November 16, 2007, Hungarian schmaltz is not real Gypsy music, By ''El Javi'' Estrada, Outstanding chamber music at Pro Música, By Bob Kelly, Festival de Música de Cámara 2007, By Kathleen B. Bohné, XIII International Festival de Jazz y Blues, Bob Sheppard: Jung at heart, By Glenda Robinson, Classical guitar concert by José Manuel Alcántara, Come one, come all to free jazz classes

Hungarian schmaltz is not real Gypsy music
By “El Javi” Estrada

Concert
“El Javi” Estrada
Gypsy voice and guitar
Tues, Nov 20, 7:30pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
100 pesos

Gypsy and Hungarian folk music are often confused. Gypsy music as it is known and played in Hungarian restaurants from Budapest to Boston is urban schmaltz and based on recruiting tunes (verbunkos) played during Rákóczi’s war for independence from the Austrian Habsburg empire 300 years ago. The usual line-up is a pair of fiddles, a bass and a cymbalom (stringed instrument played with sticks). If you want to hear this csardas music for Hungarian folk dances (colored by Gypsy influence), you can buy a CD by Sandor Lakatos or his son Deki.

To confuse matters even further, real Gypsy music does not use instruments but is sung a cappella, though sometimes backed with guitar and percussion. A good recording of Hungarian Gypsy folk songs is Magyarorszagi Cigany Nepdalok (Hungarian Gypsy Folk Songs). The best modern Gypsy group is Kalyi Jag (Black Fire), led by Gusztav Varga. The group plays all sorts of unconventional instruments and gives performances from time to time at Budapest tanchazak (dance houses).

This Tuesday, “El Javi” Estrada will be singing and playing in a concert with his unorthodox guitar and special gypsy-lament voice. Tickets are 100 pesos at the theater box office.

Outstanding chamber music at Pro Música
By Bob Kelly

Concert
José White String Quartet
Sat–Sun, Nov 17–18, 5pm
St. Paul’s Church
Cardo 6
150/50 pesos

The José White String Quartet, considered Mexico’s outstanding chamber music group, will play concerts November 17–18 in the San Miguel Pro Música series. The quartet first appeared here at the chamber music festival in 1998 and has returned to play at subsequent festivals and Pro Música concerts.

The November 17 concert will include pieces by Ludwig von Beethoven and Johannes Brahms. The November 18 concert will include pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jose White and Felix Mendelssohn.

The concerts start at 5pm at St. Paul’s church, Calle Cardo 6. Tickets at 150 and 50 pesos are available at La Tienda in the Biblioteca, Insurgentes 25; Casa de Papel, Mesones 57; La Conexion, Aldama 3, and St. Paul’s office weekdays 11am to 2pm; and at the door one hour before concert time. For details see www.promusicasma.com.

Nearly three months after the last encore and ovation at the Teatro Ángela Peralta, it seems an appropriate time to reflect on the 29th annual Festival de Música de Cámara

—what worked and what didn’t? What was done differently? Were these good changes? Based on the questionnaire answered by 121 of this year’s concert-goers, the festival was an unqualified success and the audience wants more. The 2007 festival brought together a diverse group of artists (25 in total), some here for the first time, others favorites from years past, and presented them in three new venues for chamber music in San Miguel. The excitement generated by beautiful music and this unique city was palpable.

This year, 15 concerts were held at 5 venues—Bellas Artes, Teatro Ángela Peralta, Rancho la Loma, the Santuario de Atotonilco and a private home on Chorro. Ten of these concerts were sold out, with a total of 2,782 tickets sold. Seven chamber groups performed, six of them string quartets and one wind quintet. Traditional chamber music favorites formed the core of the programs, but some less orthodox choices also were played to great acclaim, such as the Turtle Island String Quartet’s interpretation of John Coltrane and Imani Winds’ tribute to singer-performer Josephine Baker. The Student Program also had an excellent year, bringing 34 Mexican students to our city to take master classes with quartet-in-residence La Catrina as well as the other performing groups, attend the concerts, and perform in many different intimate spaces in San Miguel, from the Café on Correo to Posada Corazón.

The diversity at this year’s festival was impressive, a cornucopia for music-lovers’ ears. From the Cypress String Quartet’s selections of both newly-composed pieces and nearly-forgotten ones, to the Rossetti String Quartet’s emotionally rich and energetic performances of masterworks, the enthralling variety of epochs, nationalities and styles was a heady cocktail.

The thrill of these world-class performances cannot overshadow an integral aspect of the Festival de Música de Cámara—the Student Program. This year a total of 183 hours of classes were given, the majority privately, in violin, viola, cello and piano and the remainder in chamber music and master form. The student evaluation of the experience was very positive, especially regarding the quartet-in-residence La Catrina, who “vastly improved the academic quality of the program.” Anyone who attended a student performance during those two weeks undoubtedly appreciated the talent and enthusiasm of these young musicians, who are enriched and inspired by their experience in San Miguel under the tutelage of some of the world’s great artists.

The past 29 years have seen many changes in San Miguel and its Chamber Music Festival, and the 30th anniversary in 2008 will be both an exciting exploration of new avenues in classical music, and a tribute to the achievement of these three decades of music-making. We look forward to sharing it with you.

XIII International Festival de Jazz y Blues

November 21 – 25, San Miguel de Allende

Schedule of Events

Wednesday, November 21
Jazz and Blues Fest Kickoff, 6pm
Free concert
Daline Jones & Friends
In the Jardín kiosk

Thursday, November 22
Free Class: “Jazz Vocals,” noon
Daline Jones
Auditorio Miguel Malo, Bellas Artes
Hernández Macías 75
Everyone welcome

Jazz and Blues Fest Concert, 7pm
Gene Perla’s Fine Wine Trio
Francisco Mela Trio
Teatro Ángela Peralta
Mesones 4
250/150/80 pesos

Friday, November 23
Free Class: “Elements of Jazz Improvisation,” noon
The Jazz Academy Maestros
Auditorio Miguel Malo, Bellas Artes
Hernández Macías 75
Everyone welcome

Jazz and Blues Fest Concert, 7pm
Randy Singer & Randy Bernsen
The Peter Sprague Quartet
Teatro Ángela Peralta
Mesones 4
250/150/80 pesos

Saturday, November 24
Free Class: “Gypsy Jazz & Django Reinhardt,” noon
Paul Mehling & the Hot Club of San Francisco
Auditorio Miguel Malo, Bellas Artes
Hernández Macías 75
Everyone welcome

Free concert, 2pm
Jazz Academy Maestros
Auditorio Miguel Malo, Bellas Artes
Hernández Macías 75

Jazz and Blues Fest Concert, 7pm
Mo’Ritmo
Bob Sheppard Quartet
Teatro Ángela Peralta
Mesones 4
250/150/80 pesos

Sunday, November 25
Jazz and Blues Fest Finale, 7pm
The Hot Club of San Francisco
A Jazz Tribute to Ray Charles by Doug Robinson & Friends
Teatro Ángela Peralta
Mesones 4
250/150/80 pesos

Jam sessions are expected to break out around town after most concerts. Tickets are on sale now at the Ángela Peralta. For more information, go to www.sanmigueljazz.com.

Concert
Bob Sheppard Quartet
(Opening act: Mo’Ritmo & Friends)
Sat, Nov 24, 7pm
Teatro Ángela Peralta
Mesones 82
250/150/80 pesos

On November 23, saxophonist Bob Sheppard will take the stage accompanied by Afro-Cuban drummer Francisco Mela, guitar whiz Peter Sprague and LA bassist Hamilton Price. What’s that, you say? You don’t know Bob Sheppard? Well the truth is, you do. You just don’t know you do.

If you’ve seen the movies Jerry Maguire, Goodfellas, or Forrest Gump—or been entertained by Seinfeld, Chicago Hope, Late Night with David Letterman or Cheers—or listened to albums by Steely Dan, The Manhattan Transfer, Chick Corea, or Peter Erskine—chances are you’ve heard, and enjoyed, and even grooved to the playing of Bob Sheppard.

Because the truth is that Bob is one of the most in-demand session players in all of Southern California. He has built a career out of long-term collaborations with leading and respected artists. In addition to being an accomplished saxophonist, he plays flutes, clarinet, and bass clarinet. Known for his warm and centered tone, he’s a disciplined chameleon who can deliver the goods in a wide variety of styles with equal artistry. Bob is a musician’s musician.

Bob’s most recent high-profile assignment was playing sax on Joni Mitchell’s brand new album Shine. Here Bob steps into Wayne Shorter’s legendary role of punctuating Joni’s vocals with quirky jazz commentary.

I first met Bob seven years ago at a recording session for Doug’s CD Sit Jazz Down. He’s tall and gangly, bespectacled and slightly professorial (in fact, he teaches at the USC Thornton School of Music). I was immediately drawn to his unassuming manner and dry wit. Just as the session was about to begin, Doug said expansively “My goal is to sell a million CDs this year.” Bob thought for a second, then shot back “My goal is to play a million notes today.” Ya gotta love the guy.

Bob is a master at what I like to call “playing the white space.” On a recent album Lava Jazz, he and Lounge Art Ensemble colleagues Peter Erskine and Dave Carpenter pay tongue-in-cheek homage to a handful of jazz standards by rewriting the melody while sticking to the song’s chord structure. It is as if they are playing in the blank spaces between the notes of the original. (And sometimes it is positively bedeviling to try to guess what that original is.) So in Bob’s nimble hands, “I Hear a Rhapsody” becomes “I Hear a Rap CD”; “It Could Happen to You” becomes “It Already Happened”; and “Young at Heart” becomes “Jung at Heart.”

Wikipedia flash

It turns out there is a little-used name for this technique. It’s called a contrafact, which is “a new musical composition build out of an already existing one, most often a new melody overlaid on a familiar harmonic structure.” It seems that contrafacts allowed thirties jazz musicians to create novel and easily improvised-up songs without paying royalties. Probably the best known example is the Charlie Parker/Miles Davis tune “Donna Lee,” which is built on the chord changes of the 1917 Tin Pan Alley standard “Back Home Again in Indiana.” Hopefully Bob will be serving up a few contrafacts when he takes the stage in San Miguel.

As with all of the Peralta festival concerts, Bob’s performance will be preceded by a strong opening act. In his case it will be that local favorite, the funky soul-jazz group Mo’Ritmo. Made up of Victor Monterrubio on drums and percussion, Ken Basman on guitar, Antonio Lozoya on bass and Doug Robinson on keyboards (and maybe that crazy blue plastic melodica), Mo’Ritmo plans to bring up a few special guests, including Florida blues vocalist and harmonica player Randy Singer and saxophonist Tripp Sprague.

So Saturday night’s concert looks it might take the roof off the Peralta. If you love jazz, you won’t want to miss it.

Late-breaking festival news…Buy Four, Get One Free!

Buy tickets to all four Jazz and Blues Fest concerts in the Peralta (Thurs–Sun nights) and you get a free ticket to the fifth concert on Saturday afternoon: The Five Maestros from the Jazz Academy of the Escuela Superior de Musica in Mexico City. These men, especially pianist Francisco Téllez, are the people most responsible for nurturing and promulgating jazz in Mexico over the last 30 years. The Maestros play at 2 pm in the Auditorio Miguel Malo of Bellas Artes, immediately following the free class “Gypsy Jazz & Django Reinhardt” given by “Pazzo” Mehling and the Hot Club of San Francisco.

Who did that great painting?

You’ve probably noticed the festival posters around town, featuring that evocative image of elongated musicians in reds, greens and blues. In case you can’t read the very tiny type on the poster itself, you should know that this painting is the work of San Miguel artist Richard Trumbull, who graciously loaned us the use of his work for the festival. Gracias Ricardo.

Glenda Robinson is the wife of local composer and musician Doug Robinson. Together they are producing this year’s Jazz and Blues festival, in partnership with director Antonio Lozoya and his wife Tere Urtusástegui.

Classical guitar concert by José Manuel Alcántara

Concert
José Manuel Alcántara
Thurs, Nov 22, 7pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
100 pesos

José Manuel Alcántara is having his successful seventh classical guitar concert here in San Miguel. After living and studying for five years in Europe, he has started a series of contemporary Latin-American music projects. In this concert, he confronts the classical guitar world with his fresh approach. He is part of the Sweelinck’s Conservatory’s Contemporary Music Ensemble, which participated recently in the Gaudeamus International week in the Stedelijk Museum. He also appeared in New Zealand’s Music Festival in Ijsbreker, as well as the Berlin Musical Festival, organized by the Goethe Institute of Amsterdam.

The program that Jose Manuel is presenting in this concert is called “Personal Collection” and these pieces are considered by the artist to be part of his personal life, like a travel notebook bringing back names, places, stories and people. At the same time, this is an encounter of composers known for their extraordinary capacity for improvisation, such as Bach, Vicente Amigo, Astor Piazzola, Eduardo Marin and Keith Jarret. In Jose Manuel’s soul lives the necessity to explore within improvisation new ways of expression that allow us to get near our challenging contemporariness.

At the moment, José Manuel is leading the new guitar movement in Querétaro, which will be an open show for the new guitarist generations of this city. His last concert in Teatro Santa Ana was a great success, so be prepared and buy your tickets (100 pesos) in advance at the box office.

Come one, come all to free jazz classes

Jazz classes
“Jazz Vocals” by Daline Jones

Thurs, Nov 22, noon
“Elements of Jazz Improvisation” by the five maestros

Fri, Nov 23, noon
“Gypsy Jazz and Django Reinhardt” by the Hot Club of San Francisco

Sat, Nov 24, noon
Auditorio Miguel Malo
Bellas Artes
Hernández Macías 75
Free

Everyone is welcome to attend three free master classes given during our fair pueblo’s upcoming Jazz and Blues Festival. And we do mean everyone—professional musicians, amateur players, passionate listeners and people who are simply curious about how great performers make their art. Interested school children are especially welcome.

“Jazz Vocals” by Daline Jones, one of San Francisco’s most popular singers. Jones was the first lead female vocalist in the legendary Starlight Room of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. A few yeas ago, this daughter of the late Beat poet Ted Jones swapped stardom for sunshine, and is now based in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Fluid in jazz, bossa nova and R&B (she sang backup for The Commodores), Jones will talk about—and demonstrate—jazz vocal techniques. (In English, translated into Spanish.)

“Elements of Jazz Improvisation” by the five maestros: Francisco Telléz (piano), Sósimo Hernadez Flores (bass), Pablo Hidalgo Wong (flute), Hugo Daniel Leyva Barajas (guitar), and Eduardo Piastro (guitar). All five are faculty members at the Jazz Academy of the Escuela Superior de Music in Mexico City. They also happen to be the people most responsible for nurturing the development of jazz in Mexico over the last 30 years. They will talk about that core characteristic of jazz—improvisation—how, when and why it happens (and doesn’t happen). (In Spanish, translated into English.)

“Gypsy Jazz and Django Reinhardt” by the Hot Club of San Francisco. Hot Club leader-guitarist Paul “Pazzo” Mehling is known for his work as a jazz educator in the San Francisco Bay Area. He will demonstrate the techniques of Gypsy swing guitar and explain the harmonics that define the genre. He will also take you back to the smoky cabarets of Paris in the thirties and introduce you to Django Reinhardt, the illiterate nomad genius who changed the history of jazz forever. (In English, translated into Spanish.)

The XIII Festival International de Jazz y Blues runs from Wednesday, November 21 to Sunday, November 25. Tickets are on sale now at the Teatro Ángela Peralta box office at Hernández Macías 62. For more information about performers and concert times, go to www.sanmigueljazz.com.