Every musician's month of July is riddled with...

JULY - Every musician's month of July is riddled with a mess of gigs, small tours and general playing frenzy...well, it is in my circles, if you're looking at Montreal's World Music scene. In July, we suddenly transform from money tight hungry players into overworked fiends: everybody's playing with everybody else. If a band doesn't have a tight tour itinerary, the players are bound to be sneaking away on their day off to play that extra gig.
And so July was that for me. I played the usual gigs with my Eastern European gypsy band, Les Gitans de Sarajevo, and topped it off playing with other artists : Juan Carranza at the Montreal Flamenco Festival (www.juancarranza.com), Hassan El Hadi (www.hassanelhadi.net), some Jewish parties and other private functions. Les Gitans de Sarajevo played Detroit city's Festival of Colors. It was an amazing experience and I met some great musicians from Amp Fiddler's project. We got to see Amp Fiddler (www.ampfiddler.com) perform and boy, so much groove can definitely soothe a Canadian's soul...real good! I also had the chance to do some small session works for a short film by Clyde Paquin, some arabic pop/groove stuff with Cheb Dino, and I also went into the studio to work on some of my own stuff with the ever so sweet and amazingly supportive Richard Soly. Richard does sound for the Montreal Opera and has worked extensively with string musicians. He definitely knows how to mic my violin. I will keep you posted on when the recording will surface!

The last gig of the month of July will be performed on Old Montreal's Quai Jacques-Cartier with "Nazir et le groupe Salaam" (Morrocan Gnawa music: www.gnawamontreal.com). This performance is part of Montreal's "Festival des Rythmes du Monde" and on Friday, July 28th we will also be playing along side artists such as Monica Freire, Sandra Campanelli, and Muna Mingole. Show starts @ 7:30pm and goes late. Check out the website: www.rythmes.tv and come if you're in town!