Monday, 29 April 2013
Today's plan is a noon pick-up, with a quick tour of the city, followed by rehearsal, and a concert tonight at the University's Performing Arts center. Jeff calls me just past 9am to ask if I've received the same call as he has (no, I haven't) saying that the tour isn't happening, so we'll be picked up at 2pm instead to go to the University for a rehearsal and sound-check.
Fine by me! At least this time they've given us fair warning for the change in plan. That's no problem. Sure, a city tour might have been a nice courtesy, but it's not a necessity, and can actually be more tiring than necessary before an important gig.
So we linger at great length over breakfast - and once again I'm super grateful that me and Jeff get along so well! We've spent over 60 days on the road together over the past 2 years, and can still manage to have pleasant conversations for hours on end when we've got time to kill ;-)
We're picked up on time (actually, I get a call that they're 20 minutes early this time - nice). And then driven across town to the university campus. It's HUGE!!! And built into a hilly area that's the closest thing to country-side we've seen on this whole trip. Green and lush with large dormitories nestled into the hillsides, and an enormous cantine in the middle. I find out later that there are over 20000 students here, and I'm not surprised (well, I am... but I can tell from the scale of things that it has to be something like that). In many ways it even resembles a typical U.S. state university - rambling over many hectares of land, with facilities and buildings for each department.
We pull in to the Art and Performing Arts complex, and are introduced to a few of the professors, including the Head master and a fellow American ex-pat, Prof. Mitchel Strumpf who's been studying and teaching ethnomusicology in and around Africa for over 40 years. It turns out he's very familiar with a few of my professors from back at Northwestern! Namely, the world famous ethnomusicologist, Paul Berliner, and my favorite Choral director, Dr. Robert Harris. Small world...
None of our musician colleagues are here however, so we take the opportunity to go off and catch a bite of some LOCAL cuisine for a change. The real deal. University cantine food :-D I finally get a taste of the local traditions I've been hearing about - beans, and rice and greens, as well as some sort of un-ripe banana concoction. Simple, but good and nourishing. Thankfully, our hostess has come along with us, which has simplified the communication - not to mention gracing us with her very pleasant company :-)
By the time we're done eating, the others have started to arrive, so we head back for the sound check and "rehearsal". But we've been playing with Wakwetu enough that we're good to go with them, and anyone we might have actually needed to rehearse with is not actually there. So, we chill out in Professor Strumpf's office until it's time for the show to start.
There's a parade of local warm-up acts, including Wakwetu, of course, as well as a few local rappers, a famous Tanzanian singer (whom we unfortunately didn't get the chance to meet properly) and a young fellow American woman, Jessica, who's been invited at the last minute to do a couple of songs.
Everybody sounds great, and the crowd is definitely energized and ready to jump right in with the sing-along when we hit the stage! The energy is pretty high, so I start mixing up the set list a bit, to keep the pace going, and actually skip to bringing Wakwetu up a little earlier than planned (good call, says Jeff!).
But, as might have been expected, the opening acts ate into the allotted time quite a bit (did anyone really expect them to play for 5 minutes each?) so, unfortunately for us and Wakwetu, we have to cut a few of the group numbers out towards the end. But despite that, we still get totally get the job done, and the audience is fully satisfied!
We take some time to be sure to exchange numbers with the gang and such - as we always say in our business, the REAL gig is what happens AFTER the gig ;-) And then are rushed off by the staff.
A quick stop at the hotel to cool off, drop off, and change - then we're picked up again by the man in charge, Mr. Roberto Quiroz, to finally spend some quality one on one time over a quite dinner at a local Indian restaurant - Nawabi. And BOY - I have not had curry that good in AGES!! Wow!! Glad we made the detour.
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