Nefasha Ayer at Brava Theater Pictures

Hello everyone. So far things have been going pretty well at the start of 2009, despite all the gloom surrounding the economy. We just need to stay positive I suppose…

We had a blast performing at the Brava Theater on February 6th and 7th. Both shows were packed. It was fun playing with such a diverse group. It included:

Meklit Hadero: vocals
Todd Brown: Guitar
Prasant Radhakrishnan: Tenor Saxophone
Keenan Webster: Balafon/Mbira/Kora and more
Abdi Jibril: Conga/Cahon and others (sad to see Abdi moving to Kenya, this was his last show in the states before moving.)
Mohini Rustagi: Drums
Lalo Izquierdo : Cajon
Gabriel Teodros: Spoken word hip-hop
Michael Warr: Poetry
Marcus Shelby: Bass
Howard Wiley: Tenor Saxophone
Adrian Arias: Poetry

Hope I didn’t miss anyone. There was every type of song in there, from poetry with James Brown-esque grooves, mbira and vocal duets with audience sitting on the stage, to “tenor battles” with Howard and I. Of course, it really was more like a complimentary duet than a battle. I still need to get Howard recorded on the podcast. Hopefully in a couple weeks, if not earlier! Overall, it was unique and definitely fun experience.

Here are some pictures. Go to my flickr stream to see all the pictures.