Month after month the Musical Instrument Museum doesn’t fail to deliver a rich mix of music from around the globe. Tonight’s featured musicians from Niger are known as Etran Finatawa – click the link to watch them live. These five men perform what they call Nomad Blues. They are Tuareg and Wodaabe nomads playing traditional gourd instruments, a goatskin drum, flute along with guitar, and hand clapping. The magic of them coming to the United States and the generosity of The MIM bringing them to Phoenix was nothing less than amazing. It’s not very often that musicians emerge from one of the five poorest countries on earth to tour the world. This part of their tour primarily focused on the western U.S. with only Chicago and New York having scheduled dates west of the Mississippi.

Etran Finatawa’s performance went by fast although they did play for nearly an hour before an intermission. When they came back on stage for the second half, it was during this part of the concert that Etran really got the audience going. Two of the percussionists came forward joining the other Wodaabe member for a spectacular display of dance and eye movements particular to the Wodaabe. Our peek into this culture from a remote corner of the world was our great fortune. Sadly it will likely be another couple of years before they make a return visit to America. Watch a video by clicking here to see a segment of the Werner Herzog film about the Wodaabe. And click here to watch Tuareg dancing from the Ghadames Cultural Festival.

Photos courtesy of The MIM and Jimmy C. Carrauthers of Great Leap Productions.