November 28, 2008, Sorrow, sensuality and humor: Betsy Pecanin’s Mexican blues, By Jesús Ibarra, Mexican songbirds alight in San Miguel, By Glenda Robinson, Come to our free performer workshops, By Glenda Robinson, Holiday concerts support a girl, By Robi

Sorrow, sensuality and humor: Betsy Pecanin’s Mexican blues
By Jesús Ibarra November 28, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Betsy Pecanins, a renowned blues singer, is known for her particular style of ranchero and bolero blended with blues. On December 3, Pecanins returns to San Miguel for the 14th International Jazz and Blues Festival.

Jesús Ibarra: How did you begin singing?

Betsy Pecanins: I always had a passion for music, and my early influences were rock ‘n’ roll and blues. For me, the blues are a mix of sorrow, sensuality and humor, which reflects my multicultural heritage.

I was born in Yuma, Arizona, 10 minutes from the Mexican border, to an American father and a Spanish mother. I grew up in Phoenix, but I made frequent visits to Mexico during my childhood.

JI: When did you begin singing?

BP: I’m celebrating 30 years of singing professionally and living in Mexico.

JI: Is Betsy Pecanins a jazz or a blues singer?

BP: Absolutely blues, but I feel very proud when jazz musicians invite me to their festivals. I think jazz and blues are closely related, although some jazz experts are offended when someone says that jazz comes from blues. I sing some jazz, but my work is mostly blues.

JI: Do you have a unique style?

BP: I think everyone who appears onstage has his or her own style. The same song sung by two different people may sound completely different. I think my style is very personal, but that is really not something I consciously cultivate. It has more to do with my personal way of being.

JI: How did the idea of blending Mexican ranchero music and bolero with blues come about?

BP: I always wanted to sing something closer to Mexican music. The opportunity came when the director Arturo Ripstein invited me to sing the voice of Lucha Reyes in his movie La Reina de la Noche (The Queen of the Night), a fictional biography of the legendary Mexican ranchero singer Lucha Reyes. I sang the songs in a traditional ranchero style, trying to make my voice sound as much as possible like Reyes’s. It was like opening a door for me. At that time, I was working on some compositions with piano and cello, and I thought that it would be interesting to blend it with Mexican music. With musician Rosino Serrano’s help, El Efecto Tequila [her CD of ranchero-blues songs] came out.

JI: What does it mean to you to have sung the songs of Lucha Reyes in La Reina de la Noche?

BP: Getting very close to Mexican music was the beginning of my singing style. It was a wonderful way to start learning to sing it. Lucha Reyes was a wonderful teacher, I even think she has a little bit of blues in her style. She sings with sorrow, from the heart, and also with humor and sensuality, and a kind of sweetness that fascinated me.

JI: Do you do your own arranging?

BP: Rosino Serrano has done some of my arrangements; after he formed his band we both worked on arrangements and we have written things together. It is like a workshop, taking ideas from here and there, from the guitar, from the bass, from the people who are close to me and from my own way of singing.

JI: Who do you work with most closely?

BP: Jorge García, who plays acoustic guitar; Felipe Souza on elctric guitar; Alfonso Rosas on bass; Mónica del Águila on cello and Héctor Aguilar, the percussionist.

JI: What are you expressing when you sing?

BP: If there were words to describe it, I would not sing.

JI: Your favorite recording?

BP: Each recording is like a child. I put my heart and soul into each one of them. I have recorded 15 albums, the most recent with Cecilia Toussaint.

BP: It will be a concert celebrating my 30 years in music. I will include traditional blues and Mexican blues, huastecos sones, Mexican music mixed with blues, Agustín Lara with blues. It is a journey through 30 years of my music.

JI: Any message for San Miguel residents?

BP: San Miguel is a wonderful and fascinating city with extraordinary events such as this jazz festival. We come to San Miguel with great enthusiasm and energy to share with the audience.

Mexican songbirds alight in San Miguel
By Glenda Robinson

Concerts
International Jazz and Blues Festival
Iraida Noriega Quartet
Opener: Ken Bichel
Tue, Dec 2, 8pm

Betsy Pecanins
Opener: Peter Welker & Randy Vincent Group
Wed, Dec 3, 8pm
Teatro Ángela Peralta
350/300/200/100 pesos

¡Que padre! The 14th International Jazz and Blues Festival is finally underway, after months of hard work by our festival team and generous community contributions.

We are thrilled we were able to attract such high-level talent to this year’s fest, including two of Mexico’s most prominent and beloved chanteuses: Betsy Pecanins and Iraida Noriega.

Each woman will anchor a different night at the Peralta with her unique ability to interpret a song. Some will be songs you have heard before, arranged in fresh and interesting ways. Some will be original compositions by these very gifted writers.

Iraida’s core sensibility is jazz, Betsy’s is blues, yet both will delight you with their alchemical talents. In Iraida you will hear the Afro-Cuban rhythms she learned from her childhood nanny, with a little bit of tango and rap thrown in for good measure. Betsy is known for inventive arrangements that fuse the blues (and some jazz) with Mexican ranchera folk songs and graceful, romantic boleros.

Iraida Noriega began singing with her father, noted pianist and jazz vocalist Freddy Noriega. To every performance she brings a rare combination of pure traditional jazz (including deft scatting and delicate improvisation) and strong Latin sensuality. She has released five critically acclaimed CDs.

If you were lucky enough to catch Iraida’s recent stint at El Viejo Topo, you were probably utterly charmed, because she creates a circle of warmth and intimacy every time she performs and, as an audience member, you are very happy to be included in it.

While spending time in New York City studying with Sheila Jordan, Mimi Daitz and Bob Norton, Iraida seems to have absorbed the modismos of the US. She helped me pronounce her name one night by telling me that it was “like Ore-Ida” (potatoes), “only with an ‘I’ instead of an ‘O’.”

Iraida really stole my heart with her lovely arrangement of the Nat King Cole chestnut “Nature Boy.” She introduced it by describing a dust-up she had with her young son and the graceful way he brought peace back to the household. She’s promised me she will reprise this song and story during her Peralta concert.

Grammy-winning, Juilliard-trained pianist Ken Bichel opens for Iraida with a solo program of his fantasias. He has the ability to take an existing melody, turn it inside out and upside down, slap you upside the head with it, and then land back on his feet, sure as a cat. In between these excursions he will keep you hanging on every note with his wry humor and goofy physicality.

I’ve told Ken that he could be the next Victor Borge, but he just doesn’t believe me. Not yet, anyway.

Betsy Pecanins’ powerful, sultry voice has graced virtually every major venue in Mexico, as well as stages in Havana, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Cannes, Lisbon, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, San Antonio and Miami. “Betsy puts on a spectacular show, full of intensity, color and vigor,” writes noted poet David Huerta in Proceso.

She was born in Yuma, Arizona, to a North American father and a Spanish (Catalan) mother. Mexico has been her home since 1977. Her professional singing career began in 1973, in Barcelona. Since then, she has recorded 11 CDs in English, Spanish and Catalan.

Betsy is a black-belt collaborator who has worked with artists from a wide range of disciplines, including poets Alberto Blanco and Carmen Boullosa, composers Guillermo Briseño and Pepe Elorza, Catalan musician and playwright Carles Santos and blues fiddler Papa John Creach.

She was the voice of the legendary singer Lucha Reyes in Arturo Ripstein’s biographical movie, La Reina de la Noche, and has performed with both the Baja California Orchestra and the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra.

Opening for Betsy are two of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most prolific jazzers, trumpeter Peter Welker and guitarist Randy Vincent. Both are returning for their second festival appearance. They will be joined by drummer Rodrigo Villanueva and Hopalong Chagoyan on bass.

So join us for some amazing entertainment, brought to you by two of Mexico’s leading songstresses. You won’t be disappointed.

Glenda Robinson is a sometime singer and a co-producer of this year’s festival.

Come to our free performer workshops
By Glenda Robinson

Workshops
By Jazz & Blues festival musicians
Mon–Wed, Dec 1–3, noon
Auditorio Miguel Malo
Bellas Artes
Hernández Macias 75
Bilingual & free

This year the Jazz and Blues festival offers you the chance to listen up close and personal to three of our stars, hear them talk about how they do what they do, and ask them questions. Usually these sessions are called “clinics” but that sounds so…clinical. In Spanish they are talleres (workshops).

I love to go to these events when I am at other jazz festivals. Not because I play the drums, or blues guitar, but because I really enjoy hearing great musicians talk about their creative process, and then demonstrating it right in front of me. All three of our workshops are one hour long, free, and bilingual. So consider coming by—and bringing along a young person you know who loves music.

Mon, Dec 1: Playing and Singing the Blues—Jimmy Dillon

Jimmy will talk about the rhythm, chords and song structure that characterize this most fundamental strain of American music. He’ll also demonstrate how to write and sing about walkin’, fixin’ to die, and what happened after you woke up this mornin’.

Tues, Dec 2: The Magic of Improvisation on Jazz Guitar—Randy Vincent

What are the different forms of jazz guitar—bebop, fusion, Latin—and what are their hallmarks? Randy and a small trio will demonstrate the scales and modes that characterize each one—and then talk about how to improvise a solo while staying within the form.

Wed, Dec 3: Singing Jazz Vocals—Iraida Noriega

What do all great jazz singers have in common? It’s been said that they have to 1)swing, 2)improvise, and 3)have a rock-solid sense of time. Iraida has all three of these characteristics--in spades--plus she is a songwriter and arranger of great skill. And a total pleasure to spend time with.

Holiday concerts support a girl
By Robin Loving

Concerts
Sibyl Lee English
Sat, Dec 6, 7pm
Sun, Dec 7, 5pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25 / Relox 50A
US$30/300 pesos

In her first feature performance in Latin America, and fresh from her premier performance here at the International Jazz and Blues Festival, acclaimed jazz and soul singer Sibyl Lee English will ring in the winter holiday season in San Miguel with an intimate holiday benefit concert for the girls of Casa Hogar Santa Julia.

“Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year. Singing carols has a way of warming the heart and melting the soul,” said English, “and nothing gives me greater joy than to sing for such a wonderful cause. The girls of Santa Julia have inspired me and I want to share that inspiration in carols to warm others to the cause.”

Casa Hogar Santa Julia is a group home for 30–50 girls from dire family circumstances. The four nuns who manage it rely totally on community support.

Concert proceeds go to the Santa Julia Support-A-Girl program, which requests donations of US$100/month to cover basic expenses for one girl for one year. Donors receive a framed certificate of appreciation with the girl’s photo and monthly updates about their special girl.

Maestro Jorge Estrada Avenando, a pianist, composer and arranger, accompanies English. “Jorge has worked with some of the finest artists in the music industry in Mexico, South America, Canada and the US. It’s a pleasure to collaborate with such a musical talent,” she said.

Only 80 seats are available each night. Tickets are on sale Monday–Friday, 10am–7pm, at the Teatro for US$30/300 pesos for individual tickets and $25/250 pesos each for groups of six or more.

For more information, contact Robin Loving Rowland at 152-3709 in San Miguel, (925) 418-8003 from the US or Canada, robin@robinloving.com or info@santajulia.org. Also see www.santajulia.org and www.everysongisawoman.com.

Every gardener knows the joy and satisfaction of planting in the spring and reaping the harvest in the fall. Those feelings were reflected here this week when four finalists from Ópera de San Miguel’s March competition, a search to discover the most promising young singers in México, returned to the city for a series of three concerts. The events marked the first-ever collaboration of ÓSM and Pro Música, San Miguel’s prestigious chamber music society.

The mini-festival, titled Tres Noches de Canto, began Friday evening at Teatro Ángela Peralta with a gala concert featuring soprano Flor del Carmen Herrera, mezzo-soprano Lydia Rendón, tenore leggiero Juan Carlos López and lyrico-spinto tenor Rodrigo Garciarroyo.

López began the evening with an elegant performance of Ah, léve-toi, soleil, from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, followed by an exciting Languir per una bella from Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri, making good use of his exceptional head voice and fioratura facility. Only a tendency to sharp marred otherwise excellent performances. Garciarroyo displayed long line, elegant phrasing and firm top notes in Ma se m’é forza perderti from Un Ballo in Maschera by Giuseppe Verdi and a lyrical Non piangere, Liú from Puccini’s Turandot.

Herrera was a revelation. At last spring’s competition, she sang Puccini with passion and commitment, but I recall thinking she might be better suited to lighter repertoire. Friday she gave a brilliant “Bell Song” from Leo Delibes’ Lakmé, sung with poise, glittering coloratura and spot-on pitch, and a brave and humorous performance of Glitter and be Gay! from Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, sung in excellent English and with more high E-flats than one could count.

Rendón, fulfilling the promise of her first-place finish last March, brought a wide range of repertoire, from coloratura to dramatic mezzo, comedy to tragedy, all sung with lustrous quality and mesmerizing stage presence. She opened with Rossini’s great aria of joy and reconciliation from La Cenerentola, Non piu mesta, marked by excellent coloratura and this singer’s rare ability to infuse even the musical rests with meaning. In the Seguidilla scene from Act I of Bizet’s Carmen, she was joined by an ardent Garciarroyo. With her lush low and mid-range, flashing eyes and easy, confident top, I can’t think of a more ideal voice for this role. Most surprising was this young singer’s ability to embody the mature passions of Massenet’s Charlotte in a heartbreaking Va! Laisse couler mes larmes from Werther. As one listener from Texas colorfully put it, “It’s time to cut this gal loose. She’s got the whole package!”

The second half of the evening was devoted to zarzuela, that uniquely Spanish art form that falls somewhere between operetta and grand opera, very romantic and filled with soaring melody. All four singers excelled, with Garciarroyo’s No puede ser a standout. The festival’s excellent pianist, Mario Alberto Hernández, arranged Maria Grever’s Júrame for all four singers, providing a wonderful finale.

On Saturday and Sunday the venue shifted to St. Paul’s Church, artistic home of Pro Musica, for concerts of song and liturgical music. Saturday’s program was the more ambitious of the two, beginning with Beethoven’s great song cycle, An die ferne Geliebte, elegantly sung and superbly prepared by Juan Carlos López. Maestro Alberto’s contribution here cannot be overstated: sensitively played, Beethoven’s chords perfectly voiced, subtle pedaling. This was first-class music making. Lydia Rendón followed with a passionate and full-throated account of the Gypsy Songs, Op. 55, of Antonin Dvořák, sung in idiomatic Czech. Lopez returned for an exciting aria from Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans, sung with passion and dramatic coloratura, and lyrical Italian songs by Enrico Toselli and Paolo Tosti. Rendón again showed her dramatic range with the comic delight Chanson du bebé by Rossini and the heartfelt La Chanson du pêcheur by Maurice Ravel. Rounding out the program were duets from Bach’s Magnificat and the intense Le Crucifix of Jean-Baptiste Faure. Several well-deserved encores followed.

Sunday’s program featured familiar repertoire, with Handel arias from Rinaldo and Messiah. Herrera sang Lascia ch’io pianga with wonderful dynamic contrast, while Garciarroyo gave an unusually exciting Every Valley Shall Be Exalted, with excellent breath control and accurate fioratura. My only quibble: intrusive and distinctly un-Baroque ornamentation in both Handel’s arias.

Herrera’s colorful mid-range showed well in Laudate Dominum by Mozart and a lovely Caro mio ben by Giordani, and in two songs by Gabriel Faure. Garciarroyo gave a near-ideal performance of Ingemisco from Verdi’s Requiem, with long line and ringing top notes, though communication with his audience would have benefited from singing more of his program by memory.

A selection of Mexican songs and duets followed. Herrera brought down the house with a passionate Nunca digas by Jorge del Moral and delighted with a beautifully modulated Estrellita by Manuel Maria Ponce. Garciarroyo’s natural charm, big voice and thrilling top notes were put to good use in songs by Alvaro Carillo, followed by a moving and lyrical Te quiero, dijiste by Maria Grever.

Congratulations to Ópera de San Miguel and Pro Musica for providing such valuable performance opportunities for these remarkable young singers. Plans are afoot to make the ÓSM contest an annual event, a project worthy of support not just locally, but nationwide.

John Bills retired from the Metropolitan Opera in 2004 after 26 seasons. He writes about music, film, food and wine. Contact him at metoperatenor@hotmail.com.

Blowing in the wind
By Michael Pearl

Pro Musica Concert
Ehecalli Wind Quintet
Sat–Sun, Dec 6–7, 5pm
St. Paul’s Church
Cardo 6
200/150/80 pesos

Mexico’s renowned Ehecalli Wind Quintet returns to San Miguel for two special performances. The ensemble, including pianist Anna Cervantes, has been together for over 10 years. That degree of commitment is rare in this sound-bite world and it makes for a degree of innate understanding among the artists that create music of the highest order.

I recently interviewed oboist Marie Park, and her answers to my questions were not only fascinating and insightful, but showed how much Ehecalli loves music and their audiences.

Michael Pearl: Your performances are well received and with such joy. What is it about your playing that produces such enthusiastic audience responses?

Marie Park: I believe the audience response has to do with the great feeling of love and friendship among our members that we hopefully convey to our audiences. Also, because we are genuinely excited by playing music together, I think this is conveyed to the audience.

MP: How do you feel about playing in San Miguel de Allende and what are our audiences like?

Marie: It is a joy for Ehecalli to return to San Miguel. I have always greatly appreciated the high degree of professionalism of Pro Musica, the large and warm audiences and the wonderful acoustics of St. Paul’s.

MP: What is the range of your repertoire? Do audiences seem to prefer one type of music or period?

Marie: We play the entire range of classical music, from baroque, classical and romantic, to modern classics, and world premieres by living young composers from Mexico and abroad. We love combining music from different periods, hopefully showing how the pieces and styles relate to each other and seem to follow one continuous conversation.

Of course, one person will always prefer particular genres over others; this is normal. But by providing mixed programs we hope to continue to introduce audiences to the wonderful and less well-known repertoire of this century, while also celebrating the great classics of past centuries.

MP: How did you get together as a group?

Marie: What is essential to Ehecalli is that we came together as friends. The four woodwind members make up the woodwind section of the Orquesta Sinfonica de la Universidad de Guanajuato, a truly exceptional orchestra in that all 12 of the members that make up the woodwind section are great friends. We play together daily at work, we hang out together after hours, we get together at night and on weekends. I feel so incredibly lucky to have this woodwind section, the comraderie, the genuine warmth flowing, the delight in bringing pieces of music to life. I venture to posit that there is really nothing like this woodwind section in all of North America!

One day we decided to get together in Ana’s house to read chamber music with piano. We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, laughing, dreaming, playing music, drinking tequila, playing more music… . The evening was so delightful, it became a habit.

One thing that I am especially proud of about Ehecalli is our commitment to our community. Since its inception, we decided to play a lot of benefit concerts, donating much of our proceeds to social service organizations right here in Guanajuato. At each concert we would pick a different beneficiary organization and invite a representative to speak about what they do.

What was surprisingly wonderful was that we were able to act as a bridge; to connect people who loved classical music with organizations that needed volunteers and donors to help fund their marvelous programs. The evenings were magical not only because of the opportunity to share music, but also because of the sense of possibility and hope, the limitless potential that comes from people becoming aware and empowered with real ways to change their world, however small. It is a great moment when an individual comes up after a concert to ask, “How can I get involved with your organization?” And to get to facilitate that moment in some way, of this I feel so lucky.

Over the years we have performed benefit concerts for programs whose missions include helping drug-addicted youth, stray animals, women prisoners with children, a parent-run Waldorf primary school and funding new music by young Mexican composers.

MP: What do all of you have in common that makes you successful as a group, or is it the differences that make you successful?

Marie: That is a wonderful question. Yes, I definitely think it is the differences that make us successful. You know, playing music together five days a week for over 10 years, you really get to know one another. I think we are all aware of our different strengths and styles, and fortunately chamber music is a wonderful forum that celebrates rather than suppresses individuality (more than, say, the orchestral forum which requires greater homogeneity).

But there must be a commonality of course, when collaborating to create art, and as I mentioned earlier, I think what we all share is our great enthusiasm for making the written notation come alive.

MP: Can you tell us about some amusing incidents or funny stories about your concerts?

Marie: One thing that has changed over the years is our rehearsal conditions. When we first started rehearsing/hanging out all night, we would always end up standing in Ana’s kitchen sipping tequila. Well, when she started building her own house, she moved into an apartment that was so small, we could all barely fit into it. We had to go in and sit down in a specified order, and if someone needed to use the bathroom, we all had to get up and file out onto the patio first just so they could open the door!

MP: What was the happiest concert you have ever played?

Marie: Oh, they are all so happy! The most memorable concert in recent years was the Cervantino concert of 2007 dedicated to Ramon Montes de Oca, the recently deceased composer and founder of the contemporary music cycle of the same festival. Ehecalli performed a piece by Joaquin Gutierrez-Heras called “Pequena Despedida” (Little Farewell). When we finished playing the entire audience just stood up and cried for about five minutes.

MP: That’s so beautiful; it brings tears to my eyes just to think about it. What is your favorite music?

Marie: It would be impossible to state a favorite music, I love so much of it and listen to it in different ways throughout the day. But if I had to pick five CDs to take with me to a desert island, I suppose they would probably be Puccini’s La Boheme, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mozart’s 40th Symphony, selected arias sung by Leontyne Price and something by Pat Metheny. I think they all share an undeniable and almost painfully ecstatic affirmation of life. But there is so much great music to listen to and to play, fortunately, so we will never have to choose.

Travel to Mictlan
By Juliet Moreno

Pre-Hispanic music
Caracol de Fuego
Sat, Dec 5, 5pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
100 pesos

Pre-Hispanic cultures were characterized by their knowledge of nature and the arts. The Toltecas are a good example—the culture has always been a synonym for achievement and they were excellent artisans, builders, painters, sculptors, potters and musicians.

Music was of such importance, prior to the arrival of Hernán Cortés, that people assumed life in the cities started when music was established there.

The Mexicas (Aztecs), another important group in central Mexico, felt music was so important that they dedicated places exclusively to musical education, known as cuicacalli (house of chants). Buildings set aside to maintain instruments used in chants and dances, mixcoacalli (house of the music), were also meeting places for the people who played such instruments as huehuétl (seashells), teponaztli (flutes) and chicahuaztli (rocks). The mecatlan was where people were taught to play the instruments. The priests who specialized in music and chants were known as epcoacuacuilli tepicton and they composed chants for temples and private homes. The tlapizcatzin took care of and corrected all chants dedicated to the gods.

Music, dance and chants were all used as offerings to the gods so they would give people wisdom and therefore be at peace with them.

Music in pre-Hispanic Mexico was vitally important and fortunately, in some regions, music prior to La Conquista survives and has been rescued. We have an obligation to preserve this music for our descendants so they may inherit a richer world.

Caracol de Fuego has taken up diffusion of musical heritage as a way of life, by manufacturing musical instruments and bringing them to life by playing them. Caracol de Fuego dedicates this concert, “Travel to Mictlan” (place of the dead), to the souls of the musicians who preceded us.

Noche de fiesta gitana

Concert
Javier “Gitano” Estrada
Gypsy guitar and voice
Fri, Dec 5, 7pm
Sala Quetzal
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
100 pesos

This coming Friday, Javier Estrada sings and plays enchanting music from the south. His light touch across the strings and the melodies of the gypsies will set an intimate mood. Tickets for limited seating are available at the theater box office.