Archive for the ‘Travels’ category

Catching Up – Gothenburg, Sweden

March 2nd, 2010

Okay, this is a catch up post!!!

We had to travel from Lund, Sweden to Gothenburg.  It was only about a 2 hour’s drive, but this is a great opportunity for me to show you the tour bus that has become my second home!

» Read more: Catching Up – Gothenburg, Sweden

Need Bass?!?! Will Travel!

February 17th, 2010
Angie Stone photo by Dave Ellis

My New Boss - Angie Stone - Photo by Dave Ellis

Hey guys!  For those of you that don’t know I’ve recently joined Angie Stone’s band and I have been doing shows with her all over the US.  It’s been a great experience and as of Monday 02/22/10, it’ll become an experience that we’ll take over seas to Europe! We’ll be visiting Sweden, London, Norway, France, and Poland over a three week period.

I’m very excited about this opportunity and another chance to see parts of the world that I’ve only seen in books or heard about in the movies!  As usual, I’ll try to blog as much as possible and post as many pictures as I can.  This will be a great adventure!  Stay tuned!

AFAR May Be Traveling Again in 2010…

September 5th, 2009

People have been asking me what was up with my band AFAR.  We’ve taken a bit of a hiatus and everyone has pursued other professional goals for a while.  We recently came back together and decided that we would like to tour again as “AFAR”.  The ball’s in motion and we should find out pretty soon if we’ll be able to tour for Jazz At Lincoln Center’s The Rhythm Road Project.

We Really hope that things work out so that we can be a part of the program again.  They have given us some incredible opportunities and we are eternally grateful.  Keep your eyes open for information concerning the band!

AFAR - Detox, RJJazz, Frito, and JayeBerry

AFAR - Detox, RJJazz, Frito, and JayeBerry

I’m gon’ buy me some shoes!….

March 12th, 2008

This is an AFAR throwback video. We were in Valencia, Venezuela and we had just finished the show. Anybody that knows Jahah knows that he’s a Sneaker Pimp. Here’s his ode to buying shows backed by me and BlackFist… Dinero was making his cinematographic debut…

End of the Road!… The Rhythm Road…

December 3rd, 2007

I guess this is it!  AFAR had a really great tour in South America.  We met so many great and interesting people and had a chance to share experiences that have become lifelong memories.  On behalf of AFAR, I would like to thank Jazz at Lincoln Center and their incredible team – Alexis, Monak and Susan, The United States Department of State, The offices of the Consulate General in every country that we visited, our local embassy officials, our hosts in each city, the embassy drivers, the hotel staff in all the hotels, the chefs in the restaurants, the pilots of the 17 planes we were one, the airline stewardesses, the baggage handlers, the ticket agents – especially the ones that didn’t charge us overweight!, and all the many people we just happened to either bump into or meet that made our time in South America wonderful!!!

Here are the last few pictures from after our Hutuz performance:

AFAR and the producers of the Hutuz festival:

TV interview with MTV Brazil:

Part of the team that took excellent care of us in Rio, Victor Tamm and Anna Vianna – We miss you guys!!

AFAR has a lot of stuff brewing in 2007!  Keep checking us out!!

The Past Few Days in Rio…

November 24th, 2007

We’ve had a lot of programmed events the last couple of days here in Rio. I just want to re-cap you on everything that’s been happening.

The main reason that we were able to be here in Brazil is because of the Hutuz Festival. This event is the biggest festival dedicated to hip hop in Latin America and the Counselor General’s office has been involved for the past five years. An organization called CUFA (Unique Central of the Favelas) is the force behind the festival and let me tell you I was very excited to see all of the many great things that they have offered.

CUFA is a self-sufficient organization that has made so many tremendous strides in the community that the Department of Labor and Tourism partners with them to provide programs and training in Break Dancing, Grafitti, Basketball (street ball), DJ’ing, Audiovisual and Theater.

» Read more: The Past Few Days in Rio…

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

November 22nd, 2007

Well everyone, it looks like we’ve made it to our last stop on the tour. I couldn’t think of a better way to end a great tour than in Rio! This is a place that I’ve heard so much about and it’s great to finally be here. We arrived Sunday evening and everyone was so tired that we just got dinner and called a night.

Mondays are days off for us, so we decided to get some sightseeing in. As we were riding from the airport our host, Victor Tamm, suggested that we at least check out two of the city’s attractions – Cristo Redenter (Christ the Redeemer) and Sugarloaf. We took him up on his offer and had a great time! Here are some pics from the day!

Oh wait! Before we begin. I was about to brush my teeth and saw this bottle of water:

So uh, you replace the comma with a period, divide the number by about 1.6 or so (because the dollar is continuing to weaken), and there you have it!…. an $11.04 bottle of water! I later found out that we are staying in arguably the best hotel in Rio.

Since it was night when we arrived, I couldn’t really see the area that we were staying in. I could smell and hear the water but I couldn’t see it. When I woke up I was able to see this from my hotel room:

» Read more: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

One Time?!?!?!

November 22nd, 2007

Check out the vid from a perforamance in Santa Cruz. We solicited some audience participation on this one!

Boliva Part 3 – Santa Cruz!

November 22nd, 2007

You know, Santa Cruz was kind of a bust for us as far as seeing the city goes. After we arrived at the hotel (after leaving the previous night’s show at 11:30pm, leaving the hotel at 5:30am and catching a 7:00am flight), we ate breakfast, did an interview and everyone was so tired that we slept until the night’s sound check at 9:00pm. Flying everyday really can take its toll on your body. You really don’t realize how tired you are until you sit on the bed and next thing you know its like 6 hours later. Sorry Santa Cruz, we’ll have to come back when we’re well rested so we can enjoy it more!

These are the young ladies that organized our coming and all of the events here in Bolivia:

 


I know I have a very interesting name, but it baffles me sometime how people screw up the spelling of it. I was told that the press had a copy of our press release, yet my name was still misspelled as “Demonsterius”:

» Read more: Boliva Part 3 – Santa Cruz!

Bolivia Part 2 – Cochabamba

November 20th, 2007

We had to leave at 5:30am to catch a flight to Cochabamba, Bolivia. Everyone’s excited because this place should only be 4,000 feet above sea level. I’m telling you, never in my life did that number mean so much to me!

It never fails that we seem to meet the nicest, most appreciative people in the smaller cities and they love the fact that there are contemporary hip hop artists willing to share with them. The bigger cities always have an opportunity to see performances but in the smaller cities, most artists never go there or the people can’t afford to get where the entertainment is. So thanks once again JALC on behalf of the many faces you’ll never get to meet first hand! It also never fails that everyone wants to hang out when the show is over. In most situations we can, but there are many situations where an early flight will prevent us from doing so.

Cochabamba is a really nice, quiet city. There are many sidewalk restaurants and a café can be found on any corner. The food choices range from native Bolivian food to American style chicken fingers to some of the best milkshakes and ice cream desserts you’ll ever have! (That last line was referring specifically to a restaurant called Dumbo’s!!!)

» Read more: Bolivia Part 2 – Cochabamba