One thing leads to another, and I went off to
1974 I took a summer job performing in a jazz group
study in Boston at Berklee College of Music. None
for three months, one in Europe and two in Tunisia.
of my close musical friends who attended Berklee
This trip changed my life and opened up the world to
graduated, but we all played non-stop many, many
me. I have to admit the Berber music of Tunisia kinda
hours a day for about five years in Boston. The jazz
went over my head at the time – I was more infatuated
scene had deteriorated, and the gig scene was
with the West African groups that were performing at
overwhelmed by disco in all the clubs, so paying gigs
the various festivals in Tunisia, primarily in Tabarka on
were few and far between – it was kind of a bleak
the Algerian boarder. Since then I have lived in Brazil
outlook for even the best and the brightest. Nothing
and South India (on a Fulbright Fellowship) and
really stopped us from hitting the music trail as hard
travelled the world playing and collaborating, and do it
as we could. Gigs came and went, and we all did what
now more than ever!
we had to do to balance our musical lives to keep
playing in the style that we had been evolving into.
Because of my background as an Arab American and
the music I enjoyed as a youngster, I always had a bit
more of a worldview of jazz than my friends. It
seemed to me that jazz could tolerate different time
feels other than swing, which although I loved, it was
not the rhythm of my generation, and I was just as
happy finding and inventing ways to groove the
music… it all seemed possible to me and some of my
heroes were starting to lead the way and d ????????)??????????????????()%????????????????????????????????????????)?????????????????????????????????????)?????????????L??????????????????????)?????????????????????????????????????))?????????????9?????]????)??????????? ??????????????????????????)???????????????????????????L???????????????)?????????????????????????????????????????)5?????????????????????????????????????)????????????????????$???????????????????)????????????????? ??????Q??????? ????%?()e??????????????????????????????????)?????????????????????????????????????????)??????????????????????1????????
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