Live music in Santander, February 2015

Man, there was a lot of it!

• 1 February: Jam Manouche @ Rubicón, Calle del Sol 4
  Now already a tradition!
• 4 February: Funky Station @ Rubicón
  Funky Station, in that evening incarnation, was Sergio González (guitar and vocals), Francisco Gómez (guitar), Carlos Gutiérrez (bass and vocals) and Natxo Miralles (drums). Don’t be fooled by the band’s name: it’s not only funk, but also jazz, blues, rock’n’roll, even samba... Delightful, if somewhat directionless, mix. As it happens in Rubicón, some encores ensued featuring the guest artists who just happened to sit there at the bar.
• 5 February: Phil Grijuela and Iván Velasco @ El Cazurro, Playa de La Arnía, Liencres
  I saw these guys last month performing during La Noche Americana at Rubicón. To my surprise, the program was almost completely different. The highlights included Like a Rolling Stone and Whiskey in the Jar.
• 7 February: Gou Live @ Desafinado Wine & Jazz, Barrio Las Mazas 15, Liencres
  Chema Armengou (DJ set), Sergio Mayoral (trumpet) and Mabel Sierra (vocal) mix electronic and live music.
• 9 February: The Dustaphonics @ New Planet Rock Bar, Calle Santa Lucía 8
  The four-piece from London delivered a fantastic show.
• 13 February: Pepe Habichuela @ Salón de actos de la Fundación Botín, Pedrueca 1
  I simply had no right to miss a concert of this humble legend of flamenco (he played with Camarón de la Isla and Enrique Morente, among others). And what a concert it was! Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the names of the singer and the percussionist, who were just as outstanding as maestro himself.
• 14 February: El Pescao @ Carnival of Santoña
  I was told Santoña is about the only place in Cantabria worth visiting to see a carnival parade. Quite predictably, it was raining most of the evening, so my friends and I ended up in the big marquee in the centre of the town and saw El Pescao there. I never heard about this band before but, as I learned now, it is very popular. Lot of people actually knew the lyrics! I didn’t care much for their pop-rock songs but reggae/ska stuff was quite decent; I wish they played more of that.
• 17 February: Adriana Blu & The Sugars @ Canela Bar, Plaza de Cañadio
  A talented singer and a great band playing jazz, soul, bolero and bossa-nova standards. They are based in Santander so I hope to see them again soon.

• 18 February: Yakeen @ Rubicón
  A four-strong trio from Toulouse, comprising Adrien Aragón (steel string guitar), Matthieu Guenez (Spanish guitar), Dimitri Laboire (double bass) and a violinist who was introduced to the public as simply Matthieu. Not just another jazz manouche band, their repertoire includes compositions by Chick Corea, Paco de Lucía and Vicente Amigo. Two and a half hours (at least, not counting the interval) of pure sonic pleasure.
• 20 February: Cromática Pistona @ Café de las Artes Teatro, Calle García Morato 4
  Wow. When you see a band like this, you are spoiled for choice: either sit and stare open-mouthed; go dancing; or, if you are feeling adventurous, go dancing open-mouthed. I chose the first option, not least because I didn’t want to trip over the cables in front of the band, whereas if I went to the cable-free area, I would lose the view of them, and probably my seat. Anyway, there were more than enough people who even knew how to dance swing. (According to the band’s Facebook page, “El principal objetivo de la Cromática es lograr que el público baile sin parar en los conciertos”.) Wonderfully happy and diverse music played with lots of humour and style.

• 24 February: Hermes Quartet @ Canela Bar
  Hermes de la Torre (piano), Saúl Crespo (violin), Miguel Díez (cello) and Daniel Rodríguez (percussion) with special guests Eva Maza (vocal) y Jorge Pérez (recitative). A history of Cuban music from 1890 to the present.
• 26 February: Hula Baby @ El Cazurro
  This was the first time that I was unable to progress to the main sitting (playing, dancing) room of El Cazurro. So I and my friend stayed by the bar, enjoying beer, nice food and a view of the public trying to dance while closely-packed. As for music, it was rather straightforward good old rock’n’roll well played but, thanks to the acoustic properties of the place, I wasn’t even sure which songs were sung in Spanish and which in English.

I’m tired of winter. Thank you Cantabria for the Carnival break (unheard of in the UK, though rather short by Canarian standards) and for all this music.

Plants and planetoids

by Timur Kulikov

Pencil, paper.

Plants

Plants: “A sketch I did at school.”

Planetoids

Planetoids: “A sketch I did of a neighbourhood in space. School was rather uneventful.”

Fear of Flying

a film by Conor Finnegan

I’ve discovered this little gem thanks to Film English, a great resource for EFL teaching. Each lesson plan is built around a (deliberately) obscure short film, though of course you are free to use just a part of this plan. I was not quite sure how my preteen and teen students would react to the film. They loved it.

Just as recommended, I paused the film at about 05:25 and asked them what do they think Dougal would do. None of them guessed correctly but they had some good ideas.

The Dustaphonics live

Last week, somewhere downtown, I saw a poster suspiciously similar to that of The Buttshakers gig. It got me intrigued but also made me a bit uneasy: if I go to see them, I thought, comparisons would be inevitable. I did a bit of online research and, while I enjoyed their studio work a lot, I couldn’t say the same about their live clips on YouTube. I had my doubts till the last moment. Good thing that you can save couple of euros buying entrada anticipada, which I did (I’ve got entrada nº 25!) in Cuchillería Ibáñez, Calle Guevara, 6, about one hour before the show started. (A curious establishment which apparently sells only two types of things: knives and concert tickets.) I am glad that I eventually got to the show, because the quality of the aforementioned live recordings simply does not do justice to the band.

I turned up to New Planet Rock Bar exactly on time (20:30) and found it tragically empty. The man on the doors assured me that it will start soon, maybe in quarter of an hour. Fifteen minutes later, there indeed were some people inside. The band (Hayley Red, vocals; Yvan Serrano-Fontova, guitar; Dan Whaley, bass; Eric Frajria, drums) were hanging around the bar looking a bit lost. But when they started playing, you could hear Quality straight away.

Now I can’t be sure but I think that at first the Londoners were a bit puzzled by the size and reaction of the audience. Hence numerous calls of “Come on, Santander!!!” persuasion which did not quite work, at least initially. In the end, The Dustaphonics did reach to the people through their sheer power of musicianship and made them sing and (sort of) dance. The songs, mostly originals, were awesome. I can’t say what style is it though. Wait, I actually can: it’s rock’n’roll, with bits of surf and soul here and there, but it’s rock’n’roll alright. As for the lady in front: can this girl sing the blues! And you know what, not even once were The Buttshakers on my mind during the show. Which is great, because now I love both bands. Unconditionally.

All in all, it was a resounding success. Don’t forget the public were not some random blokes but rock aficionados who made a special effort to come here on a Monday night. In Santander. Maybe it wasn’t exactly una bacanal de baile y desenfreno, but the band had elicited probably the biggest response from this audience one could ever hope for. Respect.

The Dustaphonics continue their Spanish tour this week with concerts in Pontevedra, Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Vitoria.

Live music in Santander, January 2015

I flew to Santiago de Compostela on 3 January. Next day, I took a train to A Coruña. Next day, I went by coach to Oviedo. On those days, none of these cities had much to offer in terms of live music although I think I caught a glipmse of my friends The Blue Ribbon Healers busking on the street in A Coruña. (I did not have any time to stop: I was on a mission to discover a tapa place, and it was freezing outside.) In Oviedo, I saw a magnificent Cabalgata de Reyes Magos. I arrived to Santander on 6 January, after a five-hour scenic FEVE train ride. Well, at least the first half of it was scenic; then it was just plain dark.

Even here in Spain, January is the most depressing month of the year. What about rebajas, you may ask. Well. Anywhere else in the country you would expect to see the orgy of winter sales. In Santander, the sales go on but the shops look exactly the same or even less crowded as pre-sales, minus Christmas lights. They really should work harder if they want to sell anything to me. At least the sky is not totally dark when I catch my morning bus. And the music is there to make life more bearable.

I thought the list will be twice as long. But then, things happen. Two shows were, unfortunately, canceled; two concerts I wanted to go I couldn’t, and another couple of gigs I went could well have been skipped.

• 7 January: Sitara Trío @ Rubicón, Calle del Sol 4
  Sergio Mier (guitar), Joansa Maravilla (oud, percussion) and Diego Gutiérrez (percussion): fusion of flamenco, jazz and Middle Eastern music. As an encore, there was an impromptu flamenco jam with a percussionist and a singer from the audience.
• 10 January: Malas Calles @ Restaurante del Centro Gallego de Santander, Calle Peña Herbosa 6.
  60s and 70s style blues and rock. The Spanish-language songs did not impress me much but several standards, especially Mustang Sally, Johnny B. Goode, Peter Gunn theme and an unnamed harmonica blues got the audience going.
• 11 January: La Noche Americana @ Rubicón
  Every second Sunday at Rubicón: classic American folk, blues and country music featuring Phil Grijuela and Iván Velasco.
• 13 January: Jambalaya @ Canela Bar, Plaza de Cañadio
  Sizzling interpretations of jazz, blues and rockabilly standards such as Minnie The Moocher, He’s In the Jailhouse Now and That’s All Right.
• 21 January: Pez Mago @ Rubicón
  Pez Mago is a project of singer-songwriter Lucas Álvarez de Toledo, in its strip-down version consisting of Lucas himself (vocals and guitar) and Alexis Balanowsky (accordion).

• 27 January: Ramón Toca @ Canela Bar
  An evening of canción de autor. I liked his songs but wish he did not spent so much time telling old jokes.

So long, January. I’m looking forward to Carnaval!

Финдлей

by Robert Burns and Samuil Marshak
a song by Alexander Gradsky

I don’t know how many English speakers ever heard or read this comic seduction tale, Wha Is That At My Bower Door?, but its translation, Финдлей (Findlay), is probably one of the best-known and loved poems of the Bard in the Russian-speaking world. In a much smaller world of Russian speakers, which includes myself, the iambic trimeter of the even lines is easily adapted to form humorous utterances like писец, сказал монтёр, which I find indispensable in daily life. The structure of English (Scots) version is slightly different and, in my view, does not lend itself to such use. Also, Marshak’s verse has more diversity: the fourth line of every stanza is always different! Even though I know that the name pronounced as /ˈfɪnlɪ/, I really like the boldly “wrong” Russian pronunciation /fɪndˈleɪ/.

Robert Burns Wha Is That At My Bower-Door

Роберт Бёрнс, перевод С.Я. Маршака Финдлей

“Wha is that at my bower door?” “O wha is it but Findlay!” “Then gae your gate, ye’se nae be here;” “Indeed maun I!” quo’ Findlay; “What mak ye, sae like a thief?” “O come and see!” quo’ Findlay; “Before the morn ye’ll work mischief;” “Indeed will I!” quo’ Findlay. “Gif I rise and let you in;” “Let me in!” quo’ Findlay; “Ye’ll keep me waukin wi’ your din; “Indeed will I!” quo’ Findlay. “In my bower if ye should stay;” “Let me stay!” quo’ Findlay; “I fear ye’ll bide till break o’ day;” “Indeed will I!” quo’ Findlay. “Here this night if ye remain” — “I’ll remain!” quo’ Findlay: “I dread ye’ll learn the gate again;” “Indeed will I!” quo’ Findlay. “What may pass within this bower” — “Let it pass!” quo’ Findlay: “Ye maun conceal till your last hour;” “Indeed will I!” quo’ Findlay.

— Кто там стучится в поздний час? “Конечно, я — Финдлей!” — Ступай домой. Все спят у нас! “Не все!” — сказал Финдлей. — Как ты прийти ко мне посмел? “Посмел!” — сказал Финдлей. — Небось наделаешь ты дел... “Могу!” — сказал Финдлей. — Тебе калитку отвори... “А ну!” — сказал Финдлей. — Ты спать не дашь мне до зари! “Не дам!” — сказал Финдлей. — Попробуй в дом тебя впустить... “Впусти!” — сказал Финдлей. — Всю ночь ты можешь прогостить. “Всю ночь!” — сказал Финдлей. — С тобою ночь одну побудь... “Побудь!” — сказал Финдлей. — Ко мне опять найдешь ты путь. “Найду!” — сказал Финдлей. — О том, что буду я с тобой... “Со мной!” — сказал Финдлей. — Молчи до крышки гробовой! “Идёт!” — сказал Финдлей.

Финдлей is one of five songs on Burns’ lyrics written by Alexander Gradsky in early 1970s. They first appeared on a LP Размышления Шута issued by Melodiya in 1987. In contrast to the hits В полях под снегом и дождём and Наш старый дом, the rest of these songs never became a regular part of his repertoire. Today it sounds a bit dated, but please keep in mind that Финдлей was one of the first (probably the first) prog-rock compositions ever recorded in the USSR.

An Introduction to Sociolinguistics

by Ronald Wardhaugh

On 22 December 2014, at an altitude of 35,000 feet, somewhere over the Atlantic, I finally got to the last page of this book. The reason it took me about six months — even longer than Understanding English Grammar, which I’d been struggling to finish back in Porvoo — is that I was reading it on Kindle while waiting for a bus, travelling on train or, as I just said, flying. Otherwise it was a fascinating, though not easy, reading. I found the chapters 3 (Pidgins and Creoles), 4 (Codes) and 13 (Gender) especially engaging.

I tried to do a bit of research on Tukano who, apparently, live in some sort of multilingual paradise, and have discovered that the entire “Culture” section in Wikipedia article has been lifted wholesale from Wardhaugh. Here’s the original:

The Tukano are a multilingual people because men must marry outside their language group; that is, no man may have a wife who speaks his language, for that kind of marriage relationship is not permitted and would be viewed as a kind of incest. Men choose the women they marry from various neighboring tribes who speak other languages. Furthermore, on marriage, women move into the men’s households or longhouses. Consequently, in any village several languages are used: the language of the men; the various languages spoken by women who originate from different neighboring tribes; and a widespread regional ‘trade’ language. Children are born into this multilingual environment: the child’s father speaks one language, the child’s mother another, and other women with whom the child has daily contact perhaps still others. However, everyone in the community is interested in language learning so most people can speak most of the languages. Multilingualism is taken for granted, and moving from one language to another in the course of a single conversation is very common. In fact, multilingualism is so usual that the Tukano are hardly conscious that they do speak different languages as they shift easily from one to another. They cannot readily tell an outsider how many languages they speak, and must be suitably prompted to enumerate which languages they speak and to describe how well they speak each one.

Multilingualism is a norm in this community. It results from the pattern of marriage and the living arrangements consequent to marriage. Communities are multilingual and no effort is made to suppress the variety of languages that are spoken. It is actually seen as a source of strength, for it enables the speakers of the various linguistic communities to maintain contact with one another and provides a source for suitable marriage partners for those who seek them. A man cannot marry one of his ‘sisters’, i.e., women whose mother tongue is the same as his. People are not ‘strangers’ to one another by reason of the fact that they cannot communicate when away from home. When men from one village visit another village, they are likely to find speakers of their native language. There will almost certainly be some women from the ‘home’ village who have married into the village being visited, possibly even a sister. The children of these women, too, will be fluent in their mothers’ tongue. Many others also will have learned some of it because it is considered proper to learn to use the languages of those who live with you.

Compare that with your typical British or American monolingual speaker’s attitude!