Photograph courtesy of Fontain's M.U.S.E.
Family Band: Fontain Riddle, left, and her husband, Farhan Khan, are two members of the Eastern music band Fontain's M.U.S.E. that will play on a stage near Minnesota Avenue between 5 and 7 p.m. at Dancing on the Avenue June 16.
Eastern band, magician will visit Willow Glen's annual dancefest
M.U.S.E. brings exotic element of mysticism, magic to Dancing on Avenue
By Kate Carter
Lincoln Avenue's annual transformation into Dancing on the Avenue will, this year, include a trip out of familiar Willow Glen into the mystical, magical world of Ali Baba and Aladdin.
Three Lincoln Avenue stores--the Willow Glen Coffee Roasting Company, Violet Johnson's Wellness Spa and Vin Santo--teamed up to make the stories of Arabian Nights a reality down at their end of Willow Glen's business district.
Local band Fontain's M.U.S.E. will play its Eastern-influenced music, while belly dancers, spinner dancers and magicians entertain the crowd at a stage near Minnesota Avenue from 5 to 7 p.m. at the June 16 event.
"It's like going to a market in the Middle East where people are doing sideshows," band singer Fontain Riddle says.
Fontain's M.U.S.E.--the acronym stands for Music is the Universal Source of Enlightenment--makes more than just music, Riddle says. Its music is to be a source of inspiration. The goal, she says, is to encourage everyone to be a muse, sparking curiosity and creativity for each other.
The band plays what Riddle calls "world, international music," singing in English, French, Persian and Urdu--a Pakistani language--accompanied by exotic musical instruments.
The main band members are Riddle, her husband, Farhan Khan, and her uncle-in-law, Robert Constantine, who interchange instruments for the different songs, Riddle says.
"We're all sort of multi-instrumental," she says.
Riddle writes her own lyrics, and plays bass guitar and electric sitar, which is a stringed Indian instrument made from two gourds, she says.
Constantine composes the musical arrangements and plays guitar and bouzoukie, which is a teardrop-shaped stringed Greek instrument. Khan plays bass and a traditional Indian sitar.
Additional band members are percussionists Cameron Landers and Jon Kendall and tablas-player Wikki Singh.
Riddle, who was raised in Washington, D.C., says she has been interested in Eastern philosophy and art since she was child. She spent time traveling in Malaysia and discovered Islamic culture.
"The art, sound and architecture of these cultures just sort of attracted me," Riddle says. "I've used it in my own art."
Riddle says she met Khan when they were both students at Cogswell Polytechnical College in Sunnyvale. Khan, who comes from a large Persian family, was impressed that she knew so much about his world, she says.
For her part, Riddle says she was hooked when Khan told her the sitar was "in his blood."
The two and Constantine came together to form their band about four years ago, at the same time that Riddle's brother, Michael Stroud, was putting together a local act as Majinga the Magician.
The sister and brother found they could work together to enhance each other's performances, and their monthly gigs at Campbell's historic Gaslighter Theater are still pleasing crowds three years later.
"It was just a coincidence that we were going the same way," Riddle says.
Fontain's M.U.S.E. and Majinga have also performed at San Francisco's James Lick Auditorium, the Saratoga Community Center and the Pacific Community Center in Santa Cruz, among others.
Riddle says the band brings the whole entourage, including Majinga and belly dancers, to larger performances, but plays alone at smaller venues.
The band released its first CD, Sacred Sacrifice, in April 2000, and is planning to release its second CD, Fire Trance, this summer.
The release is scheduled to coincide with the Butterfly Benefit for Musicians and Fine Artists for World Peace on June 29, at 8 p.m. in Berkeley, Riddle says.
Return to the Dancing on the Avenue 2001 index
For more information about Fontain's M.U.S.E., visit www.fontainsmuse.com. For more information about the June 29 benefit, call 510.528.7730.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
