Strong breath to blow off the dust
Treuheuheuh-cough-cough!
Aaaaatcha!
Snirfl!
Hey breathers! 
I’m bringing back (again) my topic to tell you about a cool experience I had at Nomadidge this year. The workshops were thorough, the bathtub was awesome, the concerts were intoxicating…
Oh yeah, but there were also the jams. 
I managed to miss pretty much all the jams, because you gotta eat, sleep, because I was in a workshop…
Festival food is way too good!
But there was one I actually did.
This year, Sunday night was all about sharing. After Jamalam’s concert, the stage was set up and opened for jams. Me, right away, all fired up, I thought « Oh yeah, a great chance to hear myself amplified, and to have an intense Jam.. » On top of the world, I mention it to Kid who was organizing things.
Yeah, except that Sunday it was cold. Except stage fright started to rear its head. Sensing trouble coming but not wanting to back out, I tell Kid it would help if I could go last to do something cool, a good kick-off for the night. Well, I think I made the right call not attempting what I know how to do at my best level.
Because it was extraordinary.
So here comes the last jam. With a didge. Because we didn’t have that many. And then a handpan. Kid asks me what key my didge is in. Then he asks the crowd: « Who has a handpan in D and would like to play it or lend it? »
At that, Laurie Pwet answers that her handpan is in D and she’s happy to lend it, but to someone trustworthy. Clément, from Jamalam, volunteers to play it. She also gets on stage and pulls out her clarinet.
While Laurie and Clément are getting set up, I try to put my didge on the stand (an egg-shaped bell, vertically long and narrow, on a curved didge, it needs a stand with close hooks). In the end, I end up holding my didge firmly so it doesn’t fall.
It’s still very cold. I’m on the verge of shivering.
Laurie calls out to the crowd and invites the guy good at overtone singing, if he’d like to come. Mike takes the stage, and Laurie also shows him how to use the shruti box.
We start slow. In front of me, a black hole and lights blinding me.
The sound of the instruments fills the tent, the first time I’ve had such clear and powerful feedback from my didge. I’m struggling to get into it. My lips are numb. But I go for it, here we go!
Kid gets on stage and asks if I’m okay with another didge player joining me.
I signal yes. He sets the wood slide next to me in D and steps aside. I don’t see who comes in. It’s traditional stuff. Right away, I think of Lily Roots or Othello Ravez. Lily opened the evening jams, Othello did several. Thank you, I think to myself. The clear and syncopated rhythm helps me get my bearings.
As attentive as possible to the other instruments, I do my best to respond to them, give them something to bounce off. I fight against hyperventilation that eventually starts to show up (that only happened to me once at the beginning of circular breathing, back in 2019). Another thing to manage on top of the cold and nerves. OK, what does Gauthier suggest? Well, let’s do it, we deoxygenate in the didge, we go longer!
In the end, it lasted almost 13 minutes. I still can’t believe it. I was well below my usual level. Whatever, it was awesome, people loved it, we had a great time. The piece ends, it’s Lily Roots next to me. That fills me with joy. This whole experience fills me with joy. 
Tons of applause. I’m stunned. I go around thanking everyone on stage. I come down, I rejoin my wife and our friends there. I’m trembling like a leaf. Correction, like I’ve got a jackhammer on my back. I’m falling apart.
It was wild, it was incredible, it was awesome. This jam would be worth doing again as a first time, I wouldn’t change a thing. It was magical. Four really good musicians with me, it was intimidating, but on the other hand, it was also reassuring.
And it was great, it does wonders for the morale, and the compliments I got go straight to the heart.
I have so much gratitude for everyone who made this moment happen 
Including Gauthier, who missed it, the Wakademy folks and their advice, Greg, the association, Vincent on sound, Laurie, Clément, Lily Roots, Mike, Kid, and Marion and Delphine for their support and encouragement
And humbly, I thank myself for allowing myself to live this, for overcoming my apprehensions, my fear of messing up. And it’s super motivating to keep working. And to try playing more often with others, in public, recorded…
My story is based on what I remember, I definitely didn’t see everything. I was on another planet…
For those who haven’t seen the video, go check it out
