Yoro Ndiaye @ Just 4 You / Recording w/ Zale Seck in Montreal

In November ’08, while in Dakar, Senegal to shoot a video for the first single off my upcoming fifth CD, I finally visited a club called Just 4 You. Everyone had told me about Just 4 You … the premier acoustic / jazz / mbalax live club in Dakar where everyone from Xalam to Cheikh Lo to Youssou Ndour himself had performed. It is open-aired … with about 40 tables spread out beneath lovely trellises woven with vines. The sound is impeccable, the stage neither too small or big, and the audience a friendly and unpretentious mix of mostly Senegalese with a dollop of foreigners who genuinely love Music.


With one of Senegal’s stars of acoustic mbalax, Yoro Ndiaye


Singer Yoro Ndiaye was on that night. I had met Yoro a year before when we both sang on a track by Djibril Ndiaye Rose in Dakar. Super friendly guy, awesome singer and guitarist, with a deservedly growing profile in Senegal and Europe. That evening, Yoro invited another incredible singer / guitarist named Zale Seck (former member of Orchestra Baobab and Les Etoiles 2000) up to guest before inviting me. I sang about Obama being freshly elected (in terrible French) and then, with Guitar God Jimi Mbaye now also onstage, danced before the audience with my Goorgoorlu dancer friends. That night, it felt like I had found my True Musical Home. Two months later, I was surprised to see this video appear on YouTube with excerpts from that night. Filmed by Diane Poitras, it made my day!



Missing from the video was Zale Seck’s impressive singing. We contacted one another when I returned to California and he returned to Montreal, Canada. Long story short, Zale invited me to spend last weekend in Montreal, recording harmonies for five songs on his new CD. What a wonderful weekend!! I spent two nights with ANOTHER excellent singer named Xosluman (Oumar Ndiaye) and his lovely Canadian wife, Marie Helene, met up with, yes, ANOTHER wonderful singer named Elage Mbaye (who I’d recorded with from afar, but had never met), and spent a magical afternoon at DJ / bassist / Senegalese Music Lover Badou Bousso's house.

with Xosluman (Oumar Ndiaye), Elage Mbaye, and Nathan Mbaye


At Badou’s we ate maffe, watched music videos, chatted, and he burned me a tall stack of brilliant vintage Senegalese CDs. Heaven! It was so thrilling to talk to him about the past, present, and future of Senegalese music. Badou’s knowledge of Who’s Who and Senegal’s musical history was as awesome as his enthusiasm for foreign artists who had successfully collaborated with African music. Everyone was super charming. After spending hours hanging out, Elage Mbaye mentioned to everyone that I was the toubab who danced sabar in videos on Seneweb.com and YouTube. To my surprise, every single Senegalese person there had seen and loved those videos. How cool is that ????!!!! I told them I would need an extra seat on the plane home for my expanded head!

Elage Mbaye, Badou Boussou, and Me with exploding hair


My final day, I took a bus out to Zale Seck and his wife, Helene’s beautiful house in the Canadian countryside. We rehearsed in the morning, I napped and took a gorgeous long walk in the afternoon, and then we drove to a lovely studio even FURTHER out in the countryside in the evening. Oh, the recording session was so much fun! Every song I sang on (mostly in Wolof) was sooooo beautiful … acoustic Senegalese folk mbalax at its finest. We worked really quickly and by 3am, I had laid down up to 6 tracks of harmonies per song. To my delight, Zale and his engineer were genuinely impressed with my studio prowess. The Global Diva has landed !!!

Recording with Zale Seck


With Zale and his wonderful engineer, Donald Fleurent


Finally arrived back in Montreal at 5am, grabbed my suitcase from Oumar’s, got to the airport, and begged the woman behind the Air Canada desk for a window seat. I must have looked as if bus had run me over, because she kindly gave me three free seats, across which I gratefully snoozed for most of the 6 hour flight back to LA.

Really looking forward to working with Zale Seck, Elage Mbaye, Oumar Ndiaye, and Zale’s brilliant guitarist son, Assane Seck, again soooooon! Senegal has SO MUCH TALENT!!!!!!!

East Coat/UK tour '08, WOMEX, Dakar Video Shoot

Three weeks after returning from recording CD #5 in Dakar, I was off again! This time, I had shows in Boston, New York, Hampshire (UK), Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London, before heading on to the WOMEX world music conference in Seville, Spain, and finally, yes … lucky me!..... BACK to Dakar to film a video for my upcoming single.

BOSTON
Laura D’Onofrio, my east coast booking agent, booked me a show at Boston's The Beehive. After an overnight flight, my rehearsal with NYC guitarist Francis Jacob at Jeff Wasilko’s house was soooo sweet! After all the build up, stress, preparations, and flying, there was something so pure about those couple of hours. Jeff’s living room is all wood and cats and the acoustics were so lively, I could whisper and be heard. Francis played super tasteful guitar and we had a True Musical Conversation. Wonderful!

Ironically, The Beehive’s atmosphere was the exact opposite – loud, busy, bustling … but still fun. Having learned to flow with a venue’s energy, we played for the front row tables (full of friends) who could hear us, while providing background music for the loud restaurant tables beyond that inner circle. Everyone was happy!

Performing at the Beehive in Boston


Boston was hosting a sabar dance conference (heaven!) the weekend I was there, so Laura and I took great classes with Babacar Mbaye, Babacar Ndiaye, Mariama Basse, Marie Basse-Wlles, Ousmane Sall, and Malang Bayo. The East Coast teachers are amazing!

NEW YORK
Sunday, I enjoyed a gorgeous bus ride to New York and had a lovely show at Googie’s Lounge in the East Village. Walter played brilliantly and Afro-guitarist Raja Kassis joined us for the second half of the set, weaving his sparkling guitar lines masterfully throughout. Really fun!

Youssou Ndour’s long time manager, Thomas Rome, who had promised he would come from Connecticut to see the show, came skidding in through the doorway in time to catch the very last song. Later he told me he’d missed a train and was so mad at himself, he’d thrown a pen on the station platform. This cracked me up … a wild act of rage for a person as kind and gentle as he!

One day, when they film the biopic of my life, : ) … a pivotal scene will be of Thomas taking me out to dinner in Greenwich Village after my show. We found a place called The Pink Pony (?), and spoke at length about music, art, philosophy, and my fave subject (brainstorming about my rise to Global Diva-hood). Thomas is a visionary, plain and simple!

ENGLAND
Monday morning, caught a VERY early flight to London. I stayed with Emma and Giles O’Bryen at their big rambling Tufnell Park home, rehearsed with my UK guitarist, Phil Stevenson, took a walk on Hampstead Heath, and generally breathed in the Joy of being in my favorite city in the world.

Two days later, Phil and I put on a lunch-time concert for the students at South Downs College in Hampshire, on the invitation of Rachel Lovie; We had a hilarious lunch in the school café, which also serves as training college for waiters. They burned our sandwiches, took forever, and brought me a plate piled high with grated cheese when they misinterpreted my vegetarian order. The manager-in-training offered us stale profiteroles as an apology, which we accepted as graciously as we could without giggling. As for the show, to my delight, the students loved us! I got everyone up to sing solos on Frank and Loretta and they did some hilarious ad libs.

w/ Rachel Lovie, Phil Stevenson & stale profiteroles @ South Downs College, Hampshire


SCOTLAND
The next day, Phil and I took a train to Scotland, where we met up with booking agent, Morag Neil. She had arranged for us to perform alongside Samba Sene and his band including ex-musicians of Thione Seck, Medoune Ndiaye (tama / sabar) and Khadim Thiam (keyboards). For both our Edinburgh and Glasgow shows, Phil and I opened with an acoustic set, with Medoune and Khadim sitting in. Then when Samba performed, I danced for them, so we pooled our talents The Scots were so up for fun and enjoying themselves, brilliant!

with tama superstar Medoune Ndiaye


LONDON SHOW
Finally, we flew back to London for our return show at Inn on the Green. So great to see everyone! Chris Baker and Carrie Slater took me out for Thai food before the show (thank you!) and then the show was awesome. Tina and Dave were the perfect hosts, the audience was The Best, Senegalese guest drummers Ali Seck, Kao Seck, and Landing Mane guested, and I loved performing with Senegalese sabar dancer, Vieux Diene Sagne. He has such a radiant spirit and was an instant hit with the audience.

with Kao and Ali Seck, Landing Mane and Vieux Diene Sagna (in front)


Happiness


WOMEX ’08, SEVILLE, SPAIN
WOMEX ’08 was next! I shared a cheap pensione room with my mad Italian singer friend, Luisa Cottifogli, and we spent 5 days schmoozing madly at the conference, hearing excellent music, and hanging out with Thomas Rome and his wife, Florence. We saw local flamenco, tourist flamenco, ate waay too much cheese, drank too much coffee, walked happily ‘round Seville’s beautiful old town, and generally had an excellent time. Lots of leads to follow up on…

with the wonderful Florence Rome and visionary, Thomas Rome


DAKAR
Finally …. DAKAR! It’s difficult to describe what happens to my spirits the minute I arrive there … every molecule in my body lights up!. In the first few days, I tackled getting a video made for the song, “Try to Hide” from my upcoming CD #5. With the help of dancers Fallou Ndiaye and Bamba Gueye from the group Goorgoorlu, I found a director, rehearsed with F + B + three women, and searched for locations. The next day, director Niang first filmed us dancing in front of a green screen. Here’s me looking glamorous…



We then all piled into a Ndiaga Ndiaye bus to the Village des Artistes to film in front of some beautiful murals until the sun went down. The final shot was out by the highway, round an enormous sculpture of a tama player. A pile of kids appeared out of nowhere and ended up dancing in the video, as did a shoe seller, who jumped in front of the camera and let loose with some steps. It was a marvelous day and I am eternally grateful for all of the focus and joyful energy everyone contributed…

Fallou Ndiaye and Bamba Gueye dancing for the video @ Le Village Des Artistes, Dakar


I had thought that I would also do a second video for a song I had worked on with Djbril Ndiaye Rose, but our schedules didn’t allow that, so instead, I attended a dizzying array of soiree Senegalaises, clubs, concerts, tannebeers, and parties. Jimi Mbaye’s family shook their heads in disbelief as I would get up night after night at midnight to start dressing to leave. “Ashley (or ash - LAY),” they’d say, “You are so tired. You are not going out AGAIN?” But having missed music and dance during Ramadan, I had to grab my chance!

Without going into too much detail, all I can say is that Dakar blew my mind!. There is so much talent there…. dancers, musicians, drummers, artists of every description, it’s crazy. I spent much of the soiree Senegalaises watching with my jaw on the floor. The way the dancers can describe the tiniest of details inside the music, every bakk, every dynamic, is incredible Hanging out with Fallou and Bamba also gave me an insight into artists’ lives there, too. They face a staggering level of competition for a tiny amount of low-paying artistic gigs … it’s humbling.

One particularly wonderful night was at Just 4 You, an acoustic, open air venue with a big spread of tables, a respectful audience, and top quality musicians. Yoro Ndiaye did a lovely set, with guests like Zale Seck and Jimi Mbaye’s guesting. Yoro invited me up, where I sang about Obama winning and danced with Fallou Ndiaye and Modou Gabon in front of the stage, much to everyone’s surprise. That night I thought, “THIS is where I want to be … listening to this music, working with these musicians, collaborating RIGHT HERE.” When I move to Dakar (please, God!), I will LIVE at Just 4 You!

While in Senegal, I made some excellent connections, made new friends, and was eternally grateful for Jimi Mbaye’s family’s hospitality. His daughters, the gorgeous Maman and N’Deye Mbaye, were constant companions. Also Fallou Ndiaye was incredibly helpful and Bamba Gueye’s family was equally kind. I rehearsed, hung out, ate, and slept there and fell in love with Bamba’s whole family.

w/ brilliant producer, Ibou Ndour, at Jololi Studios in Dakar


Barack Obama!
Lastly, my sister emailed me on Wednesday morning to say that Barack Obama had been elected as our next president. Senegal was crazy happy with the news! It felt so great to be in Africa for this enormously positive step for the whole world. I cried with happiness all day long and took 10 Senegalese friends out, yes, to dance from midnight until morning. What wonderful news!

Senegal is amazing on every level. Although I am freshly back in LA, I am already wondering how I can return. Ii would love to learn Wolof, get to know my way around the city better, work more with musicians and dancers there, just generally dig in!

Watch this space! Peace and blessings to all of you who have read this far!!

Recording With Les Super Etoiles in Dakar, Senegal!

Just returned from Dakar, Senegal, where I spent three amazing weeks recording key members of Youssou Ndour’s band, Les Super Etoiles, for my 5th CD!!

Arriving at Dakar airport at 5am, Jimi Mbaye (Youssou’s guitarist) came striding in to pick me up, greeting everyone as he came. He is such a star over there … people on the street flag down his car just to tell him how much they love him. Jimi’s house was my base for the next three weeks. Since everyone was fasting during the day for Ramadan, we worked mainly at night … from 11pm until morning. Jimi is a whiz in the studio, a magnet for musicians dropping in and, of course, an insanely wonderful guitarist! I loved how he would sit in the baking midnight heat, guitar in his lap, sipping caffeine-and-sugar-packed ataya tea, smoking, and listening to the material. He’d say, “I hate you … I love this song too much!” and then launch into yet another brilliant tracks’ worth of Only-Jimi-Mbaye-Could-Play-That! guitar.

One night of guitar from midnight till dawn, I was so tired, I was practically asleep on the studio’s slender couch. However, I wouldn’t go to bed … this was history in the making! So I just lay there, shouting out, “Oh my God, that is SO BEAUTIFUL!” or “Awesome!” or “Oh, I LOVE that!” as my eyes struggled to stay open. Jimi really gave His Best to the music, which meant so much to me…

With Sabar Legend, Thio Mbaye, and Guitar God, Jimi Mbaye!


In fact, every musician blew my mind. Many consider Thio Mbaye (sabar drums) to be Senegal’s best sabar drummer and he was pure fire, creativity, humor, and enthusiasm in the studio. Thio promised to throw a gigantic sabar for me when I return in November (there was no dancing, drumming, concerts, music, soirees, parties in Dakar during Ramadan, which was soooo hard!). Can’t wait! He’s incredible!

Thio Mbaye on fire in Studio Dogo


The night Assan Thiam played tama (talking drum), my eyes kept welling up with tears. Twenty years ago, I met Youssou and Les Super Etoiles for the first time in Paris, when they recorded The Lion. I remember finding Assan alone in the studio parking lot, listening to a song on headphones, in a trance, looking up at the stars, and practicing what he’d play on tama. Since then, I have seen him enter that ecstatic musical state onstage countless times … and now here he was with that familiar joyful look on his face, playing tama … for my very own CD! Waaw waaw!!!! A very warm, funny, radiant soul.

with Tama King Assan Thiam


Abdoulaye Lo (or Laye Lo) played drums for the more mbalax-y tunes and, like the others, nailed everything in one or two takes. Their facility to find that golden musical seam that weaves so perfectly into everyone else’s parts is thrilling to witness. Another very friendly and warm person.

with Youssou Ndour’s wonderful drummer, Abdoulaye Lo


Lastly, Youssou’s backing vocalist, Birame Dieng, came in the same night as Thio Mbaye’s second session and waited a loooong time to sing. I had invited him to guest on a song called “OK” which talks about a farmer who has malaria. As the sick farmer watches TV, he realizes that he doesn’t need America’s big cars, diamond rings, or movie stars. He just needs medicine. At 3am, Birame finally took the mic and sang both an opening vocal line and a free form vocal over the ending refrain. Making it up on the spot, it was perfect the first time!!! Everyone was thrilled. He has the effortlessly beautiful voice imaginable!

with Birame “Golden Voice” Dieng


When I wasn’t blissed-out beyond description in the studio, I hung out with Jimi’s beautiful daughters, Maman and Ndeye Mbaye, plus the Goorgoorlu dancers who I’d rehearsed with last April for Bercy ’08. Much of the day was spent napping, listening to music, and chatting lazily in The Heat.

I spent many sunsets on Bamba Gueye’s rooftop with Baye Fall friends of Goorgoorlu, who would sing songs of every description (praise / sacred / funny / colloquial), accompanying themselves with percussion and bongos (not a drum … more of a calabash + thumb piano combo). I have always found sunset to be a magical time of day, and when the sun sank into the sea and the muezzins passionately sang “Allaaaaah Akbar!” from their minarets, particularly with everyone fasting and praying for Ramadan, it was sooo spiritual and beautiful.


Fallou Ndiaye and Douda singing and playing bongos. Fallou is an incredible dancer!


Djily Mbaye and his bongo…. Djily is another amazing dancer!


With Fallou Ndiaye and Djily Mbaye of the dance group: Goorgoorlu


With Fallou Ndiaye and Bamba Gueye of Goorgoorlu. Bamba is one of the kindest, sweetest, funniest people I know. And another ridiculously great dancer!


While in Dakar, I also saw many friends…
Senegal’s radiant dance star, Ndeye Gueye. We danced together at Bercy ’08.


With another Sabar Drum Master, Djibril Ndiaye Rose, and his lovely wife, Fily


Despite the heat and Ramadan, I also danced at home with Maman and Ndeye Mbaye, plus their 6-year-old niece, Ami Colle Seck, who was a blazingly talented young dancer. I called her “My Dance Professor!” Maman caught us dancing in a corridor one night:

Dancing with 7-year-old Fierce Sabar Mini Queen, Ami Colle Seck


Ran Taik! Ran Taik! Ran Taik! (a popular dance step)


For any of you who have not been to Africa, GO!!!! It is such a wonderful magical rich deep amazing place. Yes, Africa has her troubles, but there is definitely Something there that needs to be experienced directly … something of The Spirit, of Life, and Joy that we in the West hunger for.

When I disembarked from the plane in Washington, Dulles, on the way home to L.A., that’s exactly how it felt … Dull. Clean? yes. Organized? yes. On time and efficient and modern and sleek and convenient? yes! But gone was that Vibe, and Energy that I love so much in Senegal. I am very very very very lucky and blessed and grateful to have been able to work there with my musical heroes. It is the beginning of a whole new wonderful chapter and I Give Thanks and Praise! Love and blessings to all, Ashley

Singing On Cheikh Ndoye's Debut CD

Just returned from a wonderful weekend in Washington D.C., where I sang on three tracks for Senegalese jazz bassist Cheikh Ndoye's debut CD. Cheikh is super talented and a lovely person. He's confident and open minded, kind hearted and humble, full of ideas and enthusiasm for the future, with his musical roots firmly in Senegal. Yes! There are so many brilliant Senegalese musicians out there, it's wonderful to see a gifted young artist like Cheikh getting the support he needs to develop and grow.



Cheikh's producers Kevin Peter Jones and Romero Wyatt were equally charming and kind ... and the music is Niiiiiiice!! Debut records have a special energy because an artist has such an open canvas to try everything. Cheikh's bass lines are earthy and sinuous, rhythmically creative and yet spacious ... leaving lots of room for the heavy weight jazz musicians he's invited to fly above. Russell Ferrante and Karen Briggs both sound awesome on the record.

I arrived with my parts worked out in advance via from bouncing files back and forth between LA and Washington. (Thank God for Garageband!) Being behind a microphone in the studio or onstage always makes me soooo happy. My session was pretty quick on Sunday morning. Before I knew it, I was back on the plane home, with happy memories of excellent food, good conversation, wonderful people, ... and the thrill I felt at the Mall in Washington D.C. envisioning Barack and Michelle Obama living in the White House down at the end. GO OBAMA!!! GO CHEIKH!!!

Cheikh Ndoye, Yours Truly, and Zen Drum World Rhythm Master - Romero Wyatt

YOUSSOU N'DOUR FLIES ASHLEY TO DAKAR TO PERFORM!!

Last month, Youssou Ndour flew me to Dakar and rehearse (as a dancer) with his 7 Senegalese dancers (Aziz Faye, Djilly MBaye, Bamba Gueye, Fallou Ndiaye, Penda Keita, Ndeye Gueye, Aida Dada). What a thrill and an honor!! I then performed with them at the sold out Sorano Theater in Dakar before flying to Paris to perform in front of 20,000 people at Bercy. It all happened really fast ... my flight confirmation came in two days before I departed!


I had an amazing / crazy / extraordinary / brilliant time. After rehearsal 1, the dancers all said I had totally surprised them with my level of dancing. Lots of high fives and hugs and "Wow, I'm shocked!" I was in! Every day for two weeks, we met at Youssou's club, Thiossane, and practiced on the ball room floor with no mirrors. I loved how the dancers would casually get up and throw themselves 150% into a full-blown run-through of a song, then sit down for 25 minutes ... many smoking cigarettes, drinking cafe touba, and chatting. Then another blast of activity followed by more hanging around. Unfortunately, I lost my camera over there, which is a bummer, because I had some great photos of everyone...


Most days, I hung out at Aziz Faye's family's house ... the sweetest family you could imagine. Everyone so kind and warm .. and all superb dancers and drummers!

The Sorano show was amazing. It was sold out with a ton of people outside on the street. We got there early enough to spend a lot of time sitting around and then suddenly there was a rush of activity. Youssou and the band had arrived from touring in Europe (we'd not had a chance to rehearse together) and literally walked in, onstage, and started playing. Backstage, we were confused. Was there a set list? They ended up not playing four of the songs we'd rehearsed and many of our dances onstage were improvised, but the VIBE in the room was electric and SO MUCH FUN!!!


At one point, Ndeye Gueye (a big dance queen in Senegal) pulled me onstage for an impromptu duet.


The other time was when Youssou called Aziz Faye's name from the stage and Aziz pushed me to run behind the stage and enter from the other side, saying "Go! Go! Go!" The result was a 2 minute improv that ended up on video. It's been seen so far by 37,000 people on Seneweb.com! Here's the video!



and a photo...!



After the show, I went out dancing with the three brilliant dancers from Goorgoorlu (who also dance for Youssou).


We were all still so high from the show! However, at about 2AM, they broke the news to us that the four male dancers had been denied visas to France. This meant that all of our beautiful choreography was chucked out the window, we were all devastated, and the four women dancers (me included) had to fly to Paris to do an improvisational show ON OUR OWN with pick up dancers from Paris.

While the resulting show was awesome, it COULD have been blow-the-roof-off incredible. I was onstage twice with groups of dancers and they chose me to go out and dance another song all by myself. What a feeling!! I burst into ecstatic tears over and over that night ... God, here I was was dancing at flippin' BERCY with my all time musical hero!!!!!! During my solo turn, a group of white dancers from Holland, Finland, and Paris came up onstage behind me and we did a hilarious series of leumble moves, egged on by Mbaye Dieye Faye. Sophie Schowenaar, another sabar toubab queen, was the first up and she rocked!!! It was brilliant!

Afterwards, on the way back to the hotel, tons of Senegalese stopped me and said, "Wow!!!! Who are you? You danced so well! OMG, that was incredible!" Lots of photos and signatures and smiles. That felt soooo good!

Saturday night, there were packed after parties in Paris and the hotel was crammed with elegantly dressed Senegalese members of Youssou's entourage. Peter Gabriel turned up at the hotel on Sunday and Youssou gave an impromptu speech about Peter to the press. Very lovely and moving.

Flew home Monday morning. Tuesday, I was up cleaning, shopping, cooking. As Jack Kornfield would say, "After the Ecstasy, The Laundry!"

UCLA SHOW w/ RY COODER, BEN HARPER, LAURA LOVE, TAJ MAHAL

Our Royce Hall show at UCLA (part of The Ash Grove's 50th Anniversary) last Friday night was AWESOME from top to bottom. Ry Cooder's set was well-received. Ben Harper was transcendent, Taj Mahal charmed everyone and guested on Ben Harper's set, Laura Love was earthy and great, Holly Near's vocals / harmonies were beautiful, people loved Dr. Demento's stories. Everyone backstage was so warm and friendly, the whole evening had a great vibe.

When we came on between Holly and Ben, most of the audience had no clue who I was, but we really triumphed. When the four drummers came on and we blew the roof off along with the dancing, my dancer Kara described the look on their faces as "Shock and Awe." You could see them loving it, but trying to figure out just what was happening? Some asked me later if sabar dancing was a kind of African martial art form like capoeira? Loved that!


Later, outside in the lobby, I was moved by how all these baby boomers just loved our set .... some literally had tears in their eyes saying how this was the new generation a world really coming together... and what a beautiful thing. They were struck by my voice, the songs, the musicians, the dancing, the drumming, and the crazy, how-can-it-be? authenticity of it all. (That word came up over and over.) One guy pulled me over to the wall by the elbow with a stern look on his face and said, "OK, break this down for me ... What has been the trajectory of your career? WHY are you not massively famous? Your voice, the songs, the dancing, you are incredible!!!" Yes!

WITH MAMADOU BADJI

KARA MACK IS THE BOMB!


LEUMBLE LEUMBLE LEUMBLE...


THE MAGNIFICENT MAGATTE SOW

Farmers' Market Show

Performing at The Santa Monica Farmers Market is always colorful. Over the years since returning to Los Angeles, I have appeared there with various line-ups and every show has a different vibe. Recently, I invited three musicians and dancer Kara Mack (who just had a baby) to put on a show and it was so fun!



That Sunday was a gorgeous bright winter day. We set up on time, and the ever-changing audience got really into the music! I wanted to focus on two things: groove and improvisation. As an outdoor gig, how could we make every groove really pop? Also, because it was a loose Sunday morning with everyone eating breakfast and hanging out with their kids, how could our show be equally loose and carefree? We created a sunny and bubbling African / world soundtrack for everyone buying their organic fruit and vegetables … Honeycomb Grey became a samba. Ogoniland was a groooooooove!!



Federico Ramos (guitar) and Dante Pascuzzo (bass) put in some heavenly solo-ing, Magatte Sow (tama) blew everyone away, and Kara and I danced up a storm. It felt good to wrap a skirt around my pants and just go … no frantic Diana Ross-ian costume change scrambling backstage, for once!



We got the sea of little toddlers down front dancing in a circle at the end of Babalu to the drums and everyone getting up to sing solos for Frank and Loretta. Mostly, the little kids sang "FRANK AND LORETTA!" followed by 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 worth of silence and heavy breathing into the mic. The crowd LOVED it!!!



The crowning moment, though, was getting Kara up to sing at the end. Check the video at the bottom of this blog for kid solos and Kara. She is a classic!!!!

Also, many thanks to Lynette "Waaw Waaw" Wich for filming parts of our show. The still photos in this blog are from her footage!

Dancing at Youssou N'Dour's show @ UCLA

Three weeks after I got back from my Magnificent Month Away, Youssou N'Dour came to TOWN!!!! His show at UCLA was breathtaking and his musicians were in steaming form. Every one of Royce Hall's 2000 seats was sold out, but I could barely sit still through the first three songs ... were we really going to sit through two hours of Youssou N'Dour and Les Super Etoiles de Dakar?!!!

Finally, he said "You know, you are all welcome to dance" and I flew out of my seat as if The Spirit had called me. No lie, I felt like I wasn't in charge at all. Running down to the front all alone, where the aisle met the stage, I did a full blown niari gorong solo to the song they were doing. With that, the entire room jumped to its feet and started dancing.

I danced down front the entire night in a state of utter ecstasy. Youssou's music has been my life's soundtrack for so many years and I am a shameless fan! When Youssou was recording The Lion in Paris, my then manager (who also managed Peter Gabriel) flew me there from London to meet the whole band. Over the years, I saw Youssou backstage at his shows in New York, Los Angeles, and London, ate dinner together with him and Peter at Real World the night they recorded Shaking the Tree (Rossana cooked spaghetti!), and even said, "Hello!" at Dakar's Xippi studios when I visited Africa with my husband.

At UCLA, Youssou thanked me during the show for co-writing Boul Bayekou, and I went onstage to do a solo for one of the happiest moments of my LIFE! (Here's the YouTube clip ... I love how Youssou says, "Ash-ley!" at the very end!):
Ashley Solo @ Youssou's show ... and a photo, too!



Afterwards, Habib Faye came out into the lobby looking for me!! (We worked together in the studio for three weeks for the English National Opera years ago...his musicality blew my mind and he made me laugh and laugh, he was sooo funny!) Habib said, "WOW! I knew you could sing and write, but I didn't know you could DANCE like that!" Backstage, the band said the same, Jimi Mbaye told them how he'd seen me in Dakar two weeks previously, and Youssou hugged me and said, "Let's stay in touch!" HEAVEN!


HABIB FAYE & YOURS TRULY
Finally, a Senegalese friend in Montreal attended their tour's final show and emailed me this:
Hi Ashley,

The video is amazing...U R THA BEST....the boys of Super Etoile have a lot of respect for your work and talent. After the show, I had a conversation with Youssou and Habib about your performance in L.A....after years performing live, Habib said that he never saw a TOUBAB with such good understanding of sabar, Youssou added that it's a gift from God...literally in Wolof ( Yalla daf ko maï ). That email made my day!!!

I posted the video on YouTube (500 views and counting) and it got picked up by Seneweb.com (15,000 views and counting). Three weeks later, I'm still trying to come down to earth…then again, do I really want to?! I am soooo blessed!!!!!