I write this blog entry in awe after a series of unbelievably synchronistic events that I suspect must have something to do with planetary alignment or some sort or a Great Convergence of stars (think The Dark Crystal). When I look at some of these random and wonderful things that have just 'happened to me' lately, I figure that if someone proposed these things for a movie script (other than The Dark Crystal 2) they'd be turned down as too outlandish and over the top.
But what's even more amazing is that I know that these sorts of almost-unbelievable things happen regularly to all of us and it's just harder to recognize them when we're in our daily grind, preoccupied with other things.
So anyway, I won't go into all the minute details of the various amazing coincidences, but will just give a brief-ish overview of one of the most recent miraculous scenarios because I'm sure this is probably more amazing to me than everyone else:
Once upon a chilly evening about 6 weeks ago, I was having yet another bland tajine at a hotel in a little town called Tinerhir in the south of Morocco. The hotel I had meant to go to was closed for renovation so where I ended up was out of pure chance- a guy on the street walked me there because a friend of his ran it. So there I was, having tea and choking down my tajine (complete with soggy french fries) at the hotel-front cafe as a dismal rain was setting in when two hippie dudes walked by, said hello and were unusually friendly.
I don't remember how we got to chatting and they asked if they could join me but then they disappeared inside the restaurant, went out a side door and I saw them walking back down the street. I remember thinking, “I wonder what that was all about?” I also remember thinking that maybe I shouldn't have been so friendly because maybe they were dodgy? In any case, they came back a few minutes later and joined my table. I got to chatting with one of them (who I will call Nishan for his privacy) in particular and turns out, he is a Moroccan and really knowledgeable about Gnawa music. We had a nice, long, fascinating chat and I got his email; he was headed back to the States where he lives half of the time, working as a musician and I thought maybe I could help him with my music distribution connections when I got back home.
Fast forward to late November. After lots of great adventures, I had forgotten about Nishan until I was flipping through my tattered notebook recently and saw his email with my note by it: “met in Tinerhir” and recalled him mentioning that he'd spent a fair amount of time here on music business. So, trying to make use of all my contacts, I dropped him an email the other day to ask if he had any ideas on cheap places to live. Turns out, he was actually on his way back to Morocco, specifically Essaouira, and told me to call him a few days later.
We met up for tea the other night and while he didn't have any apartment leads, he does seem to know half the town of Essaouira and, as it turns out, is close friends with two of the most famous Gnawa ma'alems alive today and living here. After having tea with him and talking, he took me by to meet one of these famous ma'alems.
(I don't really want my blog to come up on Google when people search for their names, especially since I'm such a new student to this music, so I'll call the one I met “Bob”)
Nishan translated for me and we sat there for a good 2 hours or so, talking with famous Bob and discussing Gnawa music, my “research” and how I could maybe help him out with my music connections and ideas- which kind of surprised me considering his reputation, but I wasn't exactly going to argue (we weren't talking about anything all that difficult for me to pull off, after all). And Bob seemed to like these ideas and put on a CD of himself playing with his group.
Nishan then went into a most fascinating history of the Gnawa with new things I'd never heard before and that contradict other rumors I've heard about the Gnawa all over Morocco and abroad. I won't recount all the details here but it was all incredibly exciting in that his stories suddenly explained to me why it is that I was instinctually drawn to the music in the first place.
After the stories, we visited, laughed, talked about Barack Obama and had tea, fish and bread with Bob and the other men in his drum shop. As we left, Nishan offered to set up a music session/interview with Bob as a first step.
I was just beside myself with glee, searching again for words deeper than “thank you so much.”
I honestly couldn't have met a more perfect contact for Gnawa music than Nishan. Not only does he speak perfect English (in my experience, this is rare here) but he's very well-connected and seems to be happy to share all of his extensive knowledge with me, helping me make connections I could have never made on my own (like with famous Bob) all because of one rainy evening when he happened to walk by and stopped to chat.
Amazing.
Oh, and he also happened to mention that one of the ma'alems I've been hanging out with here- a different ma'alem from Bob- is THE ma'alem who used to teach Cat Stevens. I'm glad I didn't make the connection beforehand or I might have been too intimidated to show up and hang out. This is the ma'alem that I met because of that older British guy who walked up to me in the Tangier train station and gave me his contact info in case I should “ever need anything.”
Suffice it to say that I'm pretty blown away by all this. It's kind of like placing your order with the universe (“yes, I'd like to order a couple famous Gnawa ma'alems willing to work with me, some English speaking translators and a pretty chill place to hang out for awhile. No Marrakech for me, thanks. And can I get that without doing much work other than emailing two people who sought me out? That'd be great- thanks!”) While the order has taken a few months to arrive just right, it's quite delicious.
And that is my planetary convergence report for now. I'm sure I'll have more to share about this later.
