February 2010

Greetings from mid February...

I write from the tour bus, on tour with 14 people.

Nine of them are from Mali, the incredible Bassekou Kouate and N'goni Ba.

The N'goni is the Malian banjo.

Two of them are Tanzanian, the great blind thumb piano/ singer Anania Ngoliga and his very talented accompanist guitarist/vocalist John Kitime.

Then there is the talented crew, Zach, Casey (also playing fiddle), and Dylan. They are doing a great job making everything happen at a super high level.

And our bus driver Dave, safely driving us through the night, through snowstorms, ice, etc...

We have settled into a comfortable routine. Bus touring is like camping out, in a way.

On this tour the TV is never on in the front lounge, but in the back lounge you can view plenty of african movies in french, mostly.

The Michael Jackson 'This is it' documentary has had a lot of play back there as well.

Lots of good cheer is happening all around.

Oh, and the the music has been nothing short of incredible.

Every time we put one of these tours together, it is a fingernail biter to see how it's going to go.

Each time, it has been great - and this one is truly amazing.

We have completed over a third of this ambitious 33 show tour, and we have already been from Colorado to New Mexico, to Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Indiana, Texas and Kentucky.

So I hope to see you out there somewhere.

In April I get to go to Australia with Oumou Sangare, and we'll be doing the Byron Bay Jazz and Roots Festival, as well as the Sydney Opera House and some other dates.

Then I segway into summer dates with Edgar and Zakir that will take me to August.

In the fall I am working on plans with the Flecktones to do some recording, and we expect to be touring in December.

Somewhere along the line I'll be starting work on a banjo concerto, and possibly a movie score!

That's the plan so far, please check out the tour dates for updates, etc.

All the best to you and yours,
Béla