Primal Music Monday 4/14

With God's help and permission, we'll gather for this month's Primal Music Monday next week from 7 pm to 9 pm at Zawiya Perspective:

1800 East Garry Ave. Suite 101
Santa Ana, CA 92705
(949) 394-6090

Recently, a good friend and I were at a conference together. During a break between speakers, I mentioned something about a guy having some troubles and how sometimes we need to be careful in how we help others. We can create a codependent dynamic that does nothing for anybody, I say, and as I'm blathering on he begins to sing a few bars from Bill Wither's classic Lean on Me:

lean on me
when you're not strong
and I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
for it won't be long
'til I'm gonna need
somebody to lean on

I joined him for the last couple of lines and we had just that little primal moment. But it was enough to push back my cynicism and I saw things differently, wal-hamdu lillah.

So you can count on that song making it into Monday's rotation, insha Allah.

We'll drum, talk, and sing. We'll sip lovingly brewed herbal concoctions (hibiscus rose and chaga chai) and we'll burn something nice.

Don't come in looking to be impressed. Show up as you are and do what you can and then think about how few opportunities there are to do just that.

Again, a quick reminder of the rules:

1) This gathering is for men only.
2) Show up groomed and smelling good.
3) Absolutely no tuned instruments allowed. Bringing your own drum is encouraged.
4) Sound recording devices are fine, but no photography or video, please.

See you then, insha Allah!

Drum Circle with Rowan Storm 4/12

This is a great chance to learn from a real master. Women are very well represented at Rowan's drum circles and this is the perfect opportunity for a family to learn and jam with with best!

Get out there this Saturday and make some noise!

Details here.

". . . no Cuban Spring"

We've talked a lot about what happens when we lose our voice.

Once that vacuum is created, there are others who are more than happy to speak for us, to fill our hearts and minds with desires and ideas that wouldn't have been there otherwise. All the better if we believe that these notions are our own.

Read about how the United States is creating social networks to spark dissent in other parts of the world. And be sure to pass this on to the next person you run into who was ever excited or inspired by the Arab Spring.

Perhaps such findings can help us to reframe some of what we are hearing about Turkey.

They took our drums and gave us "tweets." Trading substance for illusion is nothing that we should be a part of.

Circle up, primes. Bang a drum and sing a song.

That's living in community.

That's the only "social networking" that matters.

The Importance of Vernacular

The words are Arabic. The intent and meanings are very traditionally Islamic.

But this recording out of Cambridge is something still more, masha Allah.



Pretty sure T. J. Winter's got something to do with this . . .

Download it while you can, and then send a few bucks over to Cambridge for their building project.

Primal Music Monday 3/10

With God's help and permission, we'll gather for this month's Primal Music Monday next week from 7 pm to 9 pm at Zawiya Perspective:

1800 East Garry Ave. Suite 101
Santa Ana, CA 92705
(949) 394-6090


The last two times we got together we talked a lot about the politics of communal singing. We sang classic protest songs by the likes of Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. We might do some of that again.


But it doesn't always have to be about politics. Communal singing helps the work day go by, whether breaking rocks or pulling oars. Or it can just be a good old time, and there's nothing wrong with that!


We'll be looking at old material by Cat Stevens, and maybe a classic prayer-song that became a camp-fire favorite for generations. And as always, a bit of classical Arabic poetry for the mystically-minded. Should be fun, insha Allah.


And we'll drum. A lot. And drink tea and eat donut holes and burn incense. We really need to get some blacklight posters up in the Zawiya, for sure. Next month, maybe.


Again, a quick reminder of the rules:

1) This gathering is for men only.
2) Show up groomed and smelling good.
3) Absolutely no tuned instruments allowed. Bringing your own drum is encouraged.
4) Sound recording devices are fine, but no photography or video, please.

See you then, insha Allah!

Was-salam,
Ahmed

Muslim Roots, U.S. Blues

If you link out to one thing from sansfife today (or ever), make it this.

The back-to-back recordings of the adhan (the Islamic call to prayer) and the early Delta blues singing of ex-slaves cannot be missed.

And here's the kicker, primes: slave owners let their slaves have their instruments so they could go on and sing their songs. With one exception.

The drum.

Turns out that the slave owners "felt threatened by its ability to let slaves communicate with each other and by the way it inspired large gatherings . . . ."

They were right. And I'm not sure that we ever really got off the plantation.

Find out more here.

85 People Own Us

The 85 most monied people in the world share a combined wealth equivalent to half of the entire world's population.

I've mentioned this statistic at our Primal Music gatherings, but it's worth getting the details here.

What does this have to do with primal music?

When you steal a man's voice, it's pretty easy to get away with taking just about everything else.