Weekly Report from Boulder

I'm back from a whirlwind weekend on the east coast. Way too much of our traveling involved getting up early in the AM and I'm paying for it now having come down with a cold. But the wedding was sweet, the bride looked happy and fabulous, the groom was a good guy, the extended family a trip to meet. We had some time both on Shelter Island then Hampton Bay to enjoy the beach.

Sunday morning we awoke at 5:30am to ride back to the airport. I caught a bus and was in New York City by 9am. So I staggered around in search of coffee, finding a decent little place at Bleeker and MacDougall. Then up to the Metropolitan Museum where I lost myself for the next four hours enjoying Matisse, the contemporary collection, a selection from their Islamic art display, and of course, the musical instruments.

After checking in with my brother I wandered through Central Park and caught a little bit of the Summerstage performance from Maria del Mar Bonet. Lovely Spanish music with many influences, especially North African. By the time I got back to my hotel and checked in and showered, it was time to meet my brother and family for dinner.

Next on the agenda was a trip down to Clinton Castle to see if I could catch any of the performance by Simon Shaheen. Sadly he was done, but I caught the end of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra. This was a great setting for music and a place I would return to given the chance. But no, it was time to move on for more music. I caught a cab over to the Blue Note to catch the last set of Charlie Haden's multi-night stand. His band was very tight and it was great to see a giant like him in person. As the bar was full I figured I should just go for it with a table and wound up right in front of the stage! What fun.

Already it had been a full week of music as last week we had Mamadou Diabate on our Kabaret show then up at Chautauqua Auditorium the following night. Wednesday Issa Bagayogo came through. We got lucky and talked Boubacar Diabate (not a direct relative of Mamadou) into coming down to the station to help interpret. While my French was good enough to offer Issa coffee (silly me only put three big rounded spoons of sugar in. I saw him get honey from the van to make it as sweet as he liked) Boubacar was a welcome help as he spoke Bambara and could share some insights of the music with the audience.

Elaine C. Erb. KGNU Music Director. <º))))><
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