stories from the road

* * spring * *

tobiasroberson — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 23:04:08 GMT

With the onset of spring I found myself in Texas and New Orleans. My less than 24-hour stop in Houston was for a benefit for the Society of Iranian American Women for Education. I was playing there with my friend and great persian singer Hamed Nikpay www.hamednikpay.com. They took great care of us and at 8am after flying all night it was truly wonderful to crawl into bed with luxurious cotton sheets, down comforter and a feather bed. I'm not picky but nice hotels are, well, nice. The next morning I took an early flight to New Orleans to teach two workshops that were hosted by N.O.Madic Tribal www.nomadictribal.com. I was told that I had brought spring with me and for the next week enjoyed many a nightclub, afternoon bike rides, and sleeping in late. Upon returning home I found that spring had arrived here too, with the symbolic blooming of the cherry tree in our front yard. Next to it, the wisteria was showing its first clusters of fragrant purple flowers. I'm basically off until the last weekend of April, when I'll be going down south to see my family and friends and teach workshops in San Louis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ojai. After that, home for a couple days and on to the Serpent Rouge tour for the first half of May. With my month off we will be preparing for that tour and, with my fancy new audio interface, working on some recording projects -- one with Faisal Zedan, and one with Dan Cantrell of the Toids www.bellowhead.com. dvd sales have been going well. People have been saying tons of nice things about it. This inspires me to work on more projects and, hopefully soon, start another video project. With such large projects the only way to make it through them is to just focus on the piece at hand, doing the best possible work while remaining unattached to the outcome. This is especially true when a technical issue comes up and you realize that you really aren't going to make that self imposed deadline. After all that hard work the dvd is being used and appreciated. That makes me happy. The surprising thing is how many have been going international -- to the Netherlands, Italy, Taiwan. . .all over the place. How did these people find out about it? the power of the internet. . .

Spoils of Tartine

tobiasroberson — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 08:23:13 GMT

The spoils from Cafe Tartine included a fresh baked loaf of walnut bread, still warm from the oven, a box full of cookies, and a chocolate walnut brownie. There were also two Scharffen Berger chocolate puddings: one for myself, and the other for Mardi Love. I tried to get Mardi's favorite chocolate éclairs for her, but they were out. Actually, this fine assortment of desserts is about half the usual take from the typical Cafe Tartine gigs, not to mention all the delectable treats and coffee we consume on the job. Sure, the gig doesn't pay a lot -- fifty bucks for two hours. But it's really more like a paid rehearsal -- and we spend about a third of the time eating! And if you add up the food we consume on the job and take home, that would be another fifty bucks each, too. Often my bag of goodies to go is heavier than my drum. Mmm. . .chocolate pudding is good. Chile was fun and exciting and I know I said I'd post more about it. But I was really having too much fun to spend time in front of the computer. I don't know how, but the belly dancers managed to find me there, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BCuM6sUl9o Since I've been back it's been very busy. In February alone I played 13 shows, including a major two-weekend circus production. I played as a guest artist with Tabla Rasa http://tablarasa.creationation.com/about/ which was fantastic because these guys are kick ass musicians. I got to work on some of the South Indian repertoire that I had studied a year and a half ago in India and don't otherwise get a chance to play. The gig went pretty good -- our tempo got a little fast at the end, and Tim and I had to bail out for one section and let Jim take over. More exciting than just doing this one show with them is that they want to play more with me (honestly it feels like they're giving me free drum lessons).

Finger Cymbals DVD is done!

tobiasroberson — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 21:45:49 GMT

I can't believe it, I'm sure it will be more real when I arrive home from chile with boxes full of them around my room. For those of you who haven't talked to me recently this the project I've disappeared into for months. It's got Faisal playing on about 2/3 of the video and Rachel and Mardi dancing to the zil compositions. Oh yeah and it's 10 min shy of 3 hours long. For more info and to order a copy go to www.riqq.com more about this south american trip in a bit. let's just say that it's 6:30pm and the sun is far from setting on the most beautiful beach in chile.

i love my floor to be

tobiasroberson — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 23:12:32 GMT

last week i forked over for bamboo flooring for my whole studio. I justified the expense by saying that i need it for the video shoot but I realy should have done this long ago. when i was building my studio i bailed out of construction after I got the plywood subfloor down saying that i would finish up 3 months later. Well now it's been 3 years... I faked layed the floor (cool snap together pieces, so easy) just for the video but I can't wait to take everything out of my room and put it down for real in July. I'm goona fix the last few sections of drywall, maybe paint one of the walls a bright color and put in a loft bed all at that time. Spruce it all up. I have a feeling with the floor down that there will be alot more dance rehearsals at my house. Other than that I've been working on a tajikistan frame drum solo for my friend Aliah, assist director of Ballet Afsaneh, http://dancesilkroad.org/ she kicks butt! T

Sunday at Church

tobiasroberson — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 08:02:34 GMT

Sunday was all day in the studio err cathedral with Kitka (kitka.org) Too tired to write much but let's just say i can't wait to hear the results. I'm thankful for the many opportunities and unique circumstances I find myself in. Feeling in a bit of a rut lately, kinda spinning my wheels and not being too productive. It will pass, I feel a new stage of life coming and it's the lull before the storm. India awaits. Tobias

coffee take 2

tobiasroberson — Mon, 22 May 2006 11:59:02 GMT

hmm, well sometimes coffee has some not so nice side effects like the fact that is 4:38am and i'm awake. Tomorrow is gonna suck. On the positive side I gave up trying to sleep around 2 and I practiced without break for 2 hours and 37 minutes. It felt like no time at all. The difference in speed after doing drills for 1.5 hours is substantial, I hope that it won't go away tomorrow but it always does. Music is a weird art cause as you do your work it disappears unless some effort to record it is taken (which is infrequent) verse painting or other arts that you can see the 3 hours of work you put in the day before. Anyways, back to my practice, the most exciting thing is that my split hand turkish technique is getting fast enough that i can do rolls with just the left. For you drummers it would be: D D kkkkT D kkkkT kkkk It's pretty much up to full speed, lacks a little bit of power but it's almost good to go. shit, my stomach is growling, it wants breakfast, bummer. the picture is of my magic box from india (aka fancy metronome) that plays melodies to keep me on tempo and in time

mmm coffee

tobiasroberson — Wed, 17 May 2006 20:15:22 GMT

Seattle takes the cake for best coffee by far. We don't do so bad in the bay Area but still everywhere you go in the NW not only does the cafe roast their own but fancy late art abounds. I was up to 3-4 cups a day and for those of you that know what normally happens it quickly stopped affecting me (standard response is scraping paint off the wall with my fingernails and quivering like a 9.0 quake) It's good to be back home. The grass that was 6 inches tall when I left grew to about 2.5 feet so i was out doing weeding earlier. Tribal fest is this weekend and we have a big toids show in Berkeley on Friday so there's no time to sit around. I'm going to order the camera for shooting instructional videos today. If the camera wasn't expensive enough then there's the tripod and lavalier microphone. I'm excited to get started on those projects. Talked to Joshkun, the director of Mid East Music and Dance Camp, for a bit today. I'm going to head up there for a few days of the camp and maybe for the whole thing. I love camp. Every day should be like camp. I'm getting closer to that reality. For those of you that haven't been to a camp in Mendocino (Balkan, Lark or Mid East) I highly recommend it as a potentially life changing experience. It really is a week of bliss. Don't do the work trade thing though, camp shouldn't be about work. Also planning on returning to India for 3 months or so in October. I need to get my practice routine going again. Have you se the new iBooks? looking good! my comp is still running strong, probably for another year of so, then they will have a the bugs worked out and the software switched over to the intel chips. T

Florida to Washington

tobiasroberson — Thu, 11 May 2006 09:55:49 GMT

It's hard to go to sleep right after a show. I was in FL for ten days and then flew here to seattle to meetup with the toids for a couple of shows. Spirit of the Tribes was OK. Thank god that all my friends were there. The hotel was a ghetto and I awoke the first night covered in bed bugs and the room we got the next day had a non working toilet. Other than the ghetto living the event was fine but exhausting. My roomate was Victor from Puerto Rico. He was awesome and we had much fun excersising our broken english and spanish. On top of that, he's a kick ass dancer. Puerto Rico is now on the travel list. Coleena was there just having returned from India. I was great to see her and she's gonna come stay at my house before and after tribal fest next week. Sometimes (like now) I look at my life and say it's so freakin crazy, what am I doing? It makes me want to either put my stuff in storage or quite traveling alltogether. After next week I'll be home for 6 weeks with not a ton going on (just local gigs and some recording work). Looking forward to it for sure. I have been able to practice some this tour and so that feels alot better. I'm staying with my friend will dowd up here and we've been having atleast one jam session a day. I think i'm gonna get a kit lesson from him on friday. Well, sorry I haven't writen more since returning from cairo but that's me. Here today, gone tomorrow but don't worry i always come back. T

ringing ears

tobiasroberson — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 06:10:17 GMT

8am, trying to wind down from 6 bands in 5 hours at a giza night club. it rains money in those places. earlier in the evening (10pm) met with said el artist again. this time we played a bunch, back and forth, showing each other different rhythms. he said to call him everyday to see if he was free. also getting a kick ass drum from him for ridiculously cheap. he wants me to come back with susu (got to bring faisal too) and he'll produce a show at the cairo opera house. can i save enough money by july? then it's 110 here during the days... ick... tomorrow err later today is another adventure waiting to happen... tried to shop today but i've been spoiled by the indian prices. my fingers have been rusty from not practicing darbuka while in india but finally they are coming back. been doing some great towel in the drum late night practice sessions. the dates are so good here. you can buy fresh ones too, they are exquisite. when i lived in the tenderloin in sf there was a market in civic center and i think it was saturdays that the date man would be there. he's got really good organic stuff. by the way there's lots of organic produce to be had here. it's spreading! good! whoo i'm rambling... looking forward to the toids with rachel, mardi and liz tour in march. toids are also doing a southern tour in april and northwest in may. i've got a couple of other weekend things but it looks like i'll be home a little more than last spring. that's a good thing!

can i move here?

tobiasroberson — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:52:58 GMT

It's 4:30pm and I just finished breakfast. Where do I start? The grippo family and I went to the sinai desert for a few days on the beach. That was great and a whole story in and of itself. We've been back two days and I'm getting a fast track introduction to the heart of the cairo music scene. The first night we went to meet said el artist, one of the most famous drummers here in egypt, and then to see his show with mohammed abdu from saudi arabia. Great concert, the singer brought 5-6 drummers with him and they were doing this crazy poly rhythm framedrum stuff. there were two guys who's job was to just run back and forth bringing the framedrummers freshly heated drums. Another guy who just setup shop behind the stage making tea and getting cigarettes. Then there were 2 hefty bouncer type guys, 2 at either end of the stage. That was in addition to the around 45 person band. Actually they aren't really bands here, they are more like teams. This concert was special because it was such high class ($500 a seat) but normally the "teams" go from hotel to hotel performing 4-7 times a night. They all wear their cute matching suit uniforms too. Last night we went to Said El Artist's studio and to a sha'bi (sp?) performance at a wedding. Said showed us a bunch of pictures and drums and then we went down to the practice room. There it was put tobias on the rack, him naming rhythms and me playing them, then i had to sit there and play a drum solo for him. Embarrassing, jim loved watching me squirm, where was faisal when i needed him most! He wants me to come back so i think i passed the test. Before the evening concert (2am) we met with Sayyed who is hector's mizmar teacher. They were rehearsing for an upcoming recording. Fantastic, super nice guys and kick ass musicians. Music as it's supposed to be played. Then it was time for the show (of course it was five of us plus the driver piled into a taxi) Wasn't really a show but a party on the stage. I quickly became a member of the 15 person framedrum drill team and I'm sure the wedding couple will be wondering for years who the crazy american all over their wedding video is. The singer offered me a job afterwards. On a side note, most of the sha'bi bands are financed by competing hashish rackets. Then there was the drive home but this post is long enough! T

tobiasroberson — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 02:16:33 GMT

It's 3:49am. I hear chickens greeting the sunrise and the forlorn moo of cows waiting to be slaughtered. It's the festival of Eid (feast of the sacrifice) The trip getting here was an adventure. After the boring 12 hour wait in athens my 2 hour flight to egypt took 8.5 and included circling countless hours inflight, rioting by the arabs and landing at unscheduled airports. After that I learned that my luggage was lost. It's coming tomorrow, 5 days late. Charming. Staying with Jim and Lia is the best. Their palatial 3 bedroom flat is fully equipped, my room alone is something like 15x20 with 10 foot ceilings. For those of you that don't know Lia on top of being my dear friend is also gourmet cook. Yum, life is good. Tonight we went to alfred's house, one of the major violin players and teachers here in cairo. His apartment was filled with instruments, rugs and mood lighting, my kind of place. We played all night and he asked us to come back. Also we talked to the famous drummer Said al Artist today. He's busy with Eid but invited us to a show in a couple of days and seems ready to hang out too. It's gonna be a packed 3 weeks. Tomorrow we go to sinai desert to swim and hang with the bedouins.

pushkar

tobiasroberson — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 16:29:22 GMT

so i survived a two day train ride, scooter accident (saw it coming so no serious damage) and now i'm in fucking freezing rajastan. Colleena (some of you might know her from the BD workshop circuit) is hosting me here and it's been lovely. This is the india that you picture in you head back in the states. The only problem is that there are crap loads of foreigners and tons of people working the streets. The chant has changed from what's your name to 10 rupees please. Tonight we had dinner in the gypsy village/encampment of colleena's performing friends. Happy and crass and the kids are cute! Colleena rocks! There's lots of stuff to buy here but I'm feeling shopped out and it's always an intense bargaining scene so it's kind putting me off. We went shopping today so I got a better sense from colleena's purchases. Also alot of the stuff seems a little generic.. not too inspiring. Here in pushkar a strange fashion sense has emerged from the busloads of pot smoking hippies. Not quite my thing... the clothes for sale might work for here but I wouldn't be caught dead in them back home. I was sad leaving mysore. For sure going back next year. So nice to have a teacher and a focused, disciplined life. Traveling is nice but not fulfilling in the same way. We are starting to get things rolling for the Toids with rachel, mardi and Elizabeth tour of Cal in march. Back in the business world... it was hard at first but I'm there now. Only a month to go so that dusty business brain is starting to fire up. I want to have a percussion group again! Faisal and David Aue are in. I think Susu will be game too. Drums rock! So do twisted south india compositions. I feel that my studies here are not just pushing me another rung or two up the ladder but put me on a whole different ladder. At the very bottom of course but that's a good place to be. My particular challenge is to find ways of making this new math rock out verse sound all brainy and technical. It's possible, some of the compositions have the spirit I'm looking for. peace out brother T

The silence is over...

tobiasroberson — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 17:03:06 GMT

Really I've composed so many posts in my head but can't seem to fine the time on the computer. I've ben soooo busy, the other foreigners think i'm crazy and that I'm in India and that I should relax. For the month of november I've been learning mridungam. The mother drum so to speak of south india percussion. I was at one lesson a day but for the past 10 days of so we gone to 2 a day. Practicing 5 hours sometimes more a day. Can't sleep at night with all the rhythms in my head! What else.. Got a scooter and I've been driving here. It was insane learning how to maneuver the thing and drive in the crazy mayhem here. Now I'm zooming around, no stop signs and 24/7 horn action. Played a concert with my teacher and 4 other bad ass indian percussionists. A true honor and an ass kicker. dear the internet place is closing... more later (knock on wood)

Mysore bOoty

tobiasroberson — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 14:41:50 GMT

Just returned from a little excursion with bruce to Ooty, a town 4 hours south. It's way up in the mountains so it was actually cold! Such a relief. Here in Mysore one feels the need to reshower and change clothes after a five minute walk on the street. In Ooty we stayed at a british bed and breakfast. Fabulous with a glassed in sun porch and fireplace. Up on the side of a mountain, nice view and it seemed like we had about 4 people making sure we did not lift a finger. It was foggy and rainy as I sat curled up in a blanket reading oliver twist all day. Not one horn was heard. (The honking here is incessant) I have started kanjira lessons and will be taking class 5 days a week. Nice to have it so intensive but it doesn't leave alot of time to practice before I am expected to show that I have learned what was taught. It's hard living with others due to the noise restraints (luna's naps and bedtime of 7:30) in two weeks they will leave and I will move to a furnished cottage with a nice garden. The reason I have not posted any pictures is that I left my camera charger in greece. I've been trying to work a replacement but that sort of task is not so easy here in India. I have noticed that my new cell phone's battery is the same voltage as my camera battery and hopefully I will go to a electronics shop tomorrow and get them to build an apparatus to wire that battery to the phone. I tried at home but with a leatherman as my only tool I'm severally handicapped. I did get the phone to turn on with the camera battery but my connecting mechanism was so weak that by the time I got it plugged in it was loose. I think there's hope : ) Here's a picture of the place we stayed that i downloaded in the mean time... My trip is approaching the halfway mark... it doesn't feel like I've been gone very long... Love, t P.S. The title comes from my first experience with an Indian bus ride!

Arrgh!!!

tobiasroberson — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 15:50:21 GMT

I wrote this huge entry yesterday but in the midst of uploading it got lost... I last wrote nearing my wits end with exhaustion. I was very thankful when I heard someone shouting my name as I was about to get on the train. It turned out that my friends who were meeting me in Mysore had spent the night in Bangalore and were there to catch the train with me. (they were supposed to have gone by car the evening before) Here's who I'm with so you know. Kristin, my long time friend (since 13) and first yoga teacher, her daughter Luna, age 4, handling India pretty well and last but not least Bruce, Kristin's brother and my new poke around India buddy. The house we are staying in was pretty depressing the first nights but we've been working and shopping and it's getting much better. I believe by the time we go it will be perfect. I was just really dirty and there was nothing in the house. A few pots and pans and some old mattresses that ended up having bed bugs. charming... Now we've got new beds, mosquito nets, lamps, a stove etc. Today we stumbled upon a nursery and got house plants : ) Everyone is so nice here and the food is incredible!

made it!

tobiasroberson — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 04:15:06 GMT

I'm here in India, made it safe and sound. I've been in transit for 24 hours and now i have 5 hours before my train to mysore leaves. It's so crazzzzy here. Every sense is stimulated by beauty and repulsion. The people are so friendly, it just takes a little time to get stuff done (2 hours to figure out how to buy a ticket, store my backpack and find a restroom) One man in the ticket line looked me straight in the eyes and I had to look away as it felt like he was staring into my soul. Currently I'm in a tiny little hole in the wall (seems like every shop is a hole in the wall) with two 10 year old kids who appear to be well on their way to joining Bangalore's' silicon culture. more later...

It's been awhile...

tobiasroberson — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 17:05:55 GMT

The trip to cyprus was fantastic! Huun Huur Tu was amazing as always. So weird to play with them after seeing them on their first US tour at the tender age of 13. Since returning to greece I've been living in the village passing the days with books and drumming and really not much else. It suits me. Nice and sedate! I'm starting to feel a little antsy as I'm leaving Monday for India. Pedram, the persian drummer, has become my new best friend : )

So many plans and then you get sick...

tobiasroberson — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 11:16:38 GMT

Well the artistic director in Cairo decided that he wants to overide Miles and is bring an arabic crummer for Youssou N'Dour tour. Bummer but that means I get to go to India which is really what I want to do. On the plus side Ross's persian drummer can't leave greece while his residency visa is being processed so I'm going to Cyprus with the gang next weekend for a music festival there. It's a concert with huun huur tu from tuva. How fun! There's another percussionist and the material is straight ahead so I'm not too nervous. Gari is leaving in 1.5 hours, I'll be all alone. The computer is going home with him. My baby! I just can't imagine having it in india and worrying aboout it all the time. Anyone need to borrow a powerbook? Gari and I got in some trouble the other day driving on some sketch roads on the south of the island, that's a picture over the edge of the road. They scary part was that it was soooo windy that our tiny euro car was being blown sideways toward the edge. We found a church (in the middle of nowhere) said our prayers, lite candles and incense and made it home.

maybe not 6 months....

tobiasroberson — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 12:44:44 GMT

well my good friend Miles emailed me and he's setting up the arabic band for Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour's American tour this fall. It's 2.5 weeks and 12 shows from the end of oct to the middle of nov. I haven't heard his music but gari says it's good and he's picky. It means canceling the india portion of my trip. It seems like way too good of an oppertunity to pass up. Raquy from New York showed up here at Ross's a couple of days ago. It's been fun practicing together and trading chops. Fun to have a drum buddy! been witnessing some amazing ross concerts T

life in crete

tobiasroberson — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 13:36:43 GMT

consists of practicing darbuka, tombak, saz and oud, eating, sleeping, reading, napping and listening to amazing music... back to the grind... oh ya the beach too!

The Museum

tobiasroberson — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 07:43:37 GMT

Sleep is so good! Every hour felt like 20 years. It's unbelievable what's going on here. The picture is of Ross Daly's museum that is full of instruments, after hours we get to open the cases and play whatever we want. They have been running workshops here all summer. This week is the last one, it's on saz. People are showing up from all over the world (Australia, France, Ireland), just a few so far, it officially starts tomorrow. Workshops are a week long from 10-1 and 6-9 but they say most teachers go longer and you are expected to practice in-between. There's a few diehards that stay all summer. Food is excellent, weather is perfect, I'll be back next year.

made it

tobiasroberson — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 16:40:07 GMT

I made it here. It's incredible. We are being treated like royalty. Picked up from the airport. Given meal vouchers that we can give to any restaurant in town. Two days from now we are moving from our perfectly fine house to the mayors estate. The town is beautiful, there was a wedding going on (music of course) when we showed up at ten. At 7 in the morning when we woke up they were still going. this is gonna be fun! more later.... T

who will I be when I return?

tobiasroberson — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 04:13:01 GMT

I feels like I'm taking nothing although I'm sure my bag will be overstuffed by the end of the evening. Everything that has to be done is done (mostly) and the rest will wait. I'm a little nervous about the gig in Greece. They are flying us all the way out there and paying us just for one show. I think it's on a wednesday too! scary the trip doesn't feel real yet. it will I've decided against my better judgement to bring my laptop with me. There's a variety of justifications, none of them good enough. I probably will send it home halfway though the trip to avoid lugging it across India. i love my mac. check out that weather on Crete. gonna make good use of the swimsuit!