Raquy Danziger's Blog

Egypt Tour

All the concerts went really well. We didn’t have one show that wasn’t packed and everyone was very excited! I posted footage from some of the shows on You Tube so you can check them out:

Mageneen Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnFM4sYPN8w
Mageneen Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL6x7KQOt9M
And here's a clip from me and Fikry at the Cairo Jazz Club:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPK1x256dug

Here are some photos from them!

Alexandria

The Messengers backstage in Alex!

Minia

Drum and Dance Jam after the Concert!

University Student Recital

They did GREAT!

Television

Altogether I’ve been on TV about 8 times so far this trip. Two TV stations showed up to the student show! One of them was the 8:00 news and we watched it the next day!

Other Media

So far there are three newspaper articles out about me and one beautifully done magazine article.

Today I was sitting on the beach in Sinai (yes, again) and the waiter came up to me and showed me another article in the paper about some American girl in Cairo named Raquia Stevens, 28 years old, who plays tabla and rababa and teaches tabla at the University! The article said that after work she goes to play with her Egyptian band. I wonder why I haven’t met her yet we seem to be doing very similar things!

Our show at the Cairo Jazz Club got rave reviews on Nile FM radio station!

My University class is over! Teaching it was such an enjoyable experience, and a number of the students are truly inspired – they plan on forming a drumming band together!

The other news is that I bought 37 beautiful raquy dumbeks – a bunch of 4 peg, several 6 peg and four simbati’s (big ones). Let’s just hope the shipment arrives soon!

We had one last fling in the Sinai desert (this time five days) for INTENSE practicing. That’s all we did besides swim and eat. I’m actually sunburnt on my wrists from practicing in the sun so much! I came up with this gorgeous new roll that sounds like waves crashing!

So now we have three days left in Cairo to wrap everything up and I’ll be back to New York this weekend! Soy Latte, here I come!