We’re packing and cataloging and getting all this lovely old musical gear ready to pile into the nooks and crannies of Cherif’s container next week. The last few donations from DC’s amazing musical community have now come in, and they were critical!
Andrew Roberts with HMT: Sounds Reasonable met us on the street oustide a Persian wedding he was working in DC to offer up a mess of mic stands and a rackmount EQ to sweeten the sound overseas. Nice!
Art Isaacs, one of the top sound engineers in the business (e.g, ran sound for Obama’s ’09 inauguration) and a great, calm, positive spirit, offered up an amazing Mackie 16-channel mixer w/ case! Unbelievable, and precisely the center-piece needed to make all this work.
Scott Aronson of Elikeh kicked in with a sweet little Peavey bass amp that will be perfect for small rehearsals and just practicing alone. Bass players in Abidjan almost never have the luxury of practicing while actually plugged in to anything. This will make someone very happy, and a much better bass player. Sweet!
Cheryl Terwilliger from Chopteeth and Director of the Music Program at a local private school, brought over a Yamaha PSR-550, which is pretty much the precise keyboard the guys were hoping for in Abidjan. We’ll make the case forcefully for it to not be used to play synth horn lines, but that’s a strong headwind over there I’m afraid.
From monetary donations and Grigri Discs funds we were also able to pack up a laptop and digital camera, along with some heavy duty voltage converters and extension cords so we don’t fry anything in its new 220 volt home.
We can’t tell you how grateful we are for everyone’s generosity of spirit! This has been an incredible last few weeks, and we will do our utmost to make sure everything gets to Abidjan, and is put to maximum good use for the Zieti community.
Updates on the shipping as events unfold, as well as news on an album release party in DC for “Zemelewa” in early March. Stay tuned…
ZIETI 
Leave a Reply