“I found love on the mountain and I’m trying to bring it down to these streets. Love like a fountain and I want to give it to the people that I meet.”

Chris Berry and Panjea pulse these words through my iPod in the rented Toyota Yaris I’m driving. I’m winding my way up the side of Haleakala Crater on Maui, my windows down. I feel the air beginning to cool as I ascend to higher elevation. It’s August 16, about 11am and I know the full moon is visible in Asia, where a complete lunar eclipse can be seen in their night sky. In this daylight I can’t see the celestial phenomena, but somehow, just knowing it’s happening I’m on the lookout for magic. Read more

I have chronicled the skin tingling, ascent up Haleakala Crater to the tunes of Chris Berry and Panjea. That cosmic climb was in August 2008.

Fast forward to February 2009 and I’m in stocking feet dancing with an eclectic mix of eccentrics on a wood-floored gymnasium at 3 in the morning. Chris Berry sits before us on the make-shift stage beneath a basketball hoop overflowing with fountainous flowers. Michael Kang is at his side, the organic alter of crystals, Ti leaves and sweetgrass at their feet. Several other incredible percussionists are with them on djembe, mirimba and rattles. Together they are playing the African-inspired Panjea jams to a crowd of about a hundred festival goers.

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