Cairo Caravan 2011

I recently experienced Cairo Caravan aboard the famous Queen Mary ship, anchored in Long Beach Harbor, California. This 3 day event is organized and hosted every year by MECDA, the Middle Eastern Culture and Dance Association. The primary focus of the event is belly dancing, and there are 3 stages located on the 3 levels that are used, where throughout the day there are amazing performances. In addition, they have workshops and seminars by professional dancers from around the country and world.

The other smaller related focus of Cairo Caravan is on Middle Eastern drumming and percussion, and this is what sparked my interest in the first place. The stars of the weekend for me were Raquy Danziger and Liron Peled, otherwise known as Raquy and the Cavemen. They are professional drummers that have performed and taught workshops around world. Raquy hails from Brooklyn, NY and Liron is from Israel originally. They gave several outstanding performances and workshops throughout the weekend. Raquy plays the doumbek drum and the Kemenche style spike fiddle. She has studied and performed in Egypt with the likes of Said El Artist. Raquy lives part time in Turkey, where she performs as well as studies with master darbuka player Bunjamin Olgucan. Liron has played with Omar Faruk, among many others. His mastery of the "Boom-bek" (large brass doumbek) and many other percussion instruments is impressive. They both also "throat sing", which really blew me away. I had the great pleasure to meet them early in the weekend, as I was involved as an instrument vendor and also stayed aboard the ship for the entire weekend. We hit it off right away, and I had many great times with these super kind and fun people. Raquy is a special person, in touch with her "true self". She practices meditation and yoga regularly, and this reflects in her caring, kind nature, as well as her amazing musical ability. Her energy is completely contagious, and she has many affectionate students that attend her workshops regularly and also perform with her.

There was also a stage located just outside the ship, where there were drumming and belly dancing performances all day. I performed there with Cairo Beats, a collection of doumbek drumming students from my home San Diego that study under Frank Lazzaro. Frank has been on the drumming scene in SD for years, and has performed with some of the greats, including oud master John Bilezikjian. He plays doumbek and percussion with the Middle Earth Ensemble, as well as a full blown kit with the legendary Travel Agents. His drumming abilities span the globe, in that he is a master of many disciplines, including African, Middle Eastern and Latin percussion. He has also been a friend of mine for at least the last ten years.

I had a vendor's table at this great event, representing my online music store Global Musical Instruments. I offered many types of instruments there, with the emphasis being on Middle Eastern percussion. Lots of frame drums, tambourines, riqs, doumbeks, and even a sensemia!

I will definitely be back to Cairo Caravan again next year. The staff that puts it on are so great, and I made many fond connections with so many great people such as organizers Julie, Amy and Blume. Look for the Global Musical Instruments booth, where we will again be selling instruments and sharing great times with the friendly folks there.