Live music and stuff in Santander and Las Palmas, December 2022

This is what I’ve seen in the last month of 2022:

• 1 December: Víctor Antón Group @ Rvbicón, Calle del Sol, 4, Santander
  A modern jazz quartet featuring Naíma Acuña (drums), Víctor Antón (guitar), Javier Moreno (double bass) and Juan Sebastián Vázquez (piano), presenting their brand new album Centennial Light. Watch the full concert here.

  

• 3 December: Live de Objetos y Cassettes @ Eureka Santander, Calle San Simón, 8
  Sarah Rasines used cassettes and mechanical objects in her live electronic music show. It lasted about 15 minutes, which was about as long as I was prepared to listen to it.

  

• 4 December: Jazz Jam @ Rvbicón
  The base band of Nadir Ibarra (tenor sax), Rafa Santana (piano), Toño Gutiérrez (bass) and Marcial García (drums), plus students of the Conservatorio Ataulfo Argenta and the usual suspects Manuel Cavero (double bass), Adela San Miguel (drums), Rodri Irizábal (drums), Manuel San Emeterio (guitar), Pancho Arredondo (trumpet, vocals), Carlos Pizarro (guitar) and others.
• 7 December: The New World Band @ Rvbicón
  A different line-up compared to that of 25 May, featuring Sean Clapis (guitar), Darío Guibert (double bass), Daniel Juárez (tenor sax) and Marc Pinyol (drums). Watch the full concert here.

  

• 11 December: La Mala Hierba @ Rvbicón
  With Gema Martínez (vocals) and Nico Rodríguez (guitar); this happened to be the last concert I saw in Rvbicón this year. Watch the full concert here.

  

Back to Las Palmas, I was lucky to attend all eight — well, seven and a half — concerts from the cycle «Jazz entre muros» at Museo Castillo de Mata (Calle Domingo Guerra del Río, 147):

• 21 December, 20:00: Javier Infante and Jose Alberto Medina
  Say no more.
• 21 December, 21:00: Pablo Queu
  Energetic jazz-funk band featuring Alberto Díaz (trombone), Emilio Diena (drums), Ruyman Franco (bass guitar), Claudio Marrero (tenor sax) and Pablo Quintana Guillén (guitar).



• 22 December, 20:00: Chano Gil Quartett
  Chano Gil (trumpet, flugelhorn), Yul Ballesteros (guitar), Paco Perera (double bass) and Javier Montero (drums).
• 22 December, 21:00: Trijazzic
  Luis Merino (guitar), Esther Suárez (vocals), Miriam Fleitas (vocals), José Carlos Cejudo (bass guitar) and Juan Pérez (drums).



• 29 December, 20:00: Alba Serrano and Cristóbal Montesdeoca
  Alba Serrano (vocals) and Cristóbal Montesdeoca (piano) performed songs from their new, mostly Lusophone, album Viagem.
• 29 December, 21:00: Alba Gil Aceytuno «Aguayro»
  It started to rain during the first song; luckily, the concert was not interrupted. With Alba Gil Aceytuno (sax, flute, keys, vocals), Alberto Díaz (trombone), José Carlos Cejudo (bass guitar), Luis Merino (guitar) and Juan Pérez (drums).



• 30 December, 20:00: Takeo Takahashi
  Would you believe it, by 19:45 it was full so I had to wait another half an hour till somebody left and they allowed me to enter. As a result, I only heard the last three songs. Kervin Barreto (trumpet, percussion), José Carlos Cejudo (bass guitar), Octavio Hernández (guitar), Santiago “Chago” Miranda (guitar) and Takeo Takahashi (drums, guitar), with a special guest Patricia Legardon (vocals).
• 30 December, 21:00: Bjazz «EnCanto de Mujer»
  With Sara Brito (flute), Samantha de León (double bass), Judith Martín González (trumpet), Amelia Gutiérrez (drums), Moneiba Hidalgo (vocals) and Sun-Young Park (piano), performing standards by Nina Simone, Consuelo Velázquez, Aretha Franklin and others.

In the same Castillo de Mata one can see the exhibition «Ars Botanica, simbólica naturaleza», a tribute to David Bramwell (1942—2022), director of Jardín Botánico Canario Viera y Clavijo between 1974 and 2012. The exhibition features works by Fernando Álamo, Juan Pedro Ayala, Kōno Bairei, Marisa Culatto, Marta Chirino, Pepe Dámaso, César Manrique, Néstor, Nellie Roberts and various illustrators of 18^th and 19^th centuries. Until 18 March 2023.

Happy New Year, everybody.

MicroRelatos 2021

by Various Authors

For weeks, a stack of these books was gracing gathering dust at the entrance to Rvbicón, so I took one home, where it continued to gather dust for another six months or so, until I decided to tidy my desk and... brought the book with me to the beach. What a good idea! I read most of it while sunbathing, and finished it the following week.

The book contains 34 short stories selected from 882 submissions to the XIV competition organised by the association Sol Cultural. All the stories are based on the winning photos of the XIX Photography Contest (by the same association) and are no longer than 150 words.

Here is my favourite story of the book:

Llueve

¿Recuerdas que nos imaginábamos juntos y viejos como esa casa que se desintegra de a poco, orgullosa de mantenerse en pie mientras el tiempo la corroe; que no deja que le maquillen sus paredes, porque se estropearían las nubes que siempre dan lluvia en tardes de encuentros y despedidas? Hoy, después de llevarte flores, entré a esperarte.

Magdalena Novoa Uquillas
Quito, Ecuador

В этом мире / In This World

by Аллегро / Allegro

One dark, late autumn afternoon in 1982, I found myself in the Мелодия (Melodiya) record shop on Kalininski Prospekt. Long winding queues were filling up most of the space on the ground floor; the shop assistants were shouting to the cashiers to stop accepting payments for a certain item^*. This item turned out to be David Tukhmanov’s latest album, Н.Л.О. (UFO). So it wasn’t meant to be, at least this time.

Undeterred by this setback, I headed to another section of the shop. And there it was, this LP of a band I never heard about, with a not particularly original name «Аллегро» (Allegro). Curiously enough, the English title, In This World, was taking a greater area of the sleeve than its Russian version, «В этом мире». The liner notes by Alexei Batashev (Алексей Баташёв)^†, as always, were over the top; they still make me laugh in embarrassment:

Здесь и «хамелеоновское остинато» Хэнкока, и «апокалиптические скрипки» Махавишну, и инструментальные песни Гарбарека, и витиеватые унисоны Кориа, а то и какой-нибудь «сарказм» с прокофьевской чертовщинкой.

Here are “chameleonic ostinato” of Hancock as well as “apocalyptic violins” of Mahavishnu, instrumental songs of Garbarek, ornate unisons of Corea, and even some sort of “sarcasm” with Prokofiev’s devilry.

Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to get back home to listen to my new purchase — and it didn’t disappoint. The music was unlike anything I heard before. Besides, it was not that common for a jazz composition to take a whole side of a vinyl. It had grown to be one of my favourite albums of Soviet jazz and, without being acquainted with any work of the aforementioned Western musicians, one of my favourite jazz-rock records, ever. Also, the bass playing by Viktor Dvoskin became a true inspiration for me. Not that I’ve progressed much during the last 40 years, but still.

Listening to it now, I can hear the influences of all the artists listed by Batashev and more — but also, with more clarity, Allegro’s own unique sound. I’d love to have In This World on CD but it doesn’t look that it even exists.

In memory of Yuri Genbachev (12.10.1941 — 31.12.2017) and Alexei Batashev (7.09.1934 — 14.05.2021).

В этом мире	In This World
В этом мире. Джазовая композиция в 4-х частях (Н. Левиновский) 22:10 Легенда. Джазовая композиция в 3-х частях (Н. Левиновский) 20:53	In This World. Jazz composition in four movements (N. Levinovsky) 22:10 Legend. Jazz composition in three movements (N. Levinovsky) 20:53
Джаз-ансамбль «Аллегро»	Allegro Jazz Ensemble
Николай Левиновский, фортепиано, электропиано, синтезаторы «Минимуг» и ARP Сергей Гурбелошвили, саксофоны Виктор Двоскин, контрабас Юрий Генбачёв, ударные Виктор Епанешников, барабаны	Nikolai Levinovsky: piano, electric piano, Minimoog and ARP Sergey Gurbeloshvili: saxophones Viktor Dvoskin: double bass Yuri Genbachev: percussion Viktor Yepaneshnikov: drums

__________________________________________________

*	For those unfamiliar with the Soviet-time triple queuing system: the first queue, to the counter to order the goods; then to the cashier’s desk to pay; the final one back to the counter to collect your purchase.
†	A couple of years later, I’d see Alexei Nikolaevich himself introducing the very Allegro, albeit with a different line-up, in a concert. Back then it would be difficult to go to any jazz performance in Moscow that would not be presented by him.

The Killers

a film by Robert Siodmak
score by Miklós Rózsa

Ah, those were the days when life insurance investigators were sharper and sexier than both policemen and their adversaries. Or, at least, their male adversaries. This classic 1946 film noir stars then virtually unknown Ava Gardner — born 100 years ago today — as the femme fatale Kitty and, in his cinematic debut, Burt Lancaster as a handsome and not too bright ex-boxer, “The Swede”. However, it’s Edmond O’Brien (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) as Jim Reardon who is the best actor here. Vince Barnett appears in a small but memorable role of Charleston, the astronomy-loving thief.

Reardon: How well did you know the Swede?
Charleston: Me? Mister, I guess me and the Swede were about as close as two guys can get. For nearly two years we weren’t more than eight and a half feet apart. That’s how big the cell was.

Reardon: When was the last time you saw him?
Charleston: Mister, did you say “when?”
Reardon: Yes.
Charleston: Mister, when it comes to dates, 1492 is the only one I can remember.

Some curiosities: like Double Indemnity, another classic of the genre, The Killers was nominated for a bunch of Academy Awards but didn’t win any. Next one: although the film was promoted as “Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers”, it’s only the opening sequence that it based on the Hemingway’s 1927 short story. And, as I’ve just learned, the same story was adapted ten years later by Andrei Tarkovsky for his first picture, Убийцы, where “The Swede” was played by Vasily Shukshin, also in his film debut.

Mantícora

a film by Carlos Vermut

Almost two hours of uncomfortable viewing featuring a creepy video game developer (Nacho Sánchez), cute girlfriend (Zoe Stein) and thoroughly lame ending. I appreciate the director’s bravery (attempting to tackle a difficult theme, blah blah blah), now let me out of here. The only positive experience of all this was my first visit to Los Ángeles — I mean the movie theatre (Calle Ruamayor, 6). Luckily, it was not the last film I saw in Santander this year.

باد ما را خواهد برد

a film by Abbas Kiarostami

The Wind Will Carry Us is one of those films where not much happens and is all the greater for that. The action is mostly confined to the protagonist (Behzad Dorani) engaging in conversations, often with invisible interlocutors. And when those are seen, it’s almost too much action.

The title is taken from a poem by Forugh Farrokhzad that Behzad recites to Zeynab in practically complete darkness. I watched the film in VOSE and so the poem appeared in Spanish translation. The English version by Ahmad Karimi Hakkak could be read here.

O que arde

a film by Oliver Laxe

A powerful and touching drama starring Benedicta Sánchez in her cinematic debut at a tender young age of 84.

PlayTime

a film by Jacques Tati

A futuristic absurdist comedy predating Monty Python, Playtime is considered one of the greatest films of all time. In my opinion, it could have been even greater if it was shorter. The Royal Garden sequence (one hour of screen time) has its highlights but quickly grows too predictable.