JDub Records

Hey everyone!

I am in a state of great excitement preparing right now for The Sway Machinery’s first trip to Africa!

We have been invited to perform at the legendary Festival of the Desert in Mali, the festival that launched the career of Tinariwen and has featured all of the greats of Malian music (Ali Farka Toure, Selif Keita) as well as international luminaries like Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin and Manu Chao!

We are hitting the big time: playing for an audience of 10,000 in the middle of the SAHARA DESERT…I kid you not.

The Sway Machinery will also be the first band representing any aspect of Jewish culture at this massive Malian festival. As you may know, Mali is an Islamic nation, where Judaism was formally banned in an Inquisition in the year 1492 (the same year as the more famous Spanish Inquisition and Expulsion of the Jews), so the prospect of traveling to Africa as a representative of the Jewish community is extremely daunting, exciting and deeply humbling!

While in Mali we will also be followed by a small film crew documenting our experience, PLUS we will be recording our next album in Mali after the festival

It’s all too much to describe in one blog entry, so I will attempt to post weekly updates about the progress of our preparation here on the JDub blog page. Also, I’d like to put it out there that we are still grossly under budget for this project.  Feel like getting involved? You can make an immediate impact on the success of this unprecedented meeting of cultures by making a tax-deductible donation.  Click for the donation page of our fiscal sponsor, Joodayoh, Inc:

Above is a video clip from the Festival.  Feast your eyes!  Khaira Arby, who is featured in this clip, will be one of the guest artists performing with us on the new Sway Machinery album that we will be recording!