The Darbuka

This detail is a piece of skin of a Ray forming the drumhead of a Darbuka. We bought it in a music shop in Essaouira in Morocco. By way of diversion, one of Essaouira's claim to fame is that it apparently is the one and only place where Jimi Hendrix took a holiday and where he wrote "Castles Made of Sand" while on the beach there. As nearly every hotel in town claims to be the one where the guitar god stayed, who knows.

The guy in the shop was a scream, unable to resist enthusiastically demonstrating his skills on every drum in his shop, which was decorated with photographs of every rock star you could imagine - of a certain generation - Bob Marley, Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, and of course Jimi Hendrix - you name 'em, he knew 'em. Personally. And who were we to argue. I was honoured to be added to his list of musician customers and he "definitely" wanted to be sent a copy of my band's demo CD and gave me his card so I could post one. (I nearly fell for that one but reality kicked in when I got home.)

Anyway, the endless patter was one of the more entertaining sales techniques we were exposed to in Morocco, and we were parted with a modest amount of folding stuff in exchange for the Ray-skinned Darbuka. The body of the drum is made of clay pottery and it is certainly capable of making a hell of a racket, even in my inexpert hands.