How this CD came to be:

Sobobade is a Haitian word that means “the God who welcomes in all the other Gods.” It’s also the name of a hotel and artist retreat in Senegal, West Africa in the coastal town of Toubab Dialaw, a small fishing village about an hour south of Dakar. Tony Vacca, the leader of the world fusion band World Rhythms, of which I’m a member, invited me to join him as part of the Senegal-America Project, a group that works to bridge the two cultures. We spent a total of 12 days in early 2006 traveling with 17 people, mostly educators who teach about Africa in their classrooms but had never been there. This was my second trip to Africa; my first was to Ghana in 2000 to study drumming.

Sobobade is absolutely magical. Set on a small cliff overlooking the ocean, it is an artist’s vision of an artistic paradise. Created by Haitian artist Gerard Chenet, it has a variety of buildings where people can rent rooms and all of the buildings are meticulously and beautifully covered with mosaics of shells