Baraka Moon
In January 2008 Bob Baldock, Special Events coordinator for KPFA radio, asked me to put together a group of musicians to accompany Coleman Barks in an early February evening dedicated to celebrating Rumi’s 800th birthday in Berkeley, California. I knew that Coleman had previously included vocalists in his performances so I was inspired to ask Sukhawat Ali Khan to be a part of the evening. I have worked with Geoffrey Gordon since our time together in Beasts of Paradise in the early 1990’s. Geoffrey has also worked many times with Coleman and was the obvious choice to bring his musical sensibility, drumming and percussion skills to the event, and cellist Kris Yenney made up the quartet, bringing a lyrical and emotive counterpoint to Sukhawat’s vocals and the didge on the one hand and a bridge to the classical realm on the other.

A couple of weeks later, encouraged by the response to the music of the Rumi event, and championed by our friend Alisa Farina, Geoffrey Gordon, Sukhawat Ali Khan and I got together on the night of an eclipse of the full moon and on that night, full of possibility, purpose (and excellent Cholle) Baraka Moon was born.

These recordings are from the first forays the group of us has made into the material that so far defines the Baraka Moon sound – Sufi trance songs, Indian classical ragas and improvised soundtracks celebrating diverse global cultures in glorious musical harmony.
The three of us got together in The Weaving Room and laid down the foundations for this CD, which Geoffrey then took to his own studio and we continued to refine from there.