In my last post about the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, I didn't dwell very much on individual performances, since I was more concerned with conveying the feeling of being at the festival. So this time out, I'm taking the other route and just giving you a performance, sans any commentary from me. If you have never heard the Taarab music of Tanzania and Zanzibar, you may be surprised at how sweet it is. This is in large part due to the use of the Qanun, a most celestial sounding instrument. Taarab is a fairly recent genre, having been a court music created specifically for pleasure. There are even times when it sounds so pretty I find it ambient, and what with the beautiful sail-like shades shielding us from the sun in the courtyard floating serenely on the wind above us, the purely instrumental melodies sent more than one member of the audience into a trance. (As you will see, it even put a baby to sleep!)  But when Shakila Saidi started to sing, she changed that dreamy vibe, and supplied just the right amount of edge to keep me alert and appreciative.

If you would like to know more about the Qanun and to see a demonstration of this fascinating instrument, I recommend checking out the Turkish virtuoso Tamer Pinarbasi, whom I covered in a former posting.

This post will be a little bit different from my others. Rather than simply reporting on the music from the Fes Festival (which I will do in other postings) I'm going to try to convey the experience of being there. I've taken everything I shot from my first full day and laid the most vivid parts out, travelogue-style. So you're getting a full day in under 9 minutes.

A word on the video quality: I went with my Flip camera which was fine for some things, and truly inadequate for others. So you are going to see some pretty grainy stuff every now and then (low light, fuzzy zoom, or both).  You are also going to see some very high quality video that was kindly supplied to me by a REAL filmmaker with a REAL camera. So all in all it will be a bumpy ride. But frankly, Fes is a bumpy ride. That's why I start out with a statement from my colleague Cindy Byram, who has attended the festival for 6 years in a row, and who speaks from experience. In the end I agree with her 100%.

There are four main venues for the festival: three paying, one public. One generally starts the day at the Batha Museum courtyard, an intimate setting with a magnificent Barberry tree that spreads its shade over 65% of the area. After a dinner break, you head on out to catch the "Big Act" at the impressive walled Bab al Makina (another paying venue) and then pass through the Bab Boujloud public performance area on your way to the last musical event, at the lovely Dar Tazi, where you can sit at a table under the trees, sip mint tea, and listen to Sufi chants. The public performances have been added in the last few years, and this is where you will find your everyday Moroccan, since the paying venues are too expensive for most. The music there is more local, and I was particularly taken with this venue, as you will see.

As to the music?  Everything I saw had merit on some level, and some even made my heart sing. But to put in my two cents, I believe that for the  most part making music and listening to music is a transcendent act, so what is NOT sacred music?  Still, I guess calling it "sacred music" makes it easier to give the Festival a theme, and since the event and the vibe are so dogma-free and tolerant, how can I complain?

How does technology and the Internet express Oneness? I was watching clips from the upcoming ONENESS: The Big Picture (premiering on May 9th) and Deepak said "The Internet is the emergence of something so powerful but we have not realized it's impact."

This feels very true and I think the proper respect is due. If I write an email or a blog from my heart, it seems to have much more of an impact...people respond in kind. It is like the actual energy of my intention comes through my writing, or more like it, this web of light that connects us. This is Oneness, is it not?

I recently went to a conference called Wisdom 2.0 Summit where they were exploring how we use technology to connect in ways that are beneficial to our well-being and useful to the world. I have to say that having lived and worked in both fields -- technology and spirituality (is this a field?...not sure what to call it, but I do work here...) I was prepared not to be impressed with the level of consciousness there, but I am happy to report that I was wrong. There are people at Google, Twitter, Facebook, Mashable and Zappos that seem to have a deep connection to their responsibility to the whole. I almost cried I was so relieved. I mean if you look at the Huffington Post, they have added a religion section and are dedicating themselves to supplying the world with great wisdom teachers and this is a mainstream political publication!  They recently posted a story called "The Internet as a Living Symbol of Global Oneness" by Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. In this article he said, "I believe that the Internet is a gift we have been given. It provides an image of how the energy of life can flow freely in a way that defies the barriers of nationality and geography. Yet sadly because we are so immersed in the surface activity of this technology, in its tools of commerce and communication, we do not realize its deeper, symbolic dimension. A symbol is a connection to the sacred ground of our being which alone gives real meaning to our daily life."

I would love to hear Deepak comment on this.... I would love to hear how he honors this connectedness in his communications with life and community. I hope to ask this question on Mother's Day, May 9th when we host a live chat with him. I am certain mothers care about this issue because it is part of a larger issue. How do we live a life that honors life....

In early September we filmed two shows on the same day: ONE The Movie, featuring a lively discussion between Deepak Chopra and Riane Eisler, and Sound of the Soul, featuring Jewish, Muslim, and Christian guests discussing spiritual music as a vehicle for uniting people of different faiths.

The ONE The Movie discussion proved to be unlike any other show taped thus far, as the guests approached the concept of Oneness from very different angles. Deepak described the importance of consciousness, as it connects everything in the universe, and how a scientific understanding of this influences and inspires personal transfomation. Riane came from a more sociological perspective, stating that it's not the transcendent, which will forever be a mystery, but the imminent, and the change we can affect here and now, that fuels her personal spirituality. She seemed to ask, how can we even talk about Oneness, and being united, if we are not first equal?

It was a meeting that seemed, to me, challenging and exciting for both the guests and for our production team, and we look forward to presenting Deepak and Riane in a setting and conversation unlike any they've appeared in before. 

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The Sound of the Soul program centers around a documentary of the same title, which explores Morocco's annual Fez Festival of World Sacred Music. The festival brings together incredible musicians of many different faiths, as they celebrate a passion for music as a way of communicating with and connecting to the Divine.

The guests for this show include Sarah Talcott, the Youth Programs Director at United Religions Initiative, Marla Kolman Antebi, a community organizer and activist who works with Jewish and interfaith youth groups, and Kabir Helminski, a musician and Sufi sheikh who travels and teaches widely.

Also, Sound of the Soul was directed and produced by Stephen Olsson, the Producer of Global Spirit. Learn more about the film here: www.soundofsoul.org. And for more info about ONE The Movie, visit: www.onetheproject.com

In case you missed the premiere last Sunday, Breaking Bows and Arrows is airing again tonight at 11PM Eastern/8PM Pacific. This winner of the United Nations Media Peace award follows the reconciliation ceremony of bitter rivals in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea as they finally make peace. Check out the promo for this program here.

Also, be sure to catch the premiere of Music, Sound and the Sacred featuring Rev. Alan Jones and Grammy Award-winning-singer Joanne Shenandoah this Sunday at 9PM Eastern/6PM Pacific.