Vince, John, and Zakir - Mumbai, India, 2007
Vince - Mumbai, India, 2007
player and singer, and also played on the drum now and then.
He was living in Los Angeles for many years and together we
played a concert of traditional Iraqi music and gave a lecture
demonstration on Iraqi music. In 2012, I performed in a joint
concert with Saadoun and Joan Baez at Freight and Salvage
in Berkeley, CA. Joan played her regular folk songs and then
we played traditional Iraqi songs. As it happens, Joan Baez’s
family had traveled to Iraq when she was very young, and she
had actually learned a few Iraqi songs. So, she and Saadoun sang
Iraqi songs together for this fund-raising concert for Arabic
refugees. You can find it on YouTube. Also, at this time, I played
a few gigs with Saadoun in San Francisco.
Saadoun, 2011
44 The Belly Dance Chronicles � July 2020
A new band: Mid-East Tapestry Ensemble
I composed music for a couple of plays that were performed
by local theater groups. Then started playing the Kanoun
seriously and, in 2012, I founded a musical group called Mid-
East Tapestry. This group of musicians includes Coralie Russo
on Oud, Rami Ziad on Riqq and Middle eastern percussion,
and Tom Shader on Bass. Tom is one of my best friends and
we’ve been playing music together for 40 years and have played
a lot of Jazz gigs together. I taught Tom how to play the Middle
Eastern quarter tones, and he recorded with the Jazayer band on
a few albums.
The Mid-East Tapestry Ensemble plays music from all parts
of the Middle East including classical and folk tunes from:
Armenia, Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia, and Iran. The Mid-East
Tapestry Ensemble has performed in over forty libraries,
colleges, and universities all over the bay area. Many of our
presentations have been lecture demonstrations with explanations and stories about Middle Eastern music. We have also
done a few concerts, fundraisers for private schools, and private parties in the San Francisco Bay Area and more Northerly
regions. (https://youtu.be/6SzB-Q_0-PI)