Photogenics

I should make it clear that there won't be many, if any, pictures or videos of me playing on this Moroccan trip. For a start I don't usually take pictures of myself and even if I could I wouldn't post them because I'm seriously unphotogenic and even on a good day I look like a gype. Secondly I felt so uncomfortable at being thrown together with musicians I didn't know and then expected to play something meaningful in performance that I hid in the background. On the other hand outside of the scheduled performances I played a lot socially and enjoyed it immensely,  so undoubtedly people will be throwing some of that content into the void of social media.

Here are some more pictures. I'll also unpick two important strands which I found fascinating, one being the contrast between the African and the European musics that I encountered and the other being what I learned about life in Bashkortostan, Russia, from a musician who lives and works there. And guess what? Things in Russia are not as we're being told.

Shingo and the children

Allal

The Road Trip to Bounou
(slideshow)
​​Said, Jimmy, Imma, Marat, Allal