Evening lessons with Malamini

Hello again,
All is well here....a bunch of people arrived back to the compound yesterday after having been in Mauritania for some religious event. People were very happy to see them back, and people seemed to be socializing a l0t more than usual throughout the day. I was feeling a bit out of it- mentally tired....I think it was the introvert taking over in me. I spent most of the day just relaxing in my room by myself, transcribing the tape that I recorded with me playing Kora and Malamini singing and explaining the songs from the night before. The routine for me of the past few nights has been to sit with Malamini for an hour or two, and play about 2-3 tunes with my tape recorder going. Malamini sings to the tunes, gives a brief explanation of the songs, and what the words mean in English. It's been quite the educational experience really...
I had a really awesome jam session with Tata Dindin Jobarteh under the mango tree last night. He is Malamini's first son, and has toured over various parts of Europe for the last 10 years or so. This is the type of experience that can only really be had at the compound of griot families. We played for about an hour as the sun set to various tunes, trading solo lines to traditional tunes. It was probably one of the highlights of the trip thus far, in addition to sitting with Malamini during the evenings.

That's all that I have to report for now...Check back in a few days.

I hope all is well..

Sean