Free live music and stuff in Las Palmas, February 2020

Here are some free events that I attended this month:

• 5 February: David Quevedo & Ensemble Salvaje @ Paraninfo de La Universidad de Las Palmas, Calle Juan de Quesada, 30, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  The last event of Festival en paralelo that Timur and I were able to attend (it was free but one had to pick up the tickets beforehand, and I know people who weren’t so lucky).

  The programme included

  • Llamada Tribal (David Quevedo)
  • Intro Salvaje (David Quevedo)
  • Advenimiento (David Quevedo)
  • Excuses (Manuel Bonino)
  • Wild Wild Hip Hop (Tana Santana)
  • Todo Lo Que Te Propongas (Ernesto Mateo)
  • La Ceremonia (Mario Ferrer Medina)
  • Sr. Castaño (Luis Merino)
  • Trance (Giulia Valle, arr. Toni Vaquer)
  • Folías Calmas (David Quevedo)
  • Blues Saljaje (David Quevedo)
  • Interludio para Cello y Violín (Manuel Bonino)
  • Mestizarama V.A. (David Quevedo)

  The band featured:

  Toni Vaquer (conductor), Esther Ovejero, Errol Woiski (vocals), Kino Ait Idrissen (gimbri, vocals), David Quevedo, Manuel Bonino, Ernesto Mateo (piano), Tana Santana (double bass, rap), Tom Warburton (double bass), José Carlos Cejudo (electric bass), Luis Merino (guitar), Germán López (timple), Javi Montero (drums), “Mayin” Mario Ferrer Medina, José Carlos Cubas, Nasim López-Palacios (percussion), Ana Muñoz, Carlos Alemán, Carlos López, Gustavo Montesdeoca, Ana Gil, Jairo Cabrera, Ernesto Aurignac, Kike Perdomo, Gabriel Domínguez, Juan Domingo Travieso (woodwinds), Rubén Guerrero, Abimael Ojeda, Matthew Simon, Idafe Pérez, Josep Tutusaus, Yossi Itskovich, Óscar Sanitso (brass), David Ballesteros, Matej Osap, Liliana Montané, Elisabeth Hernández, Laura Espino, Beatriz Nuez, Ismel Leal, Elena Mederos, David Cáceres, Juan Pablo Alemán, Caterina Trujillo and Miguel Ángel Gómez (strings).
• 6 February: Quiana Lynell @ Auditorio Alfredo Kraus, Avda. Príncipe de Asturias
  Before playing two dates with Perinké Big Band, Ms Lynell gave a masterclass of jazz vocal which, I think, was useful for instrumentalists too although none of them had a chance to jam (unlike, say, Aubrey Logan’s masterclass last year). There was a moment of embarrassment when in the end of the class Quiana asked “Well, who is coming to the show?” and apprently nobody in the audience was going to. “See you tonight maybe?” she tried again hopefully but then Ximo Martínez, the musical director of Perinké Big Band, attempted to save the situation by announcing that both shows are sold out, which made the moment even more embarrassing.
• 7 February — 4 March: Leonardo Da Vinci. Observa, cuestiona, experimenta @ Parque de San Telmo
  Although there are no original works of Leonardo, I found this fun interactive exhibition well worth 30 minutes of my life.
• 8 February: Carmen París “En síntesis” @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos, Parque Doramas
  Accompanied by Diego Ebbeler (piano) and Jorge Tejerina (percussion, vocals), Carmen París brought her inimitable fusion of jota, bolero, cha-cha-cha, Candombe, jazz etc. etc. with hits such as Cuerpo triste, Distancia espeluznante and Mucho Ringo-Rango. Half-way through Guaraní, the power went off but the trio continued unplugged as if nothing had happened.

• 21 February: Exposición Multiculturalidad @ Centro Cívico Suárez Naranjo, Calle Pamochamoso 34
  With the participation of Coro del Distrito Centro del Ayuntamiento de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the African Percussion workshop (including yours truly; however, we played just one African song together with a choir) and the Tango workshop.
  

• 25 February: Juanes @ Parque Santa Catalina
  After a gloomy weekend, with many Carnival events cancelled across Canaries thanks to calima, the Mardi Gras Martes de Carnaval celebrations went as planned, culminating with Juanes’ concert in Santa Catalina, attended by some 30,000 revellers. The place was absolutely packed and for a good reason. Starting with A Dios le Pido all way through Bonita, La Camisa Negra, La Paga, Volverte a Ver, Yerbatero and so on, finishing with La Luz.

Come on, let’s have Spring already.

The Original Sound of Cumbia: The History of Colombian Cumbia & Porro as Told by the Phonograph 1948—79

compilation, research and liner notes by Will Holland

If Diablos del Ritmo focus on Afro-Colombian fusion styles other than cumbia, The Original Sound of Cumbia, as the title suggests, is mostly cumbia. This monumental 55-track compilation is the result of five years research by Will ‘Quantic’ Holland, the English DJ now based in Colombia. The first CD (or, if you prefer vinyl, the first three LPs) contains some of the earliest cumbia recordings, of 1940s and 1950s, taken from the original 78s, while the material for the second CD (the second triple LP album) is derived from the later 45s and LPs. If I had a permanent address and a turntable, I would certainly go for the vinyl version which come with free MP3 bundle and has, well, vinyl-only bonus tracks: Cumbia Alegre by Angel Martínez con Los Sabaneros and Cumbia Linda by Heber Macias.

In a post-internet world of traffic light CD compilations and auto-tune Tropi-pop, the 78 format is out of both context and fashion, rather like asking for Edison wax cylinders in your local HMV. But the 78 format does seem to provide some respite in the digital audio circus; it’t that old workhorse that keeps on pulling, the cartwheel that keeps on turning regardless of losing its tread. It’s for the same reason that sound engineers still use microphones engineered in the 1950s and children still marvel at the sound of a spinning disc with a vibrating stylus, an effect that no-one can truly replicate, no matter how many ‘i’s you put in front of the name.

By the way, I learned from the very informative liner notes that “Colombia continued to produce 78 rpm records well into the late ’70s, partly due to the country’s network of jukeboxes that still utilised the 78 over the 45”. This probably also explains why Holland was able to acquire his 78s on Colombian flea markets well into the 21^st century.

The Best of Harry Belafonte

by Harry Belafonte

This rather misleadingly named two-CD set in fact includes two early Belafonte albums, Calypso (1956) and Belafonte Sings of the Caribbean (1957), in their entirety, plus several bonus tracks, some of which could be better left out. In a way, this compilation continues the tradition of misleading names started by Calypso, which is not a calypso but mento album. To add even more confusion, the CDs themselves are labelled The Best of Harry Belafonte — Calypso — Disc 1 and The Best of Harry Belafonte — Calypso — Disc 2. But who cares! Calypso became the first LP ever to sell over one million copies. According to the liner notes,

<Irving> Burgie was credited with the majority of the songs, which had been well rehearsed before Belafonte entered the studio... Ironically, then, it was the one piece of improvisation, Day-O, that would give the album its opening signature track and inspire a plethora of imitators.

Even if it is not really “the best of” Harry Belafonte (thank goodness for that! I can’t stand “the best of” albums), it is worth having for the sake of Day-O alone. Other highlights include Love, Love Alone and Scratch, Scratch.

The White Woman on the Green Bicycle

by Monique Roffey

In 1956, a young couple arrives to Trinidad from England. He falls in love with the island. She hates it. His secrets are outdoors. Her secrets are inside.

I like the premise and I loved the book. It could have been great, perfect even. But I found a few things quite irritating. The (chronologically) last part comes first, the beginning and the rest of the story later. Although these are arguably the better read (no doubt, because of the first-person narrative), one may wonder what’s the point of reading when we know how it all ends. (Tragic, that’s how.) Perhaps the structure makes it easier to gloss over the 36-year gap between the last and the first parts?

Also, the word “steupsed” is used far too often. I reckon by its third appearance in the book the reader should get that Trinidadians do it a lot.

‘How old are, you, Venus?’ ‘Twenteh.’ Five years younger than me. But she could have been any age. Eighteen, thirty-five. ‘Do you live far?’ ‘Just up so, in Paramin. I walk there. I does like to tek a walk. It good fuh de blood system. Good to keep slim.’ ‘I ride my bicycle.’ ‘I see you, Miss. Everybody know you already.’ ‘Who?’ ‘Everybody. I tell dem I go fine a job with de white lady on de green bicycle. Nobody believe meh. But is true. I see you ride pas’ every day. With de basket in front.’ I blushed. ‘You is famus, Miss.’

The White Man in the Tree and Other Stories

by Mark Kurlansky

Mark Kurlansky is a best-selling author of non-fiction books such as Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World or The Story of Salt, of which so far I read none. Instead, I picked this one for my holiday reading. Fiction. It even has this, rather standard, disclaimer:

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental

And this is how the story Vertical Administration begins:

Jean-Claude Aubaille was approaching his 50^th birthday and it could have been said that not much was going on in his life until Deputy Führer Martin Bormann was dropped into his lap.

Wait a minute (or whatever time you need to stop laughing). Now seriously: surely Bormann is not a product of author’s imagination? Most stories in this book are open-ended. Will Palle and Lanuwobi (The White Man in the Tree) ever get together again? Who was behind the mysterious “green gas attacks” (Beautiful Mayagüez Women)? Was it real Bormann? Kurlansky’s stories are humorous, poignant and unpredictable, and he leaves a lot to the reader’s imagination.

The Same Earth

by Kei Miller

The cover illustration of Kei Miller’s first novel shows its heroine, Imelda Richardson, dragging along the single suitcase, as she leaves behind her flooded house and village of Watersgate, Jamaica. The polka-dot panties of Tessa Walcott (the disappearance of which is to blame for Imelda’s troubles) are flying in the air... Once you start reading it, you won’t stop till you come to the end — but it is not there. You are left to wonder what happens next to Imelda and her friends. A beautiful writing.

‘Miss Johnson, I was tryna be reasonable, but I see a person can’t with your sort. Well then, I wasn’t born yesterday. I know what you’ve got growing inside your house. Blooming pothead is what you are! I’m tempting to call the coppers on you. Yeah. How’s that?’
‘The coppers?’
‘The police, Miss Johnson!’
‘Police?’ Purletta giggled. ‘You think me ’fraid of police? But is what wrong with this wrinkle-up old woman who come to disturb mi peace, eeh? Think say big woman like me ’fraid of police?’
Purletta slammed the door on Mrs Farquason, and then, to make her point abundantly clear, she proceeded to call the police on herself.
From across the road the old woman watched in alarm as sirens approached. Purletta ushered two uniformed men into her living room. She sat the officers down and poured two mugs of ganja tea for them. The tea had been brewed with peppermint, cinnamon leaves and then sweetened with condensed milk and the two young policemen sipped it all the way to the dregs, commending Purletta for the soothing exotic blend of ‘island tea’. They inspected her house, saw the marijuana plant on the balcony but dismissed it as something else. She wouldn’t have called them and left something like that out in the open. They left as confused as they had come, a little more mellow, however, and happier, and that evening three teenaged boys who would normally have been looked up for public mischief (they had been caught spray-painting graffiti on the side of a building) got off with a light reprimand, and even a ‘Cheers, mate’.