WELCOME TO MARCH! I'M BACK FROM AFRICA AND ENJOYING MY SABBATICAL. HERE'S THE HEADLINES: S.M.O.O.V.E. ENSEMBLE TAKING SHAPE / CHARLOTTE NC SHOWS - VOLUNTEERS / MY TRIP TO WEST AFRICA: MALI JOURNAL #2

S.M.O.O.V.E. NATION - so far we've had 2 gatherings of the Spontaneous Movement Orchestra & Open Vocal Ensemble, working on fun new musical arrangements and choreography. There will be more! They are small and focused - folks who can sing harmony and percuss or re-percuss..... Let us know if you are one of us: office@billyjonas.com.

CHARLOTTE, NC VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
A slight break in the sabbatical for the sold-out annual run at the Children's Theater of Charlotte. March 2-5 -- we'd love to find some helpers for the merchandise table.... Contact Shifra at office@billyjonas.com.

MY TRIP TO WEST AFRICA: MALI JOURNAL #2

I've returned from 40 days and 40 nights in Mali. It was GREAT! Actually it was everything, including whacky, scary, fun, inspiring, sad, educational, humbling, mind blowing and heart expanding.... which was great. Wonderful seeds were planted, sprouting now into new songs, new instruments, new rhythms, and new dances... watch out!

MALI SYNOPSIS:
First  = Bamako the capital, and Bougouni, studying drums, songs, and kamelngoni (6 string cello-like harp) - to see the Mali Journal #1, click on link.

Second  = adventure travel following the Niger river, to Djenne, Dogon Country, Sevare, Mopti, Timbuktu, and Essakane for the famed Tuareg Arab/world music "Festival in the Desert."

Here are some of the details:
A PRE-VOYAGE INTERVIEW WITH BILLY BY HIS MOM (with tacit subtext)
MOM: You're going to Africa? (...do you really need to go so far?....)
BILLY: Yes, to Mali.
MOM: Did you get your shots? (...don't they have typhoid and yellow fever and maleria there?....)
BILLY: Yes.
MOM: Do you know anyone there? (... are you out of your mind?....)
BILLY: Yes. I have a contact.
MOM: Why are you going to Africa? (...are you coming back?....)
BILLY: I'm going because when I was 12 I heard the Mandinko Griot Society play in Chicago, and the music has been leaking back out of me ever since. I learned then that a Griot is a traditional musican/storyteller/historian/bard, responsible for the transmission of essential cultural information, and decided that would be a good job to have. Since I've kind of made up what that looks like, for the past 20 years, I thought it'd be good  to go see how they do it. And to learn some new rhythms. And to learn French. And to start my sabbatical off by pressing the 'control-alt-delete' button on my brain.
MOM: Are you coming back? (...you ARE coming back....?)
BILLY: I think I'm coming back.
MOM: Good. Keep me posted.

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS FOR A TRIP TO MALI - just in case you'd like to go too:

1. When in Bamako, the capital of about a million, buy a helmet to wear when riding your scooter and remember: when crossing an intersection, make sure there is a larger vehicle, preferably a bus, also crossing, and keep it between you and the oncoming traffic which won't be stopping.
   
2. When the policeman stops you for running a stop sign that everybody else has already run, and impounds your scooter, do not pay the full  $12 bribe I mean fine. Pull out $5, and take the advice of the stranger who approaches and points to $2, signaling that's enough. Thank the stranger....
   
3. When you need a city bus, just wave. The nearest one will pull over wherever it is, and young men will run across 6 lanes of traffic to take you by the hand. Don't worry that there isn't a seat. One will appear!
   
4. Be careful about which hand you use and for what .... There's no toilet paper, so you eat and shake hands and pay exclusively with your right. An instructive quote on the matter from Rusty, my transplanted American host, after finishing a stop in the town of Koulikoro to hear a man playing his kamelngoni and to take a picture with him: "And there you see, all at once, the full spectrum of Malian emotional response - his joy at receiving money for the photo, and his simultaneous horror at receiving it from your left hand."
   
5. Prepare for time travel. Especially in the cities, it's the 13th century, I mean the 21st century, I mean here's a donkey pulling a cart loaded with hay from the nearby hills; here's a Mercedes trying to get by; here's a flock of chickens and a herd of goats negotiating with a herd of scooters and an 18 wheeler, which have all stopped in front of  the internet caf to let the camel go by; the Tuareg rider lets me take a picture, for 50 cents. Here are two women pounding millet with a gigantic mortar and pestle, in a rhythmic dance, while 20 men gather around a television nearby to watch Kung Fu movies, horse racing, and Italian soap operas dubbed into Arabic.
   

More to come!!!
~Billy

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