My wife Cindy and I attend Renfest, the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. We were part of a group doing a short act for the Feast of Fantasy, a 2+ hour sit down several course meal with entertainment.
Cindy and I were part of the belly dance act – 3 dancers, a drummer, and myself alternating on bones and jumbush, a Turkish fretless banjo played like an loud. I played bones in a percussion only piece in the act Our piece always ended with the brass quartet upstairs playing the theme from “I dream of Jeannie”, and I got in the habit of running upstairs and playing bones with them. It was amusing. Cindy is a dancer so we have been involved in the belly dance community here for awhile
By email, I to mentioned Stephen Brown about my playing bones with middle eastern music, and I got this reply back. “I’ve been playing Doumbec long before I started playing bones, and sell through the mid east drum company, interestingly enough. I’ve sat in with a Turkish musician playing bones, it is interesting stuff. Also there is a very good doumbec player from New York, Raqi Dansiger who is also a very good bones player, so everything is connected I guess.” Take care, Charlie Obert