A daughter’s striking green eyes

Concert

Salomón

Thurs, Oct 11, 8pm

Teatro Angela Peralta

150/100 pesos

Brenna Maawad, a confident, athletic young woman with striking green eyes, is in most ways like a lot of other 12-year-old girls here in San Miguel. She gets up early, dresses for school, hangs out with friends, does her homework, and catches a little TV when she can. The one major difference between Brenna and her friends is that her dad writes and performs music. And more specifically, this year he wrote an Arabic-infused jazz piece dedicated just to her. It’s now the centerpiece of an upcoming concert (on October 11th) and a new CD featuring those striking green eyes on the cover.

Salomón, who’s been a part of San Miguel music scene for nearly two decades, believes this project represents the culmination of his multi-faceted musical career. Every piece is his own composition, and every piece is different, reflecting his many musical loves and influences—from the Arabic sounds he heard growing up and the Tower of Power funk he partied to in his grade school days, to the cool jazz of Parker and Coltrane that redirected his architecture career path toward music and the Latin-salsa tunes he played in Cancun clubs before settling down in San Miguel.

The upcoming concert will be very similar to one Salomón staged this past February, playing with veteran musicians Julian Arcos, Beto Gonzales, Carlos Aguinaga, Miguel Fabero and Nicolas Santela. Mike Goot, a year-long San Miguel resident and self-proclaimed jazz-o-phobic, recalls, “Salo is a friend so I bought tickets, but I was a little nervous. I mean, how do you say, ‘I really sort of hated that.’ But I was sucked in from the very first note. Each song was a surprise. And the on-stage chemistry was infectious. Thanks to Salo, I might actually become a jazz fan.”

Another reason this concert will break new ground for Salomón is that he’ll be debuting a CD and DVD of his February concert, as well as a series of CDs he recently created from sessions he recorded as far back as 1990, in collaboration with dozens of talented friends and musical colleagues such as locals Gil Gutierrez, Ken Basman, Bob Kaplan and Gabriel Hernandez.

Asked about the “Green Eyes” project, Brenna concedes she’s a little embarrassed by the attention, but likes her dad’s music, although her current favorite recording artist is Beyonce. “I actually like the song he wrote for my little brother Shawn a little better,” she says. “It’s just like him, running all over the place in a crazy fun way.”

Asked about his own favorite on the new album, Salomón replies, “I have to say it’s the song I wrote for my wife Kathy. She’s working toward her black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and if I said anything else, she might break my jaw.”

Recordare 
By Benjamín Herrera

Concert

Carlos Sanchez

Fri, Oct 12, 7pm

Teatro Ángela Peralta

Mesones 82

Recordare (Latin for “remembers”), an apt title for this concert, is a rich collection of arias and songs that have transcended the years, won the ear of the public and leave a pleasing memory and savor.

The direction and experience of Carlos Sanchez, whose excellent voice counts on a tessitura (complete range) of baritone, can only be achieved with long years of study and the opportunity to count on the education and advice of recognized figures of the opera like Eugene Khon, Renata Scotto and Ileana Cotrubas.

The interpretations of the different pieces that we will hear offer the opportunity to recognize their low and high registers, as well as the pianos and fórtes, overtones and resonances that imprint each note and musical phrase to take us to a delightful state of enjoyment. 

Carlos Sanchez has sung in important opera venues at the national level as well as the international, where excellent quality has brought him high regard and recognition not only in Querétaro, but in all of Mexico.

 The concert we will hear has different composers, very different styles, different sounds, melodies and memories, but also a voice, a feeling, simultaneously interpreting all this in a full concert of varieties and units. They will evoke different latitudes, times, spaces, atmospheres, forms, intensities and emotions. And all, interpreter and listener, taken by a sea of musical passages created by the sensitivity of the composers, transcending the borders of time and forgetfulness. Recordare represents an encounter of two cultures and also the friends who shared the beautiful Teatro Ángela Peralta and this experience cannot be lost.