks to your support.
4) Final edits under way for the electric portion of the Duo release; rehearsing and refining all the acoustic oud material. Too early to tell when we'll start tracking that; sometime in Jan.
Thanks everyone for all your support this past year! Its been a great year of progress and momentum for us, and the best is yet to come.
Best wishes and blessings to everyone for your 2010!
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Fri Dec 11, 2009
of double cds, ouds, and reinvention
One of the fascinating things about Sama Duo is that Jefferson and I are always pushing our own envelopes, always redefining what the Duo can do. We're restless in that way. No sooner do we define and explore a method and language for one set of instrumentation, then we take a look at some previous reincarnation, revisit it with fresh perspective. As Moe Hamzeh of Lebanese punk band the Kordz says, music can't be lazy." It's a creed we share as well, whether it's in music's execution, content, approach, intent or meaning.
After we tracked the CD at the end of August and then sifted and did the first round of edits in Sept /Oct (though there was a bit of vacation time in there as well), we hit the Adobe with an electric set, very fresh and exuberant. I also brought the oud along, and were pleased with the acoustic parts of the set (though I didn't quite have the sound gear optimized, thouhg that's solved now).
We haven't been too pleased with the acoustic tracks (on oud) we layed down for the release, however; we found some nice takes of the two slower ones, but everything else just wasn't happening. With a new oud in tow ( best one i've ever owned), rested and regrouped, rehearsals since I came back from vacation at the end of October have been strictly with oud and percussion. New repertoire is developing, new ways of working and shaping the material are coming to the fore.
We did a test run set at the Montanita Co-op in Albuquerque last week, and will do an oud/percussion set at the Santa Fe Montanita Co-op (913 West Alameda, near st. Francis, 505-984-2852) this Sunday at 3 p.m. This marks the first Sama Duo bona fide performance in our old stomping grounds in quite a while, and we're looking forward to it!
Another outcome of this development has been the decision to make the originally planned release a double length project. It will be fashioned as two CDs worth: one acoustic, and one electric. This allows each dimension of what we do to breathe a bit more, to offer a more in depth and detailed representation of the Duo's scope and range, without shortchanging either mode to make it 'fit' in one regular release length. It pushes back the release date somewhat, as we're not ready to track the acoustic stuff quite yet. I'm anticipating probably February or March, realistically, before all lose ends are tied and all is in place, ready to download and purchase. We will release them together.
Are we being epic, detailed and diverse, or just overly ambitious and long winded? you'll have to decide for yourself , lol :)
We'll keep you posted, and hope to see all our Santa Fe buddies Sunday.
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Sun Oct 25, 2009
Sama Duo in Taos Wednesday
We've had a good break and vacation for both of us, after tracking the CD at the end of August then doing some rough edits; we still have to decide on the best takes and perhaps do a little further trimming -- we can run long -- but it's all underway!
In the meantime, we are back at the Adobe Bar in Taos, 125 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte, this Wednesday - Oct. 28, 7 p.m.
Special thanks to Rima Ralff, who did a very nice article on the upcoming gig for the Taos News; you can see it in their facsimile edition here (go to page S20, choose 'graphic' mode on the right; it continues on page S22.
hope to see everyone there!
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Wed Sep 09, 2009
oud test videos
One of the things I did as we were tracking was to test run solo versions of two new oud pieces in front of the Flip cam. I find this helpful to get used to the pieces in a performance or recording setting, and overcome a litle 'new material anxiety'. i actually thought, after a couple of nights of trying, that i had a reasonable handle on the material so i did a little editing form the final takes and posted them on you tube.
Here's one of them --- a slow, wistful melody, it's becoming one of our favorites. The Duo version will likely be the closing piece on the new release.
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CD tracked
we did it -- the new release is 'all in the can', as they say...
We tracked it all in just six sessions at the rehearsal space, direct to two-track - no overdubs or mixing ( though there will probably be some editing , etc). We checked the mic placement with mastering engineer Cass Anawaty, who gave it the go ahead, and away we went.
Now comes the task of sorting and selecting through takes, etc. As Subho put it to me when I arrived in Kolkata with mountains of music for the BOAP project, "You now have to make this ocean of music into a river..."
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Thu Aug 13, 2009
Four videos from last week's gig...
It was a great gig -- nice folks, best lemonade on the planet, and a pretty good second set, some clips which are now up:
There's some nice versions of the Yaman tune and the Five, whcih you can see on on our youtube site, but here's a couple of embeds on new ones:
KISS Coffee: Garden Of Eden
This started as a completely open jam, and quickly morphed into a rendition of one of the pieces used in "Birth Of A Pillow." Of course, then it was on sarod and tabla...we've never played it in this instrumentation before, so it was a surprise and a premiere for both of us! A little shaky on some aspects of the 'head', not being sure how it would lay it on guitar, but it has a nice feel and some cool moments.
The title is from the particular vignette from the film, though we privately refer it to as "bluegrass." Loosely based on raag Brindabani Sarang.
KISS Coffee: O.P.
This is a recent developing semi-jam; "O.P." stands for the Octave Patch used on the guitar (love that microPOG!). A different feel from some of our other samples we've posted.
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Sun Aug 09, 2009
KISS coffee gig
KISS Coffee gig was fun! nice setting, good food, and they really do have great lemonade! 1st set a little a stiff as we got used to the sound, but second set rocked, i think...
many thanks to Robin, Melissa, Josh, Josh, Andrew and all the others who came out or stopped by to see it. truly grateful for the support!
good friend Andrew B. took the flip cam and shot something ---thanks! i'll take a look at the footage Sunday...
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Sat Aug 08, 2009
last minute gig in Alb's historic Old Town!
looking forward to a quickly booked show TONIGHT (SAt, Aug 8) in Alb's historic Old Town at:
KISS Coffee at Patio Escondido
404 San Felipe, just off Mountain Rd
Old Town
Albuquerque, NM 87104 US
we'll be there from 7 to 9...c ya there!
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Sun Aug 02, 2009
site changes, new features - and new release planned!
A lot of news:
As you can tell, I'm in the process of updating the site, bringing it in line with some of the social networking and music apps we have. It will take some time to integrate it through all the sections of the site, but I'm making progress.
One of the main things that's happening is the consolidation of an email list, which until now has been done manually; I'll be sending out a final manual email to folks we've contacted in the past, but if you're here , please sign up on the email list widget on the left.
You'll notice an embedded music player; a Twitter feed; our Facebook fans; a link to full details on our integrated material on Reverb Nation; show schedule (a little thin at the moment); and more to come.
As we're sharing more and more performance and rehearsal videos ( I think music this improvised needs to be seen as well as heard), I'm trying to find a good way to present those easily -- a couple of options I'm exploring for that.
This is all ramping up to, finally, a projected release this fall. With the 'Travel Bug' CD release over 5 years old and not very representative at all of our current focus, it's high time to offer some definitive, well-recorded performances in a cohesive presentation.
There's a lot of great moments on the rehearsal tracks we've uploaded, to be sure. I've always had an 'open source' philosophy, to document and share the process as it goes along, so while the cuts you're hearing now may be representative, what more, what best is possible? Discovering and ultimately sharing that is a big part of what we're doing over the next few months (we don't want to shy away from live work either as we hone it).
Tentative plans are to record during August, select and edit in September, mastering/graphics/production in Sept/October, official release some time early November. We'll be doing a primarily digital only release with comprehensive distribution, with a very limited number of actual physical CDs.
Stay tuned, watch our Twitter for little daily updates, and sign up on our list....
thanks!
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Happy Friendship Day!
To all our Desi friends , fans and supporters -- have a very happy Friendship Day! thanks for your friendship, connection and support; hope you are all are thriving and happy. Wishing all of you the very best continued success, across the miles...
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Mon Jul 13, 2009
testing for reveb nation app
we're also setting up the reverb nation app on our facebook -- this is a test post to see if posts here feed into the blog there!
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Sun Jul 12, 2009
early, all-ages show at Bleeding Eardrum Monday!
Looking forward to branching out and rocking it again, this time at Bleeding Eardrum!
We're on the bill with Run Doris Run from California, and a couple of other bands. Show starts at 6, not sure when we go on, but not first. cover is $8. come check it out!
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Mon Jun 15, 2009
atomic cantina videos up
I cleaned up the audio and video as best i could, though its still murky and very red...nonetheless, i thought id post three videos from the Atomic set. Here's the first, and they all can be found at the you tube site :
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Thu Jun 11, 2009
Adobe Bar rocked!
Adobe Bar gig was fantastic, much more musical and dynamic than the nerve-ridden Atomic gig.
People were very taken, bar manager happy (always a good thing). Pakawaj master Phil Hollenback sat in for the 2nd set, no less! very honored to have him -- thanks Phil!
No videos or photos, though -- sight lines are difficult due to bar layout. I have some flipcam footage from the Atomic but its pretty murky, we'll see if its worth clearing up.
With two under our belt, we're aggressively looking to book more. Stay tuned.
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