Lucia Comnes Band & Tamarind at the Sleeping Lady

Title: Lucia Comnes Band with Tamarind
Location: The Sleeping Lady
Link out: Click here
Description: Enchanting Voices, a Unique World Music Experience
Start Time: 21:00
Date: 2009-09-04
End Time: 24:00

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Title: Lucia Comnes Band featuring Karamo Susso
Location: Bissap Baobab Senegalese Restaurant
Link out: Click here
Description: Come and groove to Gypsy African fusion in SF\’s Mission District, while enjoying fresh juice cocktails and delish West African dishes…
Start Time: 07:00pm
Date: 2009-08-16
End Time: 10:00pm

“Lucia’s enthusiasm for musical traditions worldwide is infectious.”

Nora Hickey, Glucksman Unplugged, Cork, Ireland

Our lovely host, Graziela (Cork’s resident Brazilian belly dancer) was in front of the stage with some of her bellydance students and together they danced choreographed steps to our song, “The Lemon Seller”, which she had taught at her class the day before. Can I even express the joy that it brings me to look out into the audience during a performance and see the smiles of people dancing to our music that has inspired them to create something from it, such as a dance performance? I live for this circle of inspiration, when one artists creation inspires anothers. This is when I have no doubts about my creative and muscical path.

The Polskadots followed our set with a smashing one of their own. I joined the dancers at this point and we danced the night away. Every few songs, one of the Dots called me to the stage to sing vocal harmonies. Many of the multi-part harmony songs that the Dots perform are songs I taught them in 2005. It is again, so much fun to see how they have made the songs their own. We even had a battle with the one song that was in both of our sets that night – “I Dreamt You Returned” was played by both bands. So Eileen in the Dots announced before they played it that the audience was expected to text (SMS) their vote of which version of the song they preferred and we would announce the winner at the end of the tally. All in good humor… You can see a photo of us performing at the Roundy below.

The next day brought more good times as I was invited over for a delicious, home-cooked Turkish style breakfast by the Turkish queen of Cork, herself – Sevinch. One of the Polskadots original fans, she had made her appearance at the Roundy show just as I was singing the first of my Turkish songs, ‘The Anatolian Butterfly’, and as soon as she made her way to dance in front of the stage, the song took flight. She LOVES the Turkish music we play and comes to be fed by a part of her culture that is hard to come by in Ireland. She feels the passion of the songs with me, and she sings the lyrics back to me. It is such a joy to have her in the audience! And breakfast with her was just a continuation of that joy. We were also joined by another friend and musician, Stella Rodriguez, who is Dutch/Portuguese/Indonesian, plays the fiddle and directs her band in Cork called ‘Lazik’, another Eurofusion project that popped up around the time of the Polskadots birth. We sat eating in Sevinch’s back yard and soaked in the patches of sun that found their way between the passing clouds, until we were down to tea and coffee and the rain started to come down. That’s Irish weather for you! But I am not complaining because we really lucked out in terms of weather during the trip at large.

Despite being quite full from Sevinch’s Turkish feast, I met one of my Irish singing teachers from 2005, Máire Ní Chéileachair, for lunch in the upstairs cafe at one of Cork’s gems – The Old English Market. The market place is like a permanent farmers market with wonderful displays and selections of fresh fish and seafood, produce, meats, cheeses, breads, pastries, coffee and prepared foods. We sat on the mezzanine and you can relax while watching the hustle and bustle of shoppers below. In addition to all her singing activities in the
community, Maire teaches in primary school and this was her first week of summer holidays. Her summer plans involve quite a bit of singing and she will be the featured singer in the Cork singers club next month as well as featured in Martin Hayes’s traditional music festival in West Cork in August.

On Friday evening, we rallied the troops to attend a local concert at the pub called An Spailpin Fanac, and everyone danced wildly, laughing in between rounds, to the music of The Critters (Down home old timey country music with an Eastern flare) and The Fireflies (good old crazy loony Klezmer music into the depths of the night). Probably one of the funniest nights out of the whole tour, I even have some small videos of the dancing that was going on (but cant figure out how to get them off my camera). It brought the clown out in all of us.

I taught another singing workshop before the concert, this time at UCC with a group of 8 singers from Cork. It went very well and I was reminded how much I enjoy teaching a group to sing in mulit-part harmonies. There is a small but hungry community in Cork for a multi-cultural choir, similar to the groups I teach in the Bay Area, and they requested I return to teach again, or even lead a choir there. One of the men, well, the only man who attended was 84, a sean-nos singer and uillean (means ‘elbow’ and refers to the traditional Irish bagpipe) pipes player and invited me to his trad session the following week. He was in great form, and gladly sang for the group at the end of the class. I was honored by his attendance.

So much goes on in every day during a good tour!!!

You can read more about us in a couple of Cork blogs:

http://corklivemusic.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html

http://www.zimbio.com/Live+Music+in+Cork+City,+Ireland/articles/2/A+marathon+of+music+this+week

We had a blast in the magical countryside of West Cork, where we featured as the headline band at Future Forests, a nursery nestled into the remote rolling hills and misty forests of one of the most picturesque parts of Ireland. The sun doesn’t set here til almost 10pm, so it doesn’t feel like night until nearly midnight really, which is about the time we began to play. Our opening band was a 70′s cover band that played all the best motown and 70′s dance tunes sped up, so it was like KC and the Sunshine took a dose of speed. Perfect introduction to our mix of world music that sped everyone around the world in a couple hours ; ).

We had the whole place, about 100 folks, dancing for nearly the whole set, they even got down to the rhythms in 10, 9 and 7, though their favorite happened to be the jigs and the reels, old Irish ho-down style, and we took great pride that we could bring the Irish (and a few English) onto their feet, and jumping a half meter off the ground, with our rendition of traditional melodies. Everyone there had a great time, we got so much positive feedback and they wouldn’t let us stop playing, so those of us that could keep on, like Sean, Will and Aharon, we played til dawn indeed. In the candlelit tavern of the creatively handmade barn-like complex that was the venue, fire place blazing, crepes cooking all night, and good folk letting the music take them on a journey, it was nothing less than epic. It was great for me too, to bring the band to this place where I have enjoyed many an all night concert with some of Cork’s finest musicians, though this time, I was the featured artist!

Spent the next 2 days in West Cork, enjoying the gorgeousness of the landscape and the weather combined. I fell a bit sick, as I taught singing classes all day in Bantry Bay on Saturday before the show, so I was wrecked from giving, giving, and partying, partying since we arrived here. But after a couple days of rest, I am back on my feet and ready for our big Cork city show tonight with the Polskadots – the band I co-founded here in 2005.

Another highlight was this past Tuesday when we seized the good weather and took up the invitation to bus out to a small town called Crosshaven, just south of Cork on the coast, where my dear friend from years ago, Clive, works on his father’s farm. Clive was the one to initiate me into Cork in 2001 when I first visited Ireland, and then again, to help me on my feet when I came to school here in 2005. He also was part of my Burning Man team in 2002 when he came to visit California. Anyway, we go way back and I have been to his farm loads by now, but not with the band, and not on such a glorious sunny day. So we had the full tour of an Irish dairy farm, complete with horses, cows, hedges, stunning views, and remains of old stone circles and faery paths from times past. Clive knows the land like the back of his hand, and is a water wizard, as well as a drummer in a rock band. So we visited the local holy well in honor of St Brigid, got to experience his killer drum kit in the farm house and see his new tatoos as he got topless to tend a sick calf who was fighting to stay alive after his mother had died during birth. Part indigenous Irish farmboy druid and part bad ass rock and roll, he is a gemini at its best!!! It is great to be back in Cork!