Bass player Michael Kearsey expounds on Brothers of the Baladi travels abroad
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As she danced, Carmen Jones brought the crowd to a fever pitch; yet an air of mystery hushed the crowd as her spinning slowed with the rhythm of the drum. Her finale was a burst of energy the likes of which this 400-year-old venue had never seen. Carmen was the featured belly dancer on the last night of the British tour by the Brothers of the Baladi.
We had traveled to London for a round of posh supper club performances, with forays into the countryside, where we found a spirited love of World Music. Carmen has grown to be one of the most sought-after dancers in England. She performed with us at The Bell in Bath, a pub in Western England that traces its heritage back to the Roman conquest of England in 80 BC. The Bell sits on the west side of Walcott Street (meaning "outside the wall" in Olde English). Owner Jamie Matthews claims that it was here the common people gathered for a drink of mead or ale just "outside the wall" in those early times. Matthews was delighted to have Carmen dancing and to host a band from Portland, where his own proto-bluegrass group the Daily Planet had performed at the St. John's Pub in its acoustic heyday.
As Carmen lit up the dance floor with drops and shimmies and created the sense of an Egyptian cabaret with Michael Beach and his melodic Middle Eastern hand drums, it still amazed me how much every audience we had played for cheered our music. On this night, we finished with Neil Young's Keep On Rockin' in the Free World and encored with the Arabic reggae tune, Where Does the Wiseman Go? by our keyboardist Geoff George. It was a perfect cool-down for a very hot night, in the very old city of Bath, where the Romans had created a temple to Minerva at the famous hot springs found there by ancient Celtic tribes.
Our adventure began as our English drummer Mark Giles picked up our RV and gathered the band for opening night in London at Darbucka's, a warm cavern of a club well-known to supporters of the city's belly dance and World Music scene. We had an excellent list of dancers, including Akysha, who had promoted us there. It was a gathering of old friends and new, as well as the shakedown for the rest of our 14-day tour.
In the morning, we headed to Stonehenge and to the western port of Bristol, playing to an SRO crowd at the Old Duke, primarily known for hosting England's top jazz performers. Across from the club was a two-story building that has housed a pub and restaurant since the 1500s. It is here where Stevenson and Defoe heard the sailor's tales that became Swiss Family Robinson and Robinson Crusoe!
After a morning stop at a Welsh castle, we headed to another, smaller port of Bideford to play the Palladium Club. Our dancer Afrah was a veteran of the ongoing Oriental dance movement in England. After a dramatic performance, she told us that she would contact Carmen to dance for us the next week in Bath, not far to the North. This little city with cobblestone streets and winding alleys was the home of the first Native American to live in England, as also the homeport of Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake.
We traveled quite a distance the next day to Blackburn Lancashire (yes, Beatle fans, it is really on the map!). We set up at the stage of the Aspinall Arms, near the Scottish border. It was here at Stonyhurst College that Tolkein began his Hobbit and Trilogy and the forest of gnarled and aged trees seemed to prove it. There, on the River Ribble, the sun set near midnight and rose at 4 a.m. Our dancers came from Blackpool, where Miles Copeland was promoting a belly dance weekend called Raqs Britannia. The dancers reminded the crowd that in Arabic, Raqs means the dance.
These wonderful dancers invited us to the event the next day. It was here that we met most of the important promoters and retail people in the British Middle Eastern music world. At the vast ballroom of the Winter Gardens, Michael and Daniel Eshoo (on Oud) jammed with some of the best musicians attending the festival. Due to the expanse of the British Empire, the home population has long endeared the sounds of many cultures and makes them into their own. It is quite a twist to hear Arabic with a cockney accent!
From Blackpool, we drove to a suburb of Manchester, Northern England's industrial powerhouse and home to many a fine music group (currently the group Elbow is tearing things up). The blue-collar town of Tottington boasts several music haunts and we were lucky to play the best, named Hark To Towler. The club owners Jon and Kay Hanson had decided to turn the stoic 17th century pub into a pirate heavy metal venue. They also chose to bring in the Brothers of the Baladi!
The following Friday featured Motor Headache (England's finest Motorhead tribute band) Though we fretted though the sound check, the response to the Baladi blend of east and west was tremendous. The owner locked us in 'til the wee hours with tales of imagined buccaneering and great food and libation.
In the late morning, we headed to Cambridge, home of several dozen universities and colleges. We were to open the prestigious Jasmine Ball, marking the end of the school year at Christ's College. This was an all night affair with four stages and 18 bands that lasted 'til 6 a.m. behind the walls of the college, where no Cambridge police were invited.
Our friend Emma Chapman danced with us at the opening ceremonies. She would also sponsor the Brothers of the Baladi at a Midsummer Night's Hafla the following week.
On that return to Cambridge, we were met by folks from Portland and Corvallis!
Returning to London, we finished our tour with dates at Shish and Darbucka's. Shish is a great lower-evel supper club that featured an entire night of dancers, compliments of Belly Bliss, one of England's best-known dance troupes. By now, we had amassed a mailing list that doubled our crowds from our first night and featured Algerian dancer Amel Tafsout, who was so helpful on the Arabic translations heard on our newest CD, Just Do What's Right.
Our trip would not have been possible without the help of friends like Mike Khan and Paul Stimson, who had visited Portland in the 1980s with the infamous K. Khan Band, who lit up the stages from Seattle to Los Angeles on five separate tours. Those blokes lent us gear and helped with housing, as well as promotion. I was also pleased to spend time with Mick Clarke, a friend and excellent blues guitarist, who has lived here on occasion and released CDs on the Burnside label from Music Millennium.
As Roger Miller says, "England swings like a pendulum do" and when you add the sounds and rhythms of the Middle East. with the backbeat of American rock'n'roll, it swings even harder.
(J. Michael Kearsey is the bassist with Brothers of the Baladi)