Free live music and stuff in Las Palmas, September 2026

Some stuff that we saw this September. Sketches by Tamara.

• 5 September: «Con Alma» @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos, Parque Doramas, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  Swingstar, a vocal trio feauturing Juan Dávila, Adán Robayna and Israel Quintana.

  

• 15 September: «The Drexel Manuscript» @ Casa de Colón, Calle Colón, 1
  Music for viola da gamba solo by Carl Friedrich Abel performed by Alejandro Marías. The last concert of this year’s cycle Música Antigua en el Patio.

  

• 16 September: Fermín Romero @ Palacete Rodríguez Quegles, Calle Benito Pérez Galdós 4,
  A concert from the cycle 12 noches de autor.

  

• 23 September: «Ländler» @ Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (CAAM), Calle de los Balcones, 9
  Piano four-hands music interpreted by José Luis Castillo and Ignacio Clemente. The second concert from this year’s cycle CAAMclásico coordinated by Ángel Luis Quintana. The programme included:
  • Maurice Ravel: Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose)
    1. Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant (Pavane of Sleeping Beauty)
    2. Petit Poucet (Little Tom Thumb)
    3. Laideronnette, impératrice des pagodes (Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas)
    4. Les entretiens de la belle et de la bête (Conversation of Beauty and the Beast)
    5. Le jardin féerique (The Fairy Garden)
  • Johannes Brahms: Waltzes, Op. 39 (selection)
  • Franz Schubert: Four Ländler for piano duet, D 814
  • Franz Schubert: Fantasia in F minor, D 940
  • Encore: Johann Sebastian Bach: Actus tragicus (Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit), BWV 106

  

Just like last year, all the free shows of the 30^th (!) edition of TEMUDAS (10—26 September 2026) took place in Santa Catalina, so it was very convenient for us. This is what we’ve seen:

• 17 September @ Plaza de Canarias
  • «Juancaballo» (dance) by Cía. Juan Berlanga, Comunidad de Madrid
  • «Domte» (modern circus) by Cía. Nacho Flores, Catalonia
  • «Maletas de tierra» (street theatre) by Visitants, Comunidad Valenciana
  • «Mover montañas» (dance) by Alberto Velasco, Comunidad de Madrid
  • «Le Nid» (theatre) by Cie. Adhok, France
  • «Sísifos» (circus) by Cía. Uparte, Murcia

  

• 18 September @ Plaza de Canarias
  • «La piedra de madera» (circus) by Eia Compañía De Circo, Catalonia
  • «Le Nid» (yes, again)
  • «Sacred» (circus) by La Glo Circo, the Basque Country

  

• 19 September @ Plaza de Canarias except «Babel» @ Parque Santa Catalina
  • «La Reina del Metal» (dance, flamenco) by Vanesa Aibar, Andalucía
  • «ConCorda» (dance, circus) by ConCorda, Portugal
  • «Famulus 4.0» (circus) by Iron Skulls, Catalonia
  • «Sacred» (yes, again)
  • «Babel» (theatre) by Xarxa Teatre, Comunidad Valenciana

  

• 20 September @ Plaza de Canarias
  • «Ultimatum» (dance) by Led Silhouette, Navarra
  • «The Violin Band» (music) by Ananda, Canaries
    Featuring Rubén Sánchez Araña (violin, vocals), Josué Santana (piano, accordion), Yuniel Rascón (guitars), Adrián Vega (bass) and Lucas Arencibia (drums, percussion, beatboxing).

  

• 24 September @ Plaza de Canarias
  • «Desªnuda» (dance) by Maitane Serralde, the Basque Country
  • «Choriza» (circus) by Aurora Jara, Canaries
  • «Sodade» (circus) by Minuit Compagnie, France

  

• 25 September
  • «KIPPPUNKT» (dance) by Theater Titanick, Germany @ Parque Santa Catalina
  • «We Will Rock You 3.0» (music), Gran Canaria @ Plaza de Canarias
    La Banda Sinfónica Municipal de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria conducted by Daniel Abad. Featuring voices of Beatriz Pérez, Juanma Rodríguez and Juan Dávila. Curiously, or maybe not, the programme included We Are the Champions, The Final Countdown, Highway to Hell and I Will Survive, which we already heard performed by Ananda five days earlier. A bit of coordination next time, please.

  

• 26 September @ Plaza de Canarias
  • «La crisis de la imaginación» (circus) by Rauxa Cía. (Xavi Sanchez and Analia Serenelli), Catalonia
  • «Time to Loop» (circus) by Duo Kaos (Giulia Arcangeli and Luis Paredes), Italy/Guatemala
  • «Buenas noches, Europa» (theatre) by Animasur Teatro, Granada
  • «Mahmud y no solo Mahmud» (theatre, circus) by Puntocero Company, Madrid

Goodbye, September.

John Coltrane (1926—1967)

John Coltrane recorded his first album as a leader in 1957, only ten years before his death at the age of 40. In this ten years, he — sorry for the cliché — changed jazz forever.

If I had to choose three of his albums to take to a desert island, it would be Blue Train, Africa/Brass and The John Coltrane Quartet Plays. Why? Because I can listen to them from beginning to the end, any day.

Happy 100^th, Trane.

Blue Train (1958)

Africa/Brass (1961)

The John Coltrane Quartet Plays (1965)

A Manual for Cleaning Ladies

by Lucia Berlin
edited and with an introduction by Stephen Emerson
foreword by Lydia Davis

“Detox?” The Champ scoffed. “Never detox. Retox! That’s the ticket!”

502

How come I never heard of Lucia Berlin? As usual, I discovered her thanks to our library. A book of short stories. Let’s give it a shot, I thought. And a hell of a shot it was! Every story is a little — or a big — treasure.

Most of the stories are, at least in part, autobiographical, whether the protagonist is called Carlotta, Dolores, Eloise, Lu, Maggie or Maria. She must have had a fascinating life. (In case you are reading this book offline, like I did, there is A Note on Lucia Berlin in the end.) And a wonderful sense of humour. In his introduction, Stephen Emerson writes:

What her work has, is joy. A precious commodity, not encountered all that often. Balzac, Isaac Babel, García Márquez come to mind.

What a company!

In her lifetime, Berlin published 76 stories. This posthumous volume has 43. So read it and you’ll read most of Lucia Berlin and will want more.

Doing everything wrong not only reassures them you are thorough, it gives them a chance to be assertive and a “boss.” Most American women are very uncomfortable about having servants. They don’t know what to do while you are there. Mrs. Burke does things like re-check her Christmas card list and iron last year’s wrapping paper. In August.
Try to work for Jews or Blacks. You get lunch. But mostly Jewish and Black women respect work, the work you do and also they are not at all ashamed of spending the entire day doing absolutely nothing. They are paying you, right?
The Christian Eastern Stars are another story. So they won’t feel guilty always try to be doing something they never would do. Stand on the stove to clean an exploded Coca-Cola off the ceiling. Shut yourself inside the glass shower. Shove all the furniture, including the piano, against the door. They would never do that, besides, they can’t get in.

A Manual for Cleaning Ladies

🙝

Over lunch Ruth told me that she had started to feel old and in a rut so she had joined a support group. The Merry Pranksters, or M.P., which really stood for Meno Pause. Ruth always said this like it was two words. The group was dedicated to putting more zip into women’s lives. They focused on the members themselves. The last one had been Hannah. The group convinced her to go to Weight Watchers, to Rancho del Sol spa, take bossa nova lessons and then to get liposuction and a face-lift. She looked wonderful but was in two new groups now. One for women who had face-lifts but were still depressed and another for “Women Who Love Too Much.” Ruth sighed, “Hannah’s always been the kind of woman who has affairs with stevedores.”
Stevedores! Ruth used some surprising words, like heretofore and hullabaloo. Said things like she missed having “That Time of the Month.” It always was such a warm and cozy time.

A Love Affair

🙝

“Open your door, Ms. Moran. This is Officer Wong.”
I stashed the bottle in the bookcase and opened the door. “Hello, Officer Wong. How can I help you?”
“Do you own a Mazda 626?”
“You know I do, sir.”
“Where is that car, Miss Moran?”
“Well, it’s not in here.”

502

По волне моей памяти

by David Tukhmanov

Fifty years ago, there was no Soviet disco that wouldn’t play the impossibly catchy «Из вагантов» (From Goliard Poetry). I had no faintest idea who goliards were, and it seems that neither the composer nor the singer did. Another thing I didn’t know at the time was that this schlager came from a freshly released LP «По волне моей памяти».

A few years later, I finally heard it as a whole, once again, thank to my cousin who brought the vinyl to our house. My I was impressed, expecially by Good Night sung entirely in English. Three more songs included verses in a foreign language: French in Sentimental Journey, German in Heart, my Heart, and Polish in Dedication in the Album^*. I didn’t expect that from a composer of patriotic songs like «Мой адрес — Советский Союз» (My address is the Soviet Union) and «День Победы» (Victory Day). Cool.

Somewhat disappointedly, the title track did not have any Spanish in it. The original poem by Nicolás Guillén, as I just learned, is called Agua del Recuerdo. Maybe it’s not the Russian version of it (the only one I knew until now) as such but its interaction with the tune that makes me cringe. Which is a shame really because the music is magical. Who plays the flute, I wonder?

Then again, the whole album is magical, and has to be listened to non-stop from the beginning to the end many times in a row. Every song has a twist or three in it. Whether it is a journey from soul-funk to baroque and back in Heart, My Heart, followed by a reprise of the jazz-rock theme from the opening track, or the psychedelic From Sappho, 2.5 millennia later reimagined as Confusion which also quotes from Sentimental Journey — you can’t help wondering what else is hidden there and wanting for more.

Alas, more was not to be. «По волне моей памяти» stands as sui generis in Tukhmanov’s discography. It was not the first conceptual art/prog/any rock album made in the USSR — Alexander Gradsky recorded «Размышления Шута», also based on classical poetry, a few years before — but it remains the most influential Soviet record of the 1970s, and definitely Tukhmanov’s best.

По волне моей памяти	On a Wave of My Memory
I сторона	Side A
Я мысленно вхожу в ваш кабинет (Максимилиан Волошин) Из Сафо (Сапфо, перевод Викентия Вересаева) Из вагантов (ваганты, перевод Льва Гинзбурга) Приглашение к путешествию (Шарль Бодлер, перевод Ирины Озеровой) Доброй ночи (Перси Биши Шелли)	I Step into your Study in my Thoughts (Maximilian Voloshin) From Sappho (Sappho, translation by Vikenty Veresaev) From Goliard Poetry (translation by Lev Ginsburg) Invitation to a Journey (Charles Baudelaire, translation by Irina Ozerova) Good Night (Percy Bysshe Shelley)
II сторона	Side B
По волне моей памяти (Николас Гильен, перевод Инны Тыняновой) Сентиментальная прогулка (Поль Верлен, перевод Ариадны Эфрон) Сердце моё, сердце (Иоганн Вольфганг Гёте, перевод Вильгельма Левика) Смятение (Анна Ахматова) Посвящение в альбом (Адам Мицкевич, перевод Семёна Кирсанова)	On a Wave of my Memory (Nicolás Guillén, translation by Inna Tynyanova) Sentimental Journey (Paul Verlaine, translation by Ariadna Efron) Heart, my Heart (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translation by Wilhelm Levick) Confusion (Anna Akhmatova) Dedication in the Album (Adam Mickiewicz, translation by Semyon Kirsanov)
Музыка и аранжировка Давида Тухманова Литературный материал подобран Татьяной Сашко	Music composed and arranged by David Tukhmanov Literary source selection by Tatiana Sashko
Борис Пивоваров — гитара Аркадий Фельдбарг — гитара-бас, скрипка Владимир Плоткин — ударные Давид Тухманов — фортепиано, орган, синтезатор, электропиано	Boris Pivovarov: guitar Arkady Feldbarg: bass guitar, violin Vladimir Plotkin: drums David Tukhmanov: piano, organ, synthesizer, electric piano
Медная группа ансамбля «Мелодия» под управлением Георгия Гараняна Струнная группа Большого симфонического оркестра Всесоюзного радио и телевидения, дирижёр Константин Кримец Вокальная группа вокально-инструментального оркестра «Современник» (2, 10) Вокальная группа «Добры молодцы» (8)	Brass section of Melodiya ensemble led by Georgy Garanian String group of the USSR All-Union National Radio and Central Television Symphony Orchestra conducted by Konstantin Krimetz Vocal group of the vocal and instrumental orchestra “Sovremennik” (2, 10) Vocal group “Dobry Molodtsy” (8)
Мехрдад Бади — вокал (1, 5) Наталия Капустина — вокал (2)† Игорь Иванов — вокал (3) Александр Бырыкин — вокал (4) Владислав Андрианов — вокал (6) Сергей Беликов — вокал (7) Александр Лерман — вокал (8)‡ Людмила Барыкина — вокал (9)	Mehrdad Badie: vocals (1, 5) Natalia Kapustina (Natasha Shneider): vocals (2)† Igor Ivanov: vocals (3) Alexander Byrykin: vocals (4) Vladislav Andrianov: vocals (6) Sergey Belikov: vocals (7) Alexander Lehrman: vocals (8)‡ Liudmila Barykina: vocals (9)
Звукорежиссёр Николай Данилин Художник Александр Шварц	Sound engineer: Nikolai Danilin Cover design by Alexander Schwartz

*	In this track, the first half is sung in Polish and the second in Russian.
†	The singer’s name was not listed on the album cover because of her emigration to the USA.
‡	The singer’s name was not listed on the album cover because of his emigration to the USA.

Жил-был Козявин

a film by Andrei Khrzhanovsky
screenplay by Lazar Lagin and Gennady Shpalikov
based on a short story by Lazar Lagin
music by German Lukyanov

It’s a (not so) little miracle that this surrealist 1966 animation was released at all, the Thaw notwithstanding. Not only that: Khrzhanovsky’s debut film was his only work to be released without any amendments or alterations (mutilations). Written by Lazar Lagin (the author of The Old Genie Hottabych) and Gennady Shpalikov (Walking the Streets of Moscow) and featuring “noise music” jazz by German Lukyanov, a Pythonesque story and aesthetics predating Monty Python itself — an absolute classic that aged surprisingly well.

Free live music and stuff in Las Palmas, July—August 2026

I was away for the most of July, and in August there wasn’t much on offer. Still.

• 30 July: Primer conversatorio de cantautoras de Gran Canaria @ Biblioteca Pública Municipal Josefina de la Torre, Paseo de las Canteras, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  With Dácil Santana, Laura Perdomo, Sara Brito, Aldara, Ana Label, Claudia Álamo, Ana Falcón, Sylvie Hernández and Mararía González. This and other events at the Biblioteca Pública Municipal Josefina de la Torre were part of the cycle «Ola de Letras».

  

• 8 August: Versos a pie de orilla @ Biblioteca Pública Municipal Josefina de la Torre
  Mararía González (vocals, guitar), Ana Falcón (vocals, piano) and Adriana Medina (poetry).

  

• 12 August: Miguel Ángel Castro @ Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (CAAM), Calle de los Balcones, 9
  The first concert from this year’s cycle CAAMclásico coordinated by Ángel Luis Quintana. The programme included:
  • Tchaikovsky: The Seasons (selection)
    • May: White Nights
    • June: Barcarolle
    • August: Harvest
  • Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet. Ten Pieces for Piano, Op. 75 (selection)
    • Scene: The Street Awakens
    • Montagues and Capulets
    • Friar Laurence
    • Mercutio
    • Romeo and Juliet before Parting
  • Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36
    1. Allegro agitato
    2. Non allegro — Lento
    3. Allegro molto

  

• 15 August: Música Viva @ Jardines del Atlántico
  This was the first of the new cycle of open-air concerts, Música Viva, a double bill of Pleito, a solo project by Alba Gil Aceytuno (saxophone, loops, percussion, voice), and La Cofradía, a jazz quartet featuring Kervin Barreto (trumpet), Juan Pérez Pérez (drums), Nelson Saavedra (double bass) and Luis Sánchez Guerra (piano).

  

• 21 August: Jazz en el aire @ CAAM
  Luis Sánchez Guerra (piano), Carlos Meneses (double bass) and Suso Vega (drums) playing mostly original compositions, with Let It Be as an encore. A concert from this year’s cycle JazzCAAM.

  

• 22 August: Ibaute @ Biblioteca Pública Municipal Josefina de la Torre
  What it says: Ibaute (vocals, guitar).

  

• 27 August: Muestra abierta de escuelas de danza @ Biblioteca Pública Municipal Josefina de la Torre
  With the participation of students from several dance schools of Las Palmas.

  

And exhibitions:

• 16 July — 14 August: «Módulo 4» @ Centro de Artes Plásticas (CAP), Calle Colón, 8
  A mural created by the graffiti artist Ayoze Jiménez with participation of the Gran Canarian public, including several inmates of the Prison Las Palmas I.

  

Three exhibitions @ Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (CAAM), Calle de los Balcones, 9

• 8 July — 18 October: «Pintura Pintura»
  A retrospective of works by the Canarian painter Juan José Gil (1947—2023).

  

• 8 July — 18 October: «Soñando otra Ítaca»
  Paintings, sculpture and installations by Sandra Ramos (Havana, 1969).

  

• 29 July — 18 October: «Iluminar el silencio. Hacia una colección y un relato igualitarios»
  Five works by the Canarian artists Lola del Castillo and María Jesús Pérez Vilar.

  

Goodbye, summer.

Once in Os Peares

Os Peares (officially Nosa Señora do Pilar dos Peares) is the strangest village I’ve been to. It belongs to (or shall we say, is torn between) two provinces, four municipalities, three judicial districts and two dioceses. In part — but only in part — this is due to its unusual geography. The rivers Búbal, Minho and Sil meet here; cross one of them and you are bound to find yourself in another administrative division. This peculiar arrangement is guaranteed to make any paperwork-related undertaking a nightmare for the villagers. On the contrary, the mere mentioning of its name must provide infinite joy to bureaucrats dealing with the local matters.

It’s difficult to say what exactly is the centre of the village but I’d place it near the church (Iglesia Nuestra Señora del Pilar de los Peares) — wait, there are two buildings with this name, and I’ve never seen either of them open. Scrap that, I’d place the village centre right in the natural pool of the river Búbal, because this is the place you can meet more than one person at a time. Having said that, I spent several glorious mornings by this pool enjoying total solitude.

Next to the pool there is a reasonably modern building that combines a health centre (the doctor was on holidays when I was there), an ATM and a post office. This latter is open every working day from 11:00 to 11:30. One day I came to visit it because I needed to send a gift to my friend in Santander. The postman did not have a suitable envelope but was able to fashion something resembling it out of scraps of brown paper he’d found under his desk. I was pleasantly surprised when I learned, two weeks later, that the package had safely arrived to its addressee, together with its contents.

The village boasts its own train station where a train stops twice a day: 8:37 to Ourense and 16:48 from Ourense. So a day out in the provincial capital is doable. The train in either direction stops at platform no. 3. I don’t know how useful this information is as I was unable to find platforms no. 1 and no. 2. There is an Eiffelesque railway bridge painted sky blue, the kind of bridge you’d board a train only for the privilege to cross the river by. However, you’d have to go in the direction of Monforte de Lemos to experience that, which I never did. What I did was the next best thing: to cross it on foot. Or maybe it is the first best thing, given that you can stop at any point and enjoy the view to your heart’s content.

The village also has a pharmacy; a grocery store (I heard a rumour that the owner is about to retire, which could spell the end of it); and, of course, a number of bars. My favourite is Bar Barra, where a beer in a frosty mug and a generous tapa will cost you €2.

Os Peares is the birthplace of one Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the man who thinks he is the next Prime Minister of Spain. In another bar, spookily called Luz de Gas, a big photo on the wall shows the man himself posing with the owner-cum-waiter. I don’t know why she put it there, I think it scares the customers off.

Ah, Galicia, beautiful Galicia. Apart from Estrella Galicia and pulpo a la gallega, it gave us Franco, Rajoy and now Feijóo.

Speaking of Franco. Some 1.5 km northeast of the village centre (as defined above) you’ll find a hydroelectric power station constructed during the dictatorship, between 1945 and 1955. The generalissimo just loved his dams. Below the dam, a model village was built for the power station workers, complete with a school and a chapel. Then this housing “was abandoned and fell into disuse for decades”, although the station itself seems to be working all right. Now the restored village hosts Peares Language Immersion Centre. In the summer, the students of the immersion courses descend on the natural pool in the centre of Os Peares where they outnumber the sunbathing locals by an order of magnitude. Above the power station is another place worth visiting, El Mirador Alto da Picota; do some research (a hint: Google Maps may not show you the best route) and wear proper hiking shoes, not sandals as I did.

It’s well known that the rain in Spain stays mainly in Galicia. Not in July though, and especially not in Os Peares. In the four weeks that I spent there, there was one rainy day and several misty mornings, otherwise full sun with daily temperatures up to 40 °C.

According to Wikipedia, in 2023 Os Peares had 57 inhabitants. If it is so, there are more homes than people and, inevitably, many houses are empty, which confers this idyllic corner a certain degree of creepiness. Even stray cats and dogs are conspicuous by their absence. If there are any unsolved murders in Galicia, Os Peares provides the ideal setting. It just has this aura.

This aspect aside, Os Peares is a great spot to visit and probably spend a couple of days hiking around. By the end of the first week there, I thought I’d seen all there is to see. After two weeks, I was fed up with it and with the heat. By the end of the third week, after seeing all there is to see in Ourense, I was ready to go. I left Os Peares after four weeks hoping to never come back.

Os Peares is a place you couldn’t help returning to. On many an occasion I was greeted by a road sign welcoming me, once again, to Os Peares, which means that I must have left the village behind me at some point without noticing it. I’m considering “Once in Os Peares” for the title of my new book. OK maybe “Twice in Os Peares”. But that will be it.

More photos of Os Peares @ Shutterstock.