music and more music!

yesterday i drove out to long island with bruno, an old-time fiddler who's converted to arabic music.  he plays in david's andalusian band, which is how i met him.  he's an italian from brookln, very sweet and down to earth.  its a long drive and i spent the whole time picking his brain about being a musician and living in new york. Some highlights: he advised getting totally immersed in whatever style you are trying to learn, (when he was learning to play bluegrass and western swing, he moved
 to nashville for a year!) and to learn the language of that style. then to push yourself to start performing as soon as possible.

afterward i met the aarons in brooklyn to see stephane wrembel (the modern day django) again, and aaron (lewis) borrowed a fiddle to fulfill his year-long dream of sitting in with him.  he (aaron) is so talented, its both inspiring and intimidating.  we got drunk on guiness and i and stayed the night in brooklyn. in the morning, after tacos and tamales, we went to St. Joe's for the soup line and gave them a little old timey concert after the soup line closed.

my mind is whirling with all of the different musical styles that i want to learn: old-time, bluegrass, western swing, jazz, arabic, turkish, moroccan.........it really is endless. i told bruno and david that my secret life goal is to learn every different kind of music and dance style that exists, from every country and culture.

looking forward to going to the country, but this visit has been great. coming around with aaron, too, remembering why i love him. he's just so solid and steady. it's a relief to me.