concert at mate midbar

LAst night, a bunch of us went to a concert at this restuarant in Beer sheva called mate midbar. It literally translates as plantation of the desert but i suppose they mean oasis. Anyway, the restaurant is actually an ancient house thats been remodelled in an "artistic" way. Its just a series of rooms with desert paintings on the wall and low furniture, you know the kind where you sit on the floor on mattresses and cushions. The concert was sponsored by the french embassy in israel. But the really cool thing about the concert was the jam session between performers from various disciplines. I dont remember all their names but it involved an oud, a mandolin, a bass guitar, a sax/melodica and a percussion set. They mostly played desertish songs but apparently they also played a waltz and stuff, but I just couldnt make out. I thought that they took their time geting used to each other, the sax player (David Raymond) had been in israel only for a week or so; but once they did so it was great. We were sitting quite close to the musicians and so were able to catch every grimace. The oud was the strange one in the set. i think that it has such a powerful tone that really its too much of a star to be along with other instruments. All it needs is a desert and a drum and moonlight. By the way the oud was played by this bedouin (mohammed abu ajaj) who ive seen in concert before.