12 July 2007

Dear Friends,

We are pleased to be writing you from the end of the tour. We had a pretty busy final five weeks, so we've got a lot to pack into this final update.

When last we wrote we were at the Center for Cultural Evolution, or the Round House in Colrain, Massachusetts. It is a four-story round house with unusual architecture that serves as a gathering place for creative people. We were glad to be there and to see its founder Rebekka Tippens once again, having been hosted there last year on our inaugural US tour. We had a fine concert at Greenfield College, and visited the High School of the Arts and the public school.

Then we bid farewell to New England and drove through the night to Nashville to work with the Flecktones on some tracks for their next album. We enjoyed our time with Bela, Victor, Jeff, Roy, Abby, Richard, Bert and company. The musical collaboration worked out very well, and it was great fun and a huge honor. It is because of the collaboration of Kongar-ool Ondar and the Flecktones back in the nineties that these two bands were able to come together. That is a blessing that makes us aware of the importance of our ancestors, elders, and mentors. We hope to carry on that tradition to our own descendants.

In Nashville, we also ran into Allen Morris, who was up from Texas. He introduced the band to Waffle House, which became a road staple.

We then made our first appearance on the Blue Plate Special [listen] at WDVX radio in Knoxville, hosted by the wonderful Matt Morelock (a talented musician and banjo expert himself). We shared the bill with the extremely energetic and drum-filled Scottish group Albannach, giving Knoxville a very international surprise! It went over well and led to us playing at the Stir Fry Cafe in Turkey Creek, as well as an invitation to return to WDVX.

We then traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to play a double bill at the 21C Gallery and Hotel with Abigail Washburn and Ben Solee. We had met Abigail in Nashville because she and Ben are colleagues of Bela's in The Sparrow Quartet. We enjoyed Abby's banjo playing and English and Chinese singing. Ben's easy grace on the 'cello lifted our spirits. At the end we did a couple of numbers together. We are finding new ways to collaborate with different musicians, and that worked out quite well. We also met the fine banjo maker Seth Folsom, who gave us a tour of his workshop. We think there may be a future in banjos.

On the way to Louisville we had had a chance to stop at Cumberland Falls, home of the only moonbow in the western hemisphere. We did not see the moonbow, but we did see the falls.

After Louisville, we re-entered Columbus, Ohio at the invitation of the excellent and energetic Flamenco Arts Caravan, headed by Saba Sohail and Feridun Gundes. At OSU, we had a great show which attracted people from the Hemp Festival across the street, many of whom had no idea what hit them but left the concert feeling very pleased. We had some seriously good pizza and learned to play Risk the next day, thanks to the tutelage of Feridun and Mehmet. If any one wants to send an old Risk set to Tuva, let us know, 'cause we love it.

At this point we encountered a rare spot in our tour - several days without a gig. Having seen the beauty of Cumberland Falls, we decided to return to the Daniel Boone National Forest where we stayed for the next five days, living on grilled meat and more grilled meat, and taking a breather from the hectic first two months of the tour. We relaxed, chopped wood, ate meat, made fires, played lots and lots of music, went on walks, and just generally had a grand time on the banks of the Rockcastle River.

After we emerged from the woods, we returned to Nashville at the invitation of Futureman, who leads an ensemble called "The Black Mozart." This string quintet plus drums, with arrangements and direction by Futureman, is just getting started, but they are great! Like our music, it has roots in tradition yet is an entirely new thing. We shared the bill with them at Christopher's Pizza, arriving in a big horse-drawn carriage. We made some interesting recordings with Futureman and planted more collaborative seeds.

In Nashville we also met the Rhythmicist, a man named Thomas Anderson, whose beatboxing, breakdancing, singing, playing, drumming, mathematical, physical and philosophical skills all combine to create an absolutely unique artist and person. As fellow masters of extended vocal techniques, Thomas and the Tuvans found an easy bond and Thomas quickly was given the Tuvan nickname 'Tenek-ool' to match his high-spirited personality. Ayan-ool and Mai-ool have eagerly taken up beatboxing since this meeting.

We then returned to Knoxville for our second gig at WDVX's Blue Plate Special [listen] and a concert at the World Grotto. At both places we shared the stage with Christabel and the Jons, a group of wonderful musicians from Knoxville. Christabel has many excellent original songs, and we were honored that they invited us to contribute a little vocal harmony to one of their tunes. Sean's godmother Linda provided the lodging and mobilized a fair horde of Knoxvillians to come to the show at the Grotto. Thanks, god-mom!

Then we got to see Abby Washburn again, this time with another of her bands called Uncle Earl, down in Market Square in Knoxville. Later, Tuva and Tennessee music collided full-on in a banjo jam festival at Matt's place, a great place for impromptu Siberian-American banjo festivals.

Next day we were guests at the Bonnaroo festival, a massively attended event in western Tennessee. We joined Christabel and the Jons onstage once again, and spent the day checking out the festival. Looks like we'll be playing there next year.

Then we once again piled into the minivan and drove through the night to Boston. It was a mighty shock to find ourselves on the Massachusetts Turnpike with its many lanes of traffic and the speed and density of cars. First we played in Natick, Massachusetts at a fundraiser for Amazing Things, the remarkable arts organization headed by Michael Moran. We helped them raise money to acquire an old firehouse for their musical and artistic activities.

The next day, Sunday, we drove down to Zebulon in Brooklyn. This was the beginning of a three-day mini-tour which reunited us with our friends, the Extra Special Terrestrial Guests. These are a group of musicians mostly from Sun Ra Arkestra, led by Marshall Allen and Elliott Levin. The ESTGs' trombonist, Dave Davis, entertained all with a slideshow of the Arkestra's trip to Tuva, excellent pics as Dave is quite a photographer. Here also we were introduced to George and Irene, friends of Dave's. Zebulon's owners Joce and Jeff were good folks, and the food was fantastic.

Then on to the Rotunda in Philadelphia. This is a beautiful early 20th Century building with great acoustics and even better organizers, Gina and Scott, who produced excellent art and flyers for the show and did a great job because the place was packed! People were falling off the rafters and bubbling out the vents. The jam at the end was fantastic as we had a lot of the Guests on the stage that night. Even Sean made a rare stage appearance, playing the skull igil.

The mini-tour continued on to Washington, DC, where we played at the Warehouse Next Door. We were honored by the visit of the Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of the Russian Federation, Natalia Batova, who took the time to chat with all these well-traveled representatives of tiny Tuva. The show received a rave review in the Washington Post.

We tried to see the White House after the show, but it was 2:00 a.m. and pounding rain like a son of a gun, so we hit the road back to Philly. Thus ended our tour with the ESTGs, at least 'til next time. We are especially grateful to Elliot for setting it all up, Dave for putting us up and being our amigo, and Marshall for honoring us with his presence and beautiful personality. It is not often you get to play with a living treasure of music and an important figure in the history of Jazz.

We then went back to New York City, where we played on the sidewalk outside the Rubin Museum of Art as part of the Make Music New York festival. It was an honor to participate. Four hundred musical groups performed for free in outdoor public spaces all over the city. This fits quite well with our concept of bringing music to as many people as possible, so we were happy to do it, and indeed entertained a fair passel of Manhattanites.

We next continued to Danbury, Connecticut, where we were reunited with Judith Cook Tucker of the Connecticut Folklife Project. She was one of the very first people to help bring Alash to the US, and it was a special joy to return to her home. We are deeply grateful and affectionate for this family. Judith had done a super job preparing, and there were a whole ton of people at the concert at Western Connecticut State College. The Cook Tucker House also witnessed many an intense billiard game among the band members, whose skills after three months on the road were razor sharp.

Then we attended the wedding of Isaac Hirt-Manheimer, the brother of Noah Hirt-Manheimer, who did all the recording and mixing for our two albums. Noah is a skilled African drummer and scholar of ethnomusicology. His wife is Ghanaian and the wedding was an excellent showcase of the musical talents of all sides of the new family, from traditional Jewish to rock 'n roll to Ghanaian and funk and even a contribution from the Tuvan cousins. Congratulations to Isaac and Gloria!

During this time we also had a gig at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York, which included a visit from sister Mary Beth and also from Nikita and Brendan and Coec and various other folks who helped us rock the hip atmosphere down at the BPC in a very fun and somewhat informal show.

On the 25th and 26th we had two gigs in Boston. The first was at the Lily Pad, headed by the inimitable Gill, who witnessed the invasion of his small space by crowds of Alash seekers. We were also honored by the presence of the great ethnomusicologist from Saxa Yakutia, Eduard Alekseyev. He worked 20 years ago with Ted Levin, Zoya Kyrgys, and Karen Sherlock on the project which eventually became "Tuva: Voices from the Center of Asia." This is a beautiful album which features and preserves the beautiful unaccompanied and older styles of Tuvan singing by regular folks.

After the concert, Gill was kind enough to let us stay at his pad, above the Lily Pad, and the next day we were treated to a delicious lunch by a certain Bonnie. We would like to thank her and all her friends for their hospitality and generous help.

The concert that night was at Cloud Place, and it was again full to the brim. For the second night in a row, we had to turn people away. We are really sorry and we promise to play in a larger place next year.

We stopped back down in Danbury to meet none other than the Rhythmicist a.k.a. Thomas Anderson a.k.a. Tenek-ool to do a recording for his new album, involving our singing and his beat-boxing. Look for it very soon.

Finally, we returned to New York for our last two concerts. We played to an appreciative crowd at the Judson Memorial Church, where apparently Ornette Coleman once recorded an album. We were reunited with Dave, Irene, George, Mary Beth, Jean, Tenek-ool, and many others, especially Magda and Marcin, to whom we return always in New York because of our favorite German Shepherd, Shunka.

The last concert was in Nyack, where we were hosted by Carole Brill, an enthusiastic and dedicated musician and scholar who had seen us way back at Sunbridge. It was a beautiful acoustic setting at the Fellowship of Reconciliation, with a fine lawn in back overlooking the Hudson River. On this lawn Ayan-ool defeated all comers in Tuvan wrestling prior to the concert. It was a fitting and beautiful spot for our last concert.

That night we had a farewell party in the closest thing we have to a home on the road, Magda and Marcin's basement. We were accompanied not only by Shunka but by Dave and Nikita, our dear Russian-American amigo. They helped us to reflect on the tour and see us off. The next day we began the journey home, but that is for the next newsletter.

We would like to thank each and every person who helped make this colossal trip possible. We have been the recipients of so much kindness and openheartedness of people along the way that we feel we must express our deep gratitude. Our mission is to continue the great tradition of our ancestors and to pass on to our descendants a tradition that is not only preserved and unbroken but that is alive, healthy, strong, changing, and growing. We hope to bring our unique music to many listeners, and we hope to nourish relations between our place and others so that we can all learn from each other and celebrate the wonderful diversities and commonalities of human culture.

Thank you all, friends, until next time,

Alash