tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.comments2023-04-16T03:02:32.423-07:00One Tribe, Many Voices / Rasheed Ali & Rain PeopleRasheed Alihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12125126037131925746noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-36636530296380711182012-09-16T15:29:50.129-07:002012-09-16T15:29:50.129-07:00"In 1517, the Spanish Crown permitted its sub... "In 1517, the Spanish Crown permitted its subjects to import twelve slaves each in what became the beginning of the slave trade in the New World."<br /><br />"Despite the Spaniard's precautions,they could not stop the enslaved Africans from mounting the first recorded rebellion in Latin America (July 26-Nov 23, 1514)."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-39344000652153359982012-03-26T10:26:07.835-07:002012-03-26T10:26:07.835-07:00Amazing.
Yo no tengo Oyelos de Nuevo y queria escu...Amazing.<br />Yo no tengo Oyelos de Nuevo y queria escuchar.<br />Tú sabes la rumba y me gustó tu selección.<br />Yo te aprecio y te respeto.<br />Muchas gracias Rasheed Ali.<br />Soy tamborero Japonés.<br />(I speak English a little.Excuse me.)Jaguihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01406024452559304691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-59202103755730361572012-01-19T03:37:56.775-08:002012-01-19T03:37:56.775-08:00Enjoyed reading post on your blog.!Enjoyed reading post on your blog.!earn money from homehttp://oneandus.com/reseller/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-59843065648595494862011-08-28T08:13:27.475-07:002011-08-28T08:13:27.475-07:00I am very happy that this post from so long ago (2...I am very happy that this post from so long ago (2006) still resonates and provokes conscious thoughts from my brethren. I can tell from all of your thoughtful comments that you all identify strongly with the reality expressed. Thank you for keeping this discussion alive. Yes, I am Carib-centric and proud of it! :)Rasheed Alihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12125126037131925746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-45291536007707101492011-08-27T18:22:27.939-07:002011-08-27T18:22:27.939-07:00Played in trio with Wags McDonald for six years. ...Played in trio with Wags McDonald for six years. Great player, sadly missed. How many "Caribbean themed gigs" turned out to be luaus? How many times were we asked to play "a calypso like Yellow Bird?" Thanks for the check, indeed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-1090484840467994872011-06-04T21:15:26.383-07:002011-06-04T21:15:26.383-07:00Wow, beautifully stated in a terse and truthful st...Wow, beautifully stated in a terse and truthful statement but covering the major points. It was always difficult for us raised within an African cultural subset and playing drums to 'connect' with our Northern brothers who played 'drums' having learned to play them in school and ignorant of 'tribal' or 'religious' rhythms ,patterns, meter( "clave") that we may have 'ignorant' of their origins or proper names but knew them intuitively do to festive 'bembes',rumbas' or 'dances' we grew up in....the absence of the drum culture made for a 'gap' or void that now is disappearing with world music on the web and blogs & podcast like this.rumberoboricuahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06191980211169981679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-23993614580819568102010-09-23T09:35:10.723-07:002010-09-23T09:35:10.723-07:00hihiAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-91675887820344681692010-09-13T14:00:43.788-07:002010-09-13T14:00:43.788-07:00Oh this is SAD news. I used to help Varnette make ...Oh this is SAD news. I used to help Varnette make her litho prints when I first came to LA. She and her sister were both enlightened. I'm sure of it. Their lovingness was an unmistakable vibration felt by all who spent time with them. <br /><br />she will be missed.<br />Thanks for posting this news Rasheed.<br />Love<br />JanUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08287728057265103599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-24267617261734494282010-06-24T11:38:01.362-07:002010-06-24T11:38:01.362-07:00Thank you for bringing beautiful music to the peop...Thank you for bringing beautiful music to the people. You bring sunshine and good energy to your audience and keep us going, even on dark and rainy days. You are called to this work and you do it with love and happiness. Thank you for sharing your spirit and music! Peace.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-30069727339987710742010-04-02T07:06:42.134-07:002010-04-02T07:06:42.134-07:00on a sad note , both actors passed away a couple o...on a sad note , both actors passed away a couple of years ago. Ironically, it was within months from each other.Probably they fell in love in real life and now they're together. The director must have known the true meaning of love because love exuded from their every gesture and their every line. Remember how Eurydice slept and Orfeo told his young buddies not to disturb her? A lovely film! I met Marpessa Dawn during a film viewing at Carnegie Hall. It was probably in the 80's. not sure. She was very beautiful in person too.you are where you eathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11914342610246441959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-20078837633961968032010-03-30T15:23:25.581-07:002010-03-30T15:23:25.581-07:00I Love that Photo..Don't Forget April 11 2010 ...I Love that Photo..Don't Forget April 11 2010 at Q.C's 901 Via San Clemente Montebello,Ca. 90640..A Concert To Celebrate the Life Of Victor Pantoja..Pete Escovedo & Sheila E.:Johnny Polanco:Rudy Regalado:Octavio Figueroa:Ray Carrion:Angel leBron.Son y Clave; & Many More..3pm Till 10pm..Info 323-850-8795Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-75535484798008119792010-03-12T13:57:08.702-08:002010-03-12T13:57:08.702-08:00igualmente, amigo...que dios los bendiga..igualmente, amigo...que dios los bendiga..Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03390727862236106344noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-75481534623702616692010-03-12T13:53:33.363-08:002010-03-12T13:53:33.363-08:00Gracias Maria! Estoy aqui tratando de manejar este...Gracias Maria! Estoy aqui tratando de manejar este momento!Rasheed Alihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12125126037131925746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-78644815409731497522010-03-12T13:43:07.504-08:002010-03-12T13:43:07.504-08:00Papa was a beautiful person, I am also so deeply s...Papa was a beautiful person, I am also so deeply saddened words I cannot express how I feel, we lost another wonderful performer... I can only say that he was a beautiful person and he always had that big smile his laugh..He will always be in my heart! May he rest in peace and be with his lovely wife and our wonderful brothers Pete Perez and Bobby Espinoza..may they all make beautiful music up in heaven.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03390727862236106344noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-28815920388660552192010-02-06T18:11:18.347-08:002010-02-06T18:11:18.347-08:00It was more than a blessing sharing space with you...It was more than a blessing sharing space with you as well my brother. Tomorrow I'm performing at Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach at 12 noon. I know it's last second notice but it would be great to see you there and plus, it seems we both have an affinity connecting with our Caribbean and South American brothers and sisters. <br /><br />An be kelen (Bamankan: We are one)<br /><br />Djeliba Baba the Storyteller<br />http://www.BabatheStoryteller.comUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08918354018020682265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-25600105508033000632010-01-19T14:51:56.401-08:002010-01-19T14:51:56.401-08:00"Gone too soon" fits perfectly in here....."Gone too soon" fits perfectly in here.....:((((<br /><br />I have "given him my heart so that he knows I care"<br />He healed the world succesfully, he made the people change they're ways. And he did it all with his music and his words and love for everything and everyone around him....<br />This is it, The end of an Era....<br />Rest in Piece, Michael J. Jackson <3J.J. Shevyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06797150200551447196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-84247516902514575002009-09-29T05:06:12.911-07:002009-09-29T05:06:12.911-07:00I ran into your upstars neighbor of many years via...I ran into your upstars neighbor of many years via Facebook, Leonette Joseph. She hipped me to your site. I very happy to have any contact with you after so many years As I consider you easily the most powerful seminal influennces of my young and ultimately entire life. I am hardly surprised that you have become prolific. I remember you beating me up after school, at least three times. But I also remember our first gig in Brooklyn arranged by your older brother. We played Song for My Father, Horace Silver, Sombrero Sam, from the Forest Flower Album (Charles Lloyd) and two original compositions by you. The chubby kid with thick glasses standing beside you never was happier or felt more alive. As you see I never forgot that day. You had already forged an eclectic and captivating quartet. We were 13. I miss you bro...<br /><br />Anthony Ghent 518-473-8290 518-879-0844<br /><br />Take care.joeblowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09056885592806255342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-29186548600969052552009-05-02T09:16:00.000-07:002009-05-02T09:16:00.000-07:00AH!!! Poetry Man is on my list of ALL TIME favorit...AH!!! Poetry Man is on my list of ALL TIME favorite songs!!!!Sis Janetnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-6314297022290037672009-05-02T09:13:00.000-07:002009-05-02T09:13:00.000-07:00Selam Rasheed, I look forward to hearing your podc...Selam Rasheed, I look forward to hearing your podcasts...Just found some interesting music yesterday....Asa....and K'naan...Check it if you feel too...<br /><br />Sis JSis Janetnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-34685110357837850772009-03-23T14:13:00.000-07:002009-03-23T14:13:00.000-07:00Afro Cuban All Stars in MinneapolisSidebar: The G...Afro Cuban All Stars in Minneapolis<BR/>Sidebar: The Gift of Life<BR/>By Al McFarlane, Editor-in-Chief<BR/>Insight News<BR/><BR/>Wain talked with Juan De Marcos Gonzales, leader of the Afro Cuban All Stars following their phenomenal performance at the Minneapolis Orchestra Hall. Wain told de Marcos Gonzales about their music providing him a bridge to ancestral realms and a soundscape for his exploration of separate realities.<BR/>Wain was describing his journey to other worlds while he lay in a medically induced coma at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Rochester, MN. He was there for a routine check up on the successful recent kidney transplant he had undergone. <BR/>But the examination revealed cancer in the liver had become aggressive requiring immediate replacement. They moved him to the top of the waiting list and within a day, had him in surgery for a liver transplant. His body rejected the liver, however. Doctors kept him in a coma a waited for a new liver.<BR/>A second organ was considered and passed on. By Saturday, he had been "under" four days already. He had 48 hours to live without a functioning liver.<BR/>Ray and I drove down to visit. The room was full of machines and monitors, tubes and bandages...emergency gear of all types. Like in the movies. But this was serious. It was no joke.<BR/>We were comforted by the massive amount of technology, and the huge amount of medical learning and science, and the excellent care and compassion of expert health workers, all organized to support and sustain life.<BR/>But something was missing. <BR/>There were beeps and buzzes. Bells and public address announcements. The occasional siren wailed faintly in distances beyond the hospital walls. The sound of the room was the ambient signature of the business of life...and death.<BR/>Wain McFarlane's life is music.<BR/>Wain is music.<BR/>I asked if it would be ok to get a boom box or cd player and play music for Wain. They said yes and ordered a boom box from the hospital library. I had Afro Cuban All Stars cd "Distinto, Differente" in my car. I got it and dropped it in the cd player and plugged in the box on a ledge just above Wain's head.<BR/>Nurses said Wain might be aware of what was going on in the room, but they were not sure. He could hear, but he could not speak, due to the sedation. And they were not sure exactly how much he would actually hear or comprehend or remember.<BR/>So I talked to Wain. I rubbed his forehead. Then I walked to the other end of the bed and I rubbed his feet. I said "This is a gift, Wain. So have no fear. You are being given the opportunity to examine this world and others from distinct and different points of view. So, Go! See! Remember all that you can! You will be able to cross vast amounts of space and time in blink of an eye. You can fly and stop at will, suspended in any space you choose. Let this music guide you and connect you to our Ancestors."<BR/>Wain arose three days later speaking Spanish, Portuguese and other languages he did not know. He had visited what appeared to be construction sites. He said, on closer examination, he recognized that he was watching people building the Great Pyramid. He visited the Andes and Southern Mexico and experienced ancient Toltec culture. Beings from that world followed him back to this world. As he drifted toward ordinary consciousness he could still perceive energy bodies that had tracked him, two to defend him, one to destroy him.<BR/>Wain shared this story with Juan De Marcos Gonzales and with our mutual friend Victor Valens, another Twin Cities based Cuban, who visits Cuba regularly. De Marcos Gonzales, eyebrow raised and gaze fixed on Wain's words, smiled deeply, understandingly. He was experiencing the story stereophonically...from Wain eye to eye directly in front of him, from me on one side, telling my part of the story in English and in Spanish, and from Victor, reinterpreting what he had heard from me and from Wain, purely in Spanish.<BR/>There was one song, Wain said, about being a Jamaican but living in Cuba. Yes, de Marcos said, it paid homage to a great Cuban singer Nino Rivera, who, like many, went to Cuba to find work and to live.<BR/>And there was another song on that album that no doubt affected you, he said to Wain. Warariansa is a song from my father's religion, he said, an African religion that retained its expression in Afro Cuba. His father was the Pope of Abakua religion in Cuba. <BR/><BR/> The music's mission is to protect and grow the culture by looking back to the ancestors and playing a pathway to the future.<BR/>In preparing this observation I found the following liner notes about the Afro Cuban All Stars:<BR/> A multi-generational big band, with members ranging in age from 13 to 81, the Afro-Cuban All Stars incorporate the full spectrum of Latin dance music, including mambo, cha cha, salsa, rumba, son montuno, timba, guajira, danzón, abakuá, and bolero. During a late-'90s interview, Gonzalez explained, "We have to use all the heritage of Cuban music to create a sound of the future." Gonzalez, who holds a doctorate in hydraulic engineering and Russian and has worked as a consulate at the Agronomic Science Institute in Havana, formed the Afro-Cuban All Stars shortly after the disbanding of Sierra Maestra, the group with whom he had attracted global attention since 1978. Musicians in the Afro-Cuban All Stars, including pianist Ruben Gonzalez and trumpet player Yanko Pisaco, represent the cream of Cuba's instrumentalists.<BR/>One of the people in the audience who is Cuban now living in Twin Cities, and who got special recognition from De Marcos Gonzales was Gloria Rivera. After the reception backstage following the concert, Gloria, Wain, Victor and I sat for coffee at a late nite bistro across the street from Orchestra Hall. Gloria, who sings with Wain from time to time, told me in Spanish, that her father was the object of celebration in the Afro-Cuban All Stars song "Tributo al Nino Rivera."<BR/>Wain had felt the meaning of the song in his coma. He remembered. And he asked De Marcos Gonzales about that song in particular. <BR/>Gloria Rivera, the daughter of the song, was in his life already, unbeknownst to him. This night connected and extended the gift of life.<BR/><BR/>Al McFarlane<BR/>Insight News, Minneapolis, MN<BR/>al@insightnews.com<BR/>612-695-0417Conversations with Al McFarlanehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03862567483080391898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-55319721341118249012009-01-10T10:34:00.000-08:002009-01-10T10:34:00.000-08:00In the US Israeli lives are worth more than Palest...In the US Israeli lives are worth more than Palestinian lives. This is the sad reality that the media perpetuates. All human beings are equal. I'm happy that not all the people in the US are silent, all voices of discent are noble.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09077206901692693645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-48704498542091352022008-11-10T16:35:00.000-08:002008-11-10T16:35:00.000-08:00Ah, and I wanted to say that it is a wonderful wom...Ah, and I wanted to say that it is a wonderful woman! I spoke wrong in the previous message! It forgives.Kenia Soareshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02466625663428870166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-87174614282362669342008-11-10T16:32:00.000-08:002008-11-10T16:32:00.000-08:00Hi! I today saw in the periodical television on th...Hi! I today saw in the periodical television on the death of this African artist who was famous for this music PATA PATA, I think that it made here optimum of everything in this life in the planet, and was a great warrior and fought for the blacks, I am wonderful woman!Kenia Soareshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02466625663428870166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-65299769441726242942008-11-06T09:53:00.000-08:002008-11-06T09:53:00.000-08:00Brother Rasheed,That was a profound and truthful r...Brother Rasheed,<BR/>That was a profound and truthful reflection of your personal historic and cultural relationship with America. You have arrived at an interesting place as a result of this latest chapter in the American experiment. We have indeed come a long way. However, as a cynical journalist who is a trained investigator of historical truths and current events and a conspiracy theorist, I must share my sentiment that once the euphoria dies down, I believe that it will be business as usual because the system is as corrupt as many of those who have led it. I can only hope that Brother Obama can resist being corrupted by the system that he has been elected to lead. All of my life, half of which has been spent in exile in Japan, I have, through an inheritance from generations of African-natural born-American ancestors, have been a soldier in the struggle for too long to lay down my sword and shield now just because we have a new hope at the helm. We are traveling in new and uncharted waters now and we must remain as vigilant as ever to make this change a reality for our children and their children. As such, I will not be rushing home to America just yet from my 32 year self-imposed exile in Japan. I and my fellow African-American expats here, will be watching how this all plays out while we maintain vigilance from abroad.<BR/>With sincere congratulations and all best wishes to America,<BR/>Brother Malcolm MC<BR/>www.totown.net<BR/>Kakegawa City, Shizuoka Pref., Japan<BR/>Hotep!totownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13410858048869670743noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26181815.post-83381176150174922562008-09-18T13:44:00.000-07:002008-09-18T13:44:00.000-07:00Hey Rasheed Sir, just checked to holla. You know a...Hey Rasheed Sir, just checked to holla. You know as real peoples we artist must delve into political ramblings an sfight for social change. may be thats why you do it. Holla.Olise Sam Ukalahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13966041053318952536noreply@blogger.com