When I relocated from San Francisco to Portland in the early 1980s, Joseph Rowe was one of the first people whom I met here. He broadcast a weekly program on ‘world music’ on local public radio, and was a musician himself – it turned out he played oud, and was a student of Hamza in Austion before I met Hamza in San francisco, so we had stories to trade. He had heard I was devoted to the Sufi path and wanted to know more about it. Such people, who are willing to cross boundaries for the sake of beauty, stitch together the wounds of this world (tikkun olam). Like many young men (and young women) of the time, he had a terrible struggle with forces greater than himself, and left Portland … we lost touch, and he turned up later in France, happily married to vocalist Catherine Braslavsky, with whom he released several recordings. I remember him as a trobador on the path of love, and a true darvish. Rest thee well!
When I relocated from San Francisco to Portland in the early 1980s, Joseph Rowe was one of the first people whom I met here. He broadcast a weekly program on ‘world music’ on local public radio, and was a musician himself – it turned out he played oud, and was a student of Hamza in Austion before I met Hamza in San francisco, so we had stories to trade. He had heard I was devoted to the Sufi path and wanted to know more about it. Such people, who are willing to cross boundaries for the sake of beauty, stitch together the wounds of this world (tikkun olam). Like many young men (and young women) of the time, he had a terrible struggle with forces greater than himself, and left Portland … we lost touch, and he turned up later in France, happily married to vocalist Catherine Braslavsky, with whom he released several recordings. I remember him as a trobador on the path of love, and a true darvish. Rest thee well!