Viejo-Topo’s special summer season, June 1, 2007

The seed planted eight months ago by Isaac Toporek, Leticia Carreño and Jorge Rueda has started to bear fruits, to the delight of sanmiguelenses. El Viejo-Topo started presenting shows the first week of January this year, with Daniel Packard’s stand-up comedy “Live Group Sex Therapy.

” A few weeks later, the well-known Mexican blues singer Betsy Pecanins, regarded as the grandmother of the venue gave a beautiful recital still remembered by the audience privileged to witness it.

Up to now, El Viejo-Topo has presented artists who live in San Miguel, such as A Tribe of Two Duo (Bob Kaplan and Joe Warner) and La Quinta Esencia; Mexican artists such as Andrés Cantisani and Juan Carlos Vives, and foreign talents like Anne Montange, Erika Luckett and Sheila Glover.

With all these shows presented in only five months, El Viejo-Topo has earned a reputation as a venue with high-quality artists.

A new world music season is on its way this summer. Concerts range from Klezmer and tango to funk and jazz-fusion. Jorge Campos, a Chilean bassist living in Canada is among the confirmed artists. He has shared the stage with musical giants such as Sting, Peter Gabriel and Dizzy Gillespie, and has played at the Montreux Jazz Festival and the London Royal Festival Hall. He also has built a solid career as a teacher of Latin music and electric bass at Berkeley School of Jazz and the University of Illinois at Chicago. This bass virtuoso will delight the San Miguel audience with a fusion of jazz and progressive rock combined with traditional Latin American music mixed with drums. Visit either of these two sites to learn more on what you will hear June 22: www.eltemplo.cl/html/eng/biografia.htm or www.myspace.com/jorgecamposproject.

Jaramar, the renowned Mexican musician and singer appears a week later. Jaramar researches the mix and rescue of traditional Sephardic and Moorish music from Spain and the crossbreeding music that flourished in Mexico. She has rescued old songs and converted them into beautiful pieces of art with her well-educated voice and her fine sensibility. She has been a part of several music ensembles, including Escalon and Ars Antiqua, and her work appears in Putumayo world music compilations. Visit www.jaramar.com.mx  or www.myspace.com/jaramar  to find out more about this exceptional artist.

Both of these concerts will be unforgettable, and the goal at El Viejo-Topo is to maintain the same quality of talent throughout the summer.

Cuban ensemble conjures Havana nights

Concert
“Conjunto Sabrosón de Cuba”
Fri, June 1, 8pm
Teatro Ángela Peralta
Corner of Mesones and Hernández Macías
150/100/80
155-9336

“Conjunto Sabrosón de Cuba” performs one time only Friday, June 1 at 8pm at the Angela Peralta. The group is on a tour of Mexico, presenting their rich musical culture which has been popular for over a century. The four different types of Cuban music present in Mexico today are the Danzón, the Mambo, the Chachacha and the Bolero and they are among the strongest and most important cultural expressions of Latin America.

The group is made up of six musicians with exceptional musical experience: on the piano, Ernesto Perez who has been on the stage with salsero Ismael Miranda; the bass of Alexis Echevarria from Santiago de Cuba; the authentic cuban tumbao with the drums of Mario Bastarrica and Cristóbal Quezada; the trombone of Jesús Montalvan who has played with the well known Willy Colón; and, last but not least, the exraordinary voice of Nurys Santiesteban from Havana.

Tickets are on sale at Restaurant la Alborada, Sollano 11; Galeria Atenea, Jesús 2; and the entrance to the theater.

The prices are Luneta 150 pesos, palcos 100 pesos and gallery for 80 pesos. Further information, call 155-9336.

Fortune foretells Gipsy concert

Concert
“Reflections on Gipsy Music”
Mon, June 4, 7pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50 A
100 pesos

We now know that the gypsies originated in the Punjab in northwestern India, fleeing from the region during the clashes between invading Arab and Mongolian warriors, a thousand years ago. On their long odyssey, they traveled through, and settled in, the countries of the Middle East, including Persia and Egypt. Indeed, they became so closely associated with Egypt that they eventually came to believe that they were descendants of the Pharaohs, a legend to which many of their songs still refer—as a result of which they were called Egyptians, or “Gypcians” in English; while, in old Spanish, Gitano was simply a way of saying “Egyptian.” In fact, having no written history, they had forgotten where they really came from.

They reached Spain in the early 15th century and quickly spread all over the country. Although they were not expelled along with the Moors and Jews during the 16th century, partly because they represented no threat to the political and religious supremacy of reunified, Christian Spain, and partly because it was simply too difficult to physically get hold of them all, they were eventually forced to give up their Romani language (now identified by linguists as a simplified version of Sanskrit), as well as their nomadic ways. 

The Teatro Santa Ana presents a Gypsy Night Concert performed by Guitarist and singer El Javi Hernandez. Tickets are on sale at the Theater office.

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