Jaffa Road

Amazing Atlanta

2011-05-30T20:40:00.000-07:00

CBH choir rehearsal for friday night

By: Jaffa Road -

I am writing this blog post shortly after returning home from a short trip to Atlanta with Jaffa Road. We went to Atlanta for a short weekend trip as one of the headlining acts of the new (they are in their second year) Atlanta Jewish Music Festival. I wanted to share with our readers a few thoughts and memories about why this weekend was so great.

1) Congergation Beit Haverim: As part of the festival CBH hosted a very special Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat service. This was special for a few reasons. Aviva and I were invited to bring some of our music to the shabbat service, and Aviva was the prayer leader during the service for those pieces. We used some of Aviva's original liturgical compositions for Shabbat (some of the same ones we use for Shabbat Fusion at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto), and we used Jaffa Road's Lo Yisa Goy.

What was so great about this was that we have always known that the latter song would lend it self very well to a choral arrangement but we never got around to creating one. It was very moving and gratifying for both Aviva and I to hear how CBH's music directors Will Robertson & and Gayanne Weiss created a magnificent arrangement of our tune for the 30+ voice choir and band (which included piano, violin, bass, drums, & percussion). The ensemble performed the arrangement with great skill, emotion, and power. During rehearsal, Aviva got so chocked up that she could not finish the song. It was a great service that included our music, CBH's music, a beautiful, new Yidid Nefesh for choir by Will Roberston, a great arrangement of Jeramiah Lockwood's (of Sway Machinery, our co-headliner at the festival) Ahavat Olam, and a wonderful sermon by CBH's Rabbi Joshua Lesser. Following services was a sweet oneg with the congregation and visitors. People were really moved by this exceptional service. I received a lot of feedback about how moved and impressed people were with Aviva's prayer leading. One of the congregants shot this video of us performing Lo Yisa Goy with the Choir. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k2h66_cb1M

I was also impressed by the hospitality, and warmth of this very creative and welcoming congregation. CBH started its life as a synagogue that was founded by and for Gay and Lesbian Jews in the Atlanta area. This reflected a need to have a spiritual home for people who did not feel welcome/comfortable in other congregations. However CBH is not a Gay shul for the Gay Jewish community. It is a shul that is for Jews who (for what ever reason) have not felt comfortable in other institutional settings. Their warmth, creativity, enthusiasm for inclusion and innovation was very refreshing and should be held up as an example to much larger Jewish community institutions.

Please go to http://www.congregationbethaverim.org/different.asp and read about how this inspiring and creative congregation describes itself:

2) Secondly we got to headline the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival. This new festival is a real grassroots endeavor and we really appreciate the amazing work that Russel Gottschalk (Artistic Director) and his small team did to get us and the other artists on to the stage. We shared the night with our co-headliners Sway Machinery from NYC, as well as the local Nick Edelstien & the Grooves (a local R&B / blues band). The New York based DJ Diwon closed out the night. It was a great program, we had a great responsive, dancing audience and it was a honor to be a headliner at this festival as well as the first international act to appear at this wonderful new. The other acts sounded great and it was fun to have some backstage hang time with the the guys from Sway Machinery.

backstage during the Sway Machinery sound check

Aviva

Aaron and Rakesh Tewari: our fabulous guest drummer.

3) Third thing that made the weekend great was Atlanta. From the perspective of a weekend visitor, this a shockingly beautiful city. I live in Toronto which is a really green city. You don't always feel it at street level, but I used to live in on the 21st floor of a condo building and Toronto is an incredibly green city when seen from slightly above. Atalanta is incredibly green and beautiful from any angle.

This photo was shot in a park on the campus of Emory University in the middle of town.

inside Ebeneezer Baptist Church

4) Lastly I want to mention the Ebenezer Baptist Church. I knew in advance that I would have a free morning on Sunday before flying back. I knew that I would be able to satisfy my interest in Southern Gospel music of the Black Church by going to a real Southern chruch service. I did not realize in advance of my visit that Atlanta was at the centre of the American civil rights movement and that I could actually go to the church where Dr. Martin Luther King used to be the preacher.

So on Sunday morning I went to the service at EBC. This big modern church is adjacent to the congregation's original church building where Dr. King preached, and adjacent to the US national historic site dedicated to Dr. King and the Center for non-violence. I had to walk through the grounds of the national historic site to get to the church. I found this to be a very moving experience. Just walking on the grounds there one can feel the powerful emotional energy that is still reverberating from the civil rights movement, and the leadership of Dr. King.

Sitting in the church service I was impressed by the welcoming nature of the congregation, by the music and by the amazing energy that was in the room. Most of all I was impressed by both the message and oratorical skill of the EBC's current pastor and spiritual leader Dr. Raphael Warnock. He spoke at length on the spiritual nature of social justice work. This was framed partly in context of a critique of Harold Camping and his followers who raised $72 million, to promote their End of Days gospel, that failed to materialize at their predicted time (the same weekend).

Dr. Warnock was upset by Camping's arrogance (as in, who is he to say he knows Gods plan), but more importantly he was upset by this misuse of funds. "Heaven can take care of it self, there is much work to be done here on Earth, the homeless need to be housed, the hungry need to be fed, the sick need to be healed"... (paraphrasing) I was also really impressed with how this congregation seemed to be using technology to raise funds for congregation. Imagine; the service ended, I went to the restroom, and by the time I got to the exit, a booth was set up where DVD copies of that days service where being sold. There was a large stack of DVDs (of the service that had just ended) available for purchase, and people (including me) where buying them.

Anyway we had a great weekend performing in and participating in the AJMF, and soaking up the Southern sunshine and hospitality in Atlanta GA. Thanks to everyone who made it happen, particularly Russel Gottschalk and his committee and the people at CBH who made it happen there. (Gayanne Weiss, Rabbi Josh, & Will Robertson).


Portraits on the wall at Ebenezer of past pastors, notice ML King jr. and sr.

The man with the plan; Festival founder and director Russel Gottschalk

Ebenezer Baptist Church: the original building, now part of the US National Historical Site

Sadly, I would like to mention that as I wrote this blog post I learned that today (just a day after the festival ended) Russel lost his father after a long battle with cancer. My thoughts are with Russel and his family during this difficult time. May Martin Gottschalk's (z"l) memory be a blessing to his family and those who knew him.

Review of Godin Multi-Oud

2011-03-10T15:18:00.000-08:00

By: Aaron Lightstone Jaffa Road's oud player and guitarist

A few months ago I heard about the upcoming release of the new Godin Multi-oud. As a long time player of the oud and a fan of Godin guitars, I was very intrigued about this news.
The product was officially announced at NAMM 2011 last month and is due to hit the stores next month. I have had one for about six weeks now, and have used it on three gigs and many practice sessions. Because I am among the first people to get one, I thought I would take this opportunity to review it here and to share my thoughts with anyone who is interested in this instrument.

Summary

The oud is a beautiful and ancient Middle-Eastern instrument. Different scholars suggest different possible origins but it likely goes back the 4th century Persia (or earlier). Over time, it became the most important string instrument in classical Arabic music especially for composers and the accompaniment of singers (much like the piano in Western music). In addition to its dominant role in Arabic music, it is also a very important instrument in Turkish, Persian, and Sepahrdic music. No ouds made before 1850 are known to survive and this is likely due to improvements in contraction techniques that occurred during that period. So, though construction techniques underwent a huge series of improvements and developments about 150 years ago, the general design of the instrument has remained the same for centuries.

Along comes a 21st century French-Canadian guitar maker who is well known in the industry for innovation in design and building techniques. Fred Godin and his team have updated and created a truly modern oud. I know oud purists who will say that the oud was perfect to start with and does not need any improvements. I have played and seen and heard some ouds that are truly impressive instruments, maybe they are close to perfection, but they are difficult to incorporate into a loud live band situation, and tuning can get difficult when humidity is low and/or when the oud is subject to the rigours of airline travel (even in well made ouds, the changes in climatic conditions can cause the pegs to swell or shrink ever so slightly making tuning a challenge). Those are the main points that the Godin design attempts to innovate. I have a few minor critiques of the instrument but overall I love it and think it is great.

Pros-
Amazing playability with an incredibly easy to play nec;
Excellent very transparent acoustic sounding electronics/preamp installed;
Tuning is very stable and easy to make fine adjustments;
Flatback is an huge ergonomic improvement;
Can be strung with nylon or steel strings for a wider range of tonal possibilities;
Unlike traditional ouds it has an adjustable truss rod, an advantage for ouds that live in climates with highly variable humidity;

Easy to use a strap and play standing up;
Comes with a great gig bag.

Cons
Does not look like an oud (but it is very attractive);
When played acoustically, it is not as loud and bright as a conventional oud and may not be loud enough to use in a traditional all acoustic Arabic music ensemble;
Heavier than a regular oud;
No hard case currently available - but with a bit of extra padding it does fit nicely into some guitar cases.

Who should get one?
Oud players who play in loud band settings;
Oud players who would like to play standing up;
Oud players who live in a climate with highly variable humidity (this makes friction pegs difficult to maintain);
Oud players who struggle with tuning and can’t afford a really high end traditional oud (those should have really well made and fitted tuning pegs);
Oud players who travel frequently to gigs by airplane.

Overall I love the instrument and in the weeks I have had it have spent much my free time playing it.

Playability:

The neck on this oud is fantastic. I am not sure, but I think the finger board is slightly radiased. This is not normal for an oud, though it is normal for electric guitars. it is also not normal for nylon string guitars but the Godin multi-ac nylon ( which I also have and think is great) has one and I think that contributes to its excellent playability. In addition to the great neck it has a cutaway, allowing access to a higher than normal oud range. Then the icing on the cake is the fret markers accurately placed where the semi-tone frets wold be if they existed. This visual aid makes playing up the neck much easier.

Tuning
Ease of tuning is one reason why this instrument is so inviting to play. It is easy to tune, stays in tune, fine tunes easily. Now if you are a real oud purist and you are reading this I know what you are thinking. You're thinking that there are so many poorly made ouds out there but that fine ouds with properly made friction pegs are just as good as machine heads. I have heard this argument many times and there is truth to it but the other side is this. I live in Canada where even the best made ouds (I have two really good ones) have trouble with tuning and tuning stability. And here is why. The relative humidity in our homes and studios is incredibly variable over the course of a year. When my home is close to %50 relative humidity as it often is the summer, the pegs and peg box absorb moisture, and pegs expand, and the tuning is so rock solid that I almost don't have to tune my oud all summer long. However the winter is a different story. My regular ouds hold their tuning relatively well as long as I am meticulous about keeping the humidity in my studio as high as possible. If I slip in this regard so do my pegs.

All that being said I had a very awkward problem this past summer with one of my ouds. We were playing the mainstage at a large outdoor music festival. The stage overlooked the lake and there was a cool breeze coming in off the lake. We were playing a song that featured oud and despite it being summer and relatively humid, one peg slipped during the performance and this almost train-wrecked the piece. I still think friction pegs look more charming but I want to know that when I get up to play on a big stage (or any stage for that matter) that my instrument is going to stay in tune no matter what. So when I saw that the multi-oud had really fine guitar style machine heads I was very interested. Of course friction pegs allow for fine tuning when everything is set up just right and conditions are just right, but fine adjustments are so much easier with the machine heads. It is a great idea. It just does not look like an oud.

Aesthetics
Although I think it looks great, I miss the look and Middle-Eastern aesthetics of conventional ouds. There is not much in the way of a "Middle-Eastern look" to this oud, but it makes up for this by still looking pretty cool and all of its other features.

Pre amp-
The onboard pre amp is great. It is made by fishman transducers and is the OEM version of their Aura pro. There are many different versions of the aura pro but the general concept is the same for all. There is a microchip in the pre that stores four "sound images". These images are creating by playing the instrument in an ideal studio environment with great microphones. These images are somewhat analogous to a convolution reverb and the player can blend between the pick up and the sound image. What sounds best in one situation (room, amplifier, other instruments in ensemble) my not be best in another context, so the adjustability and flexibility that this offers is fantastic. Once you find the right balance between the pick up and the image and then eq it (3 band eq is on board), it actually sounds very close to a well miced instrument. Even though this pre-amp system is great for stage I am not surprised that I get better results when recording by placing a quality large diaphragm mic in front of the oud than when using the onboard pre amp. That being said the onboard preamp sounds great through my recording monitors and a number of acoustic and electric guitar amps.

I have heard some critiques of the Godin promo video (featuring Fathi Askaili) that said you cant really get a good sense of what the instrument sounds like from these videos. I would agree that the tambre of the oud in those videos is not totally representative of what the oud sounds like, but that it is because you have a huge range of options. The three band EQ can tweak the signal from the "acoustic image" or the peizo pick up. You also have 4 microphone images, each with a slightly different character and you have the blend knob between the piezo and the bridge pickup. The plugged in sound of the instrument has so many options. So be prepared to spend quite a bit of time tweaking it to get the sound that is just right for you. I can say from experience with similar systems in other instruments that once you get your sound set how you like it - you will have to change it slightly to compensate for the idiosyncrasies of the different environments you play in. Something that sounds great in your practice room at home might have way to much bass in the room at your next gig. So you have to be flexible and always ready to adjust. The fact that you have so much tweakability built into the instrument and not an additional piece of separate gear is great.

If you are a guitarist or violinist looking to get into the oud then this instrument is a great way in. If you are already an oud player or enthusiast then this is a fabulous addition to the oud arsenal. It probably wont replace your traditional ouds in every situation but will be a welcome addition /alternative in many.

On the gig

So far I have played this instrument on three gigs (as of the end of March 2011). Once in a soft seat theatre with my band Jaffa Road (www.jaffaroad.com), and twice in a Jewish Friday night worship service. Jaffa Road is a contemporary inter-cultural fusion band that brings together elements of Arabic, Jewish, and Indian music along with Jazz and popular music grooves. This band is much louder that the traditional ensembles that ouds are usually heard in. In this setting this oud really excelled. As it was my first time using it on a concert gig we took a bit of extra time with it in sound check and found that the best sound was achieved by pluging it in to an SWR California blonde, and micing the instrument with an SDM. When the drums got loud, the mix engineer had to mute the mic that was on directly on the instrument but it still sounded great coming through the SWR amp. I have also tried playing through a 50w Yorkville keyboard amp, a Fishman Loudbox 100 and Black heart electric guitar tube amp. Of course each one had a slightly different character but all sounded great.

Listen

Here are a couple videos so that you can hear it.

With full band in soft seat theatre:
http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7AOHw7QQmY

In my home studio acoustic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXap86Wf-9o

in my home studio plugged in:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w13dw4-FbFs,

Jaffa Road – 2010 Nunavut Tour

2010-07-24T08:10:00.001-07:00

Nunavut blog: By Jaffa Road

During the last week of June and the First week of July our band Jaffa Road had the incredible opportunity of touring in Nunavut Canada’s newest territory. This was an unusual and exceptional experience for a group of touring musicians from Southern Canada. Formed in 1999, Nunavut (formerly the Eastern half of the North-West Territories) represents the largest ever land claims settlement between a post-colonial government and Aboriginal peoples. Inhabited mostly by Inuit people its population is only 30 000. It is the size of Western Europe making it one of the most sparsely populated habitable regions of the planet. It isolated from the rest of Canada by its geography. One can can only reach Nunavut by plane (or by boat during the two months of each year that the sea ice is melted). The are no roads to Nunavut and no roads with in Nunavut. No two Nunavut communities are connected by road. Air travel is required for any travel between hamlets. The scenery is incredible and incredibly varied. In the summer the 24 hours of day light provides ample opportunity to enjoy the natural beauty of the place.
We visited two communities; Iqaluit and Igloolik to play a total of five sets at two different music festivals; to collaborate with other visting artists; and to teach a couple of workshops. Both festivals where amazing but also very different from each other. Our amazing three days in Iqaluit included a festival performance (at the annual Alainait festival), a Canada Day (July 1) performance, a workshop, a collaborative performance with all the other visiting artists, bonfires under the midnight sun, exceptional food, many new friends, an appearance (interview and live studio performance) on Nunavut CBC radio, a wonderful hike in the gorgeous Silvia Grinell River Territorial park, site seeing, parties in the homes of festival board members, midnight bonfires on the tundra, and a visit to a Jewish /Inuit fishing camp on the Silvia Grinell River.
Many thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts for its generous support of our travel expenses to Iqaluit.
I wrote this blog to partly document this amazing trip and to share some highlights of the trip with friends, family and fans.
We played the Alianait arts festival and the Canada Day (July 1) celebrations in Iqaluit – the capital “city” of Nunavut (Pop. 6000), (Alianait is the Inuktitut word for “celebrate”). This shot of the stage projection screen was taken from the backstage area.

The Alainait (Inuktitut for “celebrate”) festival takes place every year in Iqaluit. It features musicians from Nunavut, polar regions of other countries, the “South” and the Canadian Arctic. It also features film and visual arts from the Arctic and sub Arctic regions. Iqaluit is the capital city with about 6000 residents it is much more multi-cultural a place than I expected it to be. At Ailiant we shared the stage with “Southern” (ie. From Ottawa) musicians such as The Mighty Popo, and Galitcha, and Connecticut based Caravan of Theives, and some Inuktitut musicians well known in the Canadian Arctic for their brand of Inuktitut Country music such as Paul and Sons, and Charlie Panigoniak. Thanks to Ed Maruyama for these Alainat photos.

Final act of the Canada day concert in Iqaluit- A collaborative performance between Jaffa Road, Galitcha, Mighty Popo, and Caravan of Theives,
We were exposed to, and learned about the richness of Inuit culture. Both festivals featured some interesting Inuit artists from other parts of Nunavut. We got to hangout, check out each others work and get to know each other. We also get to hang out with and hear some great bands from “The South”

Our last night in Iqaluit - The Nunavut Francophone association hosted a party / jam session. One more chance to hang with the other artists. Popo and Aviva got to sing together.
We experienced the 24 hours of continuous day light in the land of the midnight sun. Iqaluit is just south of the Arctic circle, so during the summer months the sun sets briefly but not long enough for the sky to get dark. Igloolik is north of the Arctic circle so the sun gets low in the sky at night and creates long shadows, but for 3-4 months of the summer it remains up in the sky. No darkness. After the shows we hung out with some of the other artists at Bonfire on “The Road to Nowhere”. Roads go out from the town a few km and then just end. Here is Aviva enjoying a sunrise at a post show bonfire in Iqaluit - this shot was taken around 3:00 AM.
Before we even arrived in Nunavut, Aviva got an e-mail from Kalman, a friend of a friend of hers. Kalman, lives in Iqaluit, is married to an Inuit woman named Susan, and invited us to come see /hang out/ hike around at their fishing camp on the banks of the Slvia Grinnel River, a short 10 minute drive from town. We had a great time meeting the family, tasting freshly caught ( thanks Susan) Arctic Char and hiking around the park.

Thanks to Heather, Janet, Lorne and the Alainait team for getting us to Iqaluit. We had an amazing 3.5 days in Iqaluit.
If you fly a further 2.5 hours further North West. You will get to Igloolik, a small Inuit Hamlet on Foxe Basin. Igloolik was having their first annual Rocking Walrus Festival and Jaffa Road was lucky and honoured to be invited to be one of the visiting groups.
Even the flight to Igloolik was pretty stunning as we watched the ocean morph to sea ice from the air.

The Igloolik airport is a pretty informal affair.

On arrival dinner included some really fresh DIY, arctic char sashimi.
In Igloolik we played the most remote music/arts festival in North America – the first annual Rocking Walrus festival in Igloolik, Nunavut. Thanks to the Montreal based journalist, Maro Pfieff for the photo below. And thanks to Maren Vsteula and the community of igloolik for getting us there and hosting us so well. There was an outdoor stage for the afternoon shows and an indoor stage (in the local school) for the evening shows. The outdoor stage was right up against the local radio station, and all the sound gear was wired into the radio station and broadcast on local radio to the town.

I had a free moment to take a few shots from the outdoor stage while Sundar was soloing: Check out the sea ice about 100m past the audience.

In Igloolik we had the chance to collaborating with Inuit artists such as Aaju Peter, Charlie Panigoniak, Paul Irsuk, and Kaiva from all over Nunavut and the Funky Mamas from Guelph at the Rocking Walrus festival.

Aaju is an Inuit woman form Greenland who lives in Iqaluit. She is a lawyer, fashion designer (she designed the seal skin coat for the former Governor General) has done some really interesting writing, and activism around protecting Inuit hunting rights.
We learned alot about the politics of the seal hunt.

In Igloolik we had the opportunity to go for hikes on the Tundra under the bright Midnight Sun at 1:30 Am (The Sun did not go down the for the whole week we were there).

Our hike took us out to the Hamlet cemetery.

These shots all taken around midnight

On the way home from the hike we ran into lots of kids playing in the streets (around 2:00 AM).

Igloolik Tour for Visiting Artists
On our second day in Igloolik, Maren Vistula (director of Recreation in the hamlet, and festival founder/ co-ordinator) invited all the visiting artists on a tour of the town and surrounding areas. The tourists were Jaffa Road, The Funky Mamas (from Guelph), Kaiva (a Nunavut based hip hop dance performance crew that fuses Hip Hop with traditional drumming and dancing), Charlie Panigoniak. (an Inuit Elder/ CBC Inuktitut radio announcer / Inuktitut country Singer), Paul and Sons (an Inuktitut Country band from) Arviat, Jolly Atagoyuk (an exceptional print maker from Pond Inlet), Hugh and Ruth Tullurialik, from Baker Lake, the only inland Inuit community.
The highlight of the tour was hanging out on a beach about 15 minute drive outside of the town. At the beach a number of Inuit families had set up prospector tents or small cabins. Our guide said that people come here to get out of town and go hunting for the weekend “it is our Muskoka”.

We enjoyed walking on the frozen ocean, hoping around and playing teeter toter on ice floes, taking mountains of photographs and getting to know each other. Then one of the local Inuit families brought a freshly caught seal over to group. I was amazed at how quickly and efficiently theygot it ready for eating.

To urban people of the south the idea of hunting, and eating raw seal meat may seem strange. However, Inuit people have lived in an almost permanently frozen and barren landscape for the last 4 000 years. There is no possible way to grow crops in land that is always frozen and covered in darkness for half the year. Shipping produce in from the south still impractical as there as no roads to connect the various communities to each other, and the seas are frozen for more than half the year. The Inuit owe their survival to the seal and they are well aware of it. They use every possible part of the animal for something. In days gone by the seal was not just a food source but the raw materials for clothes and oil lamps to light the igloos during 6 months of darkness. I must admit that the pungent and fishy flavor of raw seal meat did not appeal to me, but I was very grateful that I got to taste it.

Here are some other cool shots from our day at the beach:

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I was sleeping in after being up late on our second last day in Igloolik so I missed the chance to go with Aviva, Kaiva, and the Funky Mamas on a morning hike to visit the big Inukshuks out side of the town.

View Full Album
We met alot of memorable people here are some of the unforgettable faces that we got to meet.

Me , Elder Mary and Maren Vsetula, the Director of the festival and our main contact person in Igloolik

Elder Mary had a tent at the outdoor part of the festival. She was talking about and demonstrating some aspects of traditional Inuit life, including cooking bannock over a seal oil lamp.

Self Portrait of me with some cast members of the film Atanajurat, the award winning film that was the first feature film to be shot entirely in the Inuktitut language – Highly recommended. Abraham is the guy in the Middle, he played the Shaman in the movie.

Some kids I met out side of the “Hookie” dance at around 2:00 Am. Hookie dance is a traditional, high energy square dance.William (see below) theorizes that it was brought to Inuit culture decades ago by European whaling expeditions.

Aviva is holding “Elder Rachel" at 2 weeks old she was the youngest person we met in Igloolik. Named after a cherished Elder who passed away recently.

Good times for Aviva at the Hookie dance

William is an interesting researcher / research assistant that we met. He works for the government as a transcriber /translator. He has an archive of hundreds of recordings of Elder’s sharing traditional knowledge. He writes it down and translates it into English. He was also very involved as a festival volunteer, making alot of things happen. Thanks William.

Gordon. You know it is a small town, when your airline baggage handler is also your airline check it guy, is also the soundman at the festival you just played at, is also the guitar player in one of the other bands. Thanks for all your help Gordon.

Marc was a festival volunteer and announcer on the local radio station.

Sundar and Abraham – the Shaman from Antanajurat

Some kids we met building a sand castle in the street at 2:00 AM

Christopher trys to make us laugh

Some cute kids we met at the beach in the middle of town

On our first day in Igloolik I experienced one of the strangest coincidences of my life when I discovered that I have a biological cousin who is Inuit and that his mom and step-father where key festival volunteers.

My Inuit Cousin Connection

When we landed in Igloolik a school bus picked us up at the airport. Eric was an Inuit guy and festival volunteer who was on the bus to show us around. We dropped off our bags at the house we had been given and when Eric took us on a walk around town, we stopped at his house. He was showing us some family pics on the wall. HE pointed to a pic of a young man in a graduation gown and said " That is my wife's son Adam Lightstone"
I said that is weird, I am Aaron Lightstone, I was not sure that he knew my last name yet. I thought it was a strange coincidence but sort of wrote it off. I figured that if I did in fact have an Inuit cousin, then some one would have mentioned this in passing to me before I left for Nunavut. I said to the band " There are a bunch of Lightstone's in Montreal that we are not related to, he must be connected with them."
Still when I got back to the house I called my mom.
"Do I have a cousin Adam, in Kingston Ontario, whose mother is Inuit?"
Without pause my mother said "Yes, Micah". She was married to your father's cousin Michael (who I have not met) and they had a son named Adam.
Micah is in fact Eric's wife, and was also an important festival volunteer as she was doing alot of the cooking for performers and volunteers.
Eric MCed the events and translated any English spoken from the stage into Inuktitut.

Photo of Adam Lightstone’s high school graduation on the wall at Eric and Micah’s house

Micah and her adopted infant Eli

Me hanging out with Eli

Isaiah (Micah’s other son) carrying Eli in the traditional Amoutik (baby carrier)

At both festivals that we visited we got to hear well known Inuit musicians singing their original country tunes in Inkutitut, as well as country gospel and Johnny Cash songs in Inuktitut. I have to say that it was very refreshing to hear so much Inuktitut being spoken in Nunavut. We even met some people (elders) who did not speak much English.
I say refreshing because I have worked and traveled amongst other groups of Aboriginal people in Canada and always heard the same story: about how the indigenous language is almost gone, very few native speakers are left, some dedicated young people are passionate about preserving it, but it is an uphill battle and the language is very endangered. So I say refreshing because that is NOT what I observed in Iqaluit and Igloolik. Many people seemed to be very fluent, the CBC has entire programs broadcast in Inkutiut, and we were provided with translators so that our stage banter could be translated.

Aaron and Paul at the Igloolik airport waiting for the flight back to Iqaluit

Aaron and Charlie getting ready to leave Igloolik.

Charlie and Paul - Performing at the Alainait festival.
On our last night in Igloolik, Charlie invited me to sing with him, he would not tell me what we where going to sing, just that I would pick it up quick. He brought me up to the stage to sing a “repeat after me” song. It was all in Inuktitut and a real tongue twister. I am pretty sure I did not pronounce a single word correctly. The crowd got a pretty solid laugh out of my attempt to follow along with Charlie.

Signs in Nunavut
Whenever I travel I like to take pictures of signs that I find interesting, unusual, or humorous.

There are still lots more stories to share, I hope to add to this blog with some video when I get a chance to edit some that I shot.
Anyway many thanks to all the other artists we met along the way, the organizers of both festivals and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Off to Iqaluit!

2010-06-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

We left early this morning for the Aiainait Arts Festival in Iqaluit, Nunavut! Check out this article on the festival