50 Shades of Blues in Abu Dhabi

Alivia and the Elite Blues Band kicked off my musical experience of 2015 in the sixth Rooftop Rhythms blues-centric musical venture, "50 Shades of Blues", at the Saadiyat Beach Club's De La Costa bar and lounge in Abu Dhabi. Blues being right up my musical alley, I was happy to find a dedicated local event for this genre (which seems to be even more rare here than jazz).

Alivia's powerful, broad-ranged vocals and engaging showmanship were backed by the Elite Blues Band's drummer Terrence and keyboardist Robert, the latter of whom also took over lead vocals now and then. Songs performed that night on the club's beachfront terrace ranged across blues, soul and R&B genres, beginning with some light, playful numbers like "Voodoo Woman" and "Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On". Later on, Robert showed us how it's done in Hammond mode when "Down Home Blues" came up in the playlist.

In the second set, audience participation began in earnest as Alivia took on a fan request and expertly rendered the Bobby Womack classic "Harry Hippie" -- a song that provided ample opportunities for a microphone pass-around. Closing a fun night of great musical performance with an enthusiastic crowd, the third and final set included popular hits like "I'll Be Around", progressively drawing people onto the dance floor, and pushing the night into the line dancing phase (obliging even bisinistrapedal me to give it a shot).

Rooftop Rhythms Dubai

Part of the revamp of the Boutique 7 Hotel near where I live was a new urban music and dance basement lounge they named "ego". I wanted to check it out at some point, and having previously attended a Rooftop Rhythms spoken word event in Abu Dhabi, I made their third Dubai installment (bottom) the occasion to visit the venue. The place has a cool look and the music during the post-event regular Friday night program was quite good, so I stayed afterwards a bit longer than I had originally planned (top right).

The event itself was very entertaining, including performances by spoken word artists both established in and new to the art. Two of the highlights of the evening were performances by hip hop artist Marcel Lteif (top left) and Dana Dajani (top right). Other notable performances were the first by a Filipino artist at RR, as well as a musical intermission by a talented flautist (bottom left). It also happened to be birthday of RR's founder and emcee, Dorian Paul Rogers, so the evening featured a cake moment (bottom right).

Verse, vibe and Will at Rooftop Rhythms #17

A strange confluence of non-events permitted me a Friday evening free enough to drive down to Abu Dhabi and join the wordsmiths of the city's Rooftop Rhythms at their 17th open mic, at the Hilton Capital Grand.

Dorian

The organizer/emcee, Dorian, kept the energy up with charm and (sometimes deliberately groansome) humor, and the DJ set the mood with some wonderfully bouncy tunes. The weather was pleasant enough for the outdoor poolside section of the rooftop bar venue to be opened up -- a good thing too, because a LOT of people turned up. A projector above the stage played a (slightly distracting when performances were in progress) slideshow of images from what I presume were past open mics.

Will McInerney

We listened to several spoken word pieces about family, technology, love, and such; many of these were very relatable and clever. A couple of my favorites were the ones about sibling relationships and the one about GPS (in the case of the latter, until it started getting preachy well beyond the ceremonial deism threshold). In addition to the spoken, some sung and others rapped, adding further diversity to the talent buffet. Visiting American spoken word celebrity Will McInerney was also at the event, and delighted us with a few intense performances.