This year is the 7th Annual JT Didgeridoo Festival and for the 2nd year in a row it’s in the beautiful Native American settlement location in North Fork, California, just outside of Yosemite

[The JT festival established itself in the first few years of its existence in a camp ground outside Joshua Tree and, after a series of memorable annual festivals during which, to varying degrees, the elements made the challenge of gathering with a few hundred Didjeridu enthusiasts greater - the last time I had to retrieve my tent from a barbed wire fence some distance from the site, where the wind had blown it.

Each year, apart from the first one in 2000 [when I had just returned from the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land] I have made it to the JT [NOW the Jamming Tree Didgeridoo Festival, hosted by Grahm and Trish of The Didgeridoo Store and tried to be there with a different approach to my own didjeridu playing. Several years I have performed solo – 2001, 2002, 2005 once, in 2004, I came with Tuvan throat singers Chirgilchin and Altay composer and nature impressionist Sarymai, another year, 2003, I was there with Trance Mission. This year I promised Trish and Grahm a solo set of completely new material. To a large extent this actually materialized, but in the form of a largely improvised set with some collaborations set up on the night itself.

I arrived late on the Friday night too late to see any of the ‘Headline’ performers including Aboriginal dance group the Doonooch Dancers [and too late for my first workshop, “The Didjeridu - Fast and Furious”, which I found out about on my arrival – the bush telegraph had not been working when this was scheduled] but just in time to see a short set by Omid/Larrpan. Omid is someone who in the past few years has made it his business to delve deep into the Yolgnu roots of the didjeridu and has spent significant time in NE Arnhem Land with the community there and, especially with Djalu Gurruwiwi . The knowledge he has gained through these experiences, along with his excellent communication from the stage and his boundless enthusiasm makes his presentation very compelling and I was happy to see someone not from the Aboriginal tradition itself who is able to bring their own experiences from that world so much to life, with so much love.

Later the jamming started and onstage MC David Blonski, one of the very big-hearted perennial JT features was joined in turn by a series of other players including Ron Crose [with an intriguingly nifty style very reminiscent at times of my own playing], Rafael Bejerano and many others accompanied [or perhaps interfered with] at times by some rather sketchy percussion [this is a Didjeridu / Didgeridoo Festival after all]. I wandered the landscape of booths and teepees socializing and listening to the mix ebb and flow, eventually ending up in the jam session in Chad’s Teepee which was set to go all night. A trance experience. At some point I was introduced to a monster Dr.Seuss didj –like a Djalu stick on acid -  made from some indeterminate resin or plastic or god knows what (someone will tell me, I know…) striped and tapering to a long small mouthpiece and probably pitched around F sharp and it took root in my mouth for a while. There was droning, dancing and mayhem. I tore myself away to be ready for Saturday where I was programmed for 2 workshops and a concert in the evening……

Saturday morning I whizzed past Bass Lake from Grahm & Trish’s very cool B&B [no camping for me this year] and arrived at the site in time to welcome a sizable group of people intent on attending my Beginners Class. I think this is the first time I’ve done one of these at JT and it was great to have the opportunity to address the beginnings of playing the instrument. There must be SOMETHING I’ve learnt over the past 25 years of playing the Didj that I can pass on to beginners. I enjoy the teaching too.

Later I kicked in to my “Didjeridu – Fast and Furious” workshop for real and, again, it was well attended. There’s such a diversity of players coming through now and always newcomers with lots of energy for the didj. Still, I didn’t really think that the majority of my workshop attendees were up for getting TOO fast or TOO furious. On this occasion we stayed well within the boundaries. Nevertheless I imagine that the didj playing abilities of large numbers of N.Americans is now quite good. JT, rather than the be all and end all of N.American didj players, just scratches the surface I reckon.

I was nervous about the evening’s concert, from a personal point of view. Having promised a set of new music I had not found the time, for a variety of reasons, to work  up a whole new repertoire of composed solo didj pieces. [Alert, Alert!!! This IS something I want to do and record VERY soon!]. Most of my playing over the past period of time seems to have been largely collaborative, with people, such as CHirgilchin, or Mali-oriented bluesman Markus James and his band, the Wassonrai. Then there was the whole Korea episode, which simply wasn’t conducive to that type of focus.