Letters from Madrid – Music

January 3, 2016January 2, 2016 Timothy Price15 Comments

DSCF0563 — Insert of LaBanda’s ***No todo es Seda*** CD that the band members signed for me

In the last Letter From Madrid we were looking for flamenco classes and I had found a great guitar teacher. Today I move to the music scene we encountered in Madrid soon after we got there in 1996. I wrote the first letter I’m sharing on April 18, 1996 after we had been in Madrid about three months — we discovered at that time Madrid had a very active live performance scene, and we had already seen more than a dozen live performances by the middle of April. We were there primarily to study flamenco, and one aspect of studying flamenco was to go to as many performances by different flamenco artists as possible so we could see what was current, and the different styles of flamenco being performed. While flamenco was the majority of shows we saw, we went to every kind of concert from Rock & Roll to jazz to chamber music to classical. I found a spreadsheet that I kept on every concert and artist we saw perform live in 1996. The tally was 83 concerts and 187 individual performers.

The “Music” section will take several posts because the descriptions of many of the performances we saw in the first three months in Madrid are detailed and long.

I discuss LaBanda in this post. They were the first band we saw perform live in Madrid, and after some time we became loyal followers of the band, groupies if you will, and got to know the band members well enough that we would sit around and talk with them between sets. Be sure to check out the Youtube videos at the end of this post. Two of the videos are from a TV series on the arts. The lead guitarist, Leo, talks about the group, and if you don’t understand Spanish, don’t worry, most of the time is spent on them performing live.

18 April 1996

Music
The music scene in Madrid is big and hopping. There are advertisements for concerts all over the place. Green Day is coming as are “The Smashing Pumpkins” as the posters have it written, Sting, Kiss (unplugged), the Sex Pistols (what’s left living I guess), Mark Knoffler and about every other currently popular or once popular group plus a lot of Spanish and European groups we don’t hear about in the states. There are classical guitar concerts, ballets, musicals, plays and orchestras playing almost every night. We went to a really good salsa dance with two bands that played until 5:00 am, and we saw Irakere, Cuba’s most celebrated salsa/jazz group. We have seen five really good flamenco concerts. We went to Jazz Club Populart on Friday nights in March and listened to the bands they have (April’s lineup didn’t look as good, we will have to see what’s on in May). The first band we heard was a Celtic music band named LaBanda and they were excellent. I would like to see them again. The second group was a blues group. They were pretty good. The leader is from New York and gave us his telephone number, and we have talked a few times since. We are planning to get together with him, his wife, and his daughter. We listened to a reggae band there also, but they did not do much for us. We have seen many ads for ballroom dancing but have not made it out to see what it’s like here. There is so much going on that we could spend every day and night of the week going to museums, concerts, plays, symphonies and discos, listening to whatever live music we are in the mood for in bars and night clubs. With that we would not even begin to see or hear a fraction of what’s available.

Celtic Music
The band that plays Celtic music is worth mentioning. The group is called LaBanda, and they were quite good and the music fun. There was a bass player, drummer, keyboard player, guitarist/vocalist, violinist and a guy who played all kinds of flutes, small reed instruments and the bagpipes. The music was a mix of traditional rhythms with a rock under-beat. The tunes went from traditional to rock and roll. A lot of the tonality between the guitar, violin, and keyboard had an early Kansas sound to it. The band was tight, there was good balance on the sound, and they sounded great. They did lose a little of the Celtic quality from the vocal arrangements being sung in Spanish. However, in one song the guitarist/vocalist got the whole crowd to yell “hey”, “hey hey” at a break in the music. It was pretty funny hearing a bunch of Spaniards yell “hey”. The second time around he said we had to sound more English “you’re learning the language now” he said in Spanish, “say it” “heyy”, “heyy heyy” drawling the words into two syllables. This was even funnier. The band was not very loud. For a matter of fact, the band was having a bit of trouble competing with a few groups of Spaniards setting in the front of the bar. The guitarist finally went back and turned up the volume to drown out the Spaniards, which I think they only matched the volume. The evening was lots of fun and very entertaining.

To be continued…

LaBanda Videos
Labanda – Fin de Semana https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS5OXn8Dgfo

LABANDA. PROGRAMA ESPECIAL 1 DE 2 (1992) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIQlkrzBuBU

LABANDA. PROGRAMA ESPECIAL 2 DE 2 (1992) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbeLeRWHww8

LaBanda – La Batalla De Somme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wTV3J3WJIs

Thérèse of Lisieux

March 9, 2014March 9, 2014 Timothy Price17 Comments

We went to A Lenten Penitential Prayer Concert. A Dedication to Our Lady of Sorrows presented by the Albuquerque All City Women’s Catholic Liturgical Choir at St. Thérèse and the Infant Jesus Catholic Church last night. The concert included a service with the Stations of the Cross — the first time I’ve attended a service with the stations of the the cross. After the concert I was talking to Father Vincent who gave me the history of the church. Built in 1954, St. Thérèse and the Infant Jesus Catholic Church just happens to be one of four shrines in the world for Thérèse of Lisieux. The full name of the of the church is the Shrine of the Little Flower, St. Thérèse and the Infant Jesus Catholic Church.

I learned that they have some of the bones of St. Thérèse in the marble under the statue in the first photo, in marble at the main alter, and a bone fragment in a small gold reliquary the priest takes out of its nook to venerate St. Thérèse. They also have rare statues of her, and various other relics such as her choir robe. One of the first priests at the church was French and he designed the stained glass and statuary — he had the stained glass made in France and the statues carved by craftsmen in the Italian Alps. Father Vincent said the Church cost over $3 million dollars to build in 1954, and he was estimating it would cost about $18 million to build today. I looked around at the quality of the construction, the marble, stained glass and statuary, and told him that from my experience with construction costs, I thought it would cost around $30 million to build church like it today.

St. Thérèse was a French Carmelite nun who died of tuberculosis at the age of 24 in 1897. known as “The Little Flower”, Roman Catholics love her for what’s considered the simplicity and practicality of her approach to a spiritual life. St. Thérèse was beatified in 1923, and canonized in 1925. She was named co-patron of France with Joan of Arc in 1944, and Pope John Paul II made her the 33rd Doctor of the Church in 1997. A collection of her autobiographical manuscripts called “The Story of a Soul” became very popular in the early 1900’s, which ended up making her one of the most popular saints in the 20th century.

Cats & Concert Sunday

December 16, 2013 Timothy Price3 Comments

The cats were in winter mode most of the day. Even though it was sunny and a blistering 40º F (4.4º C) outside in the afternoon, Guildenstern, Rosencrantz and Diné chose to lay around on our bed most of the day. We went to the West Side Chior’s Christmas concert Saturday night, and Jerri had me help record the concert. I didn’t think of it, but I could have taken equipment and shot a video of the concert Saturday night. Well, they had another concert on Sunday, so I shot a video of it with my Canon 5D and a stereo mic. The video and sound are great, but it’s going to be a lot of work putting the hour long concert altogether into one video.

France Day 22 Virtuosity on Parade

June 3, 2013 Timothy Price11 Comments

In the afternoon we walked to the Cathédrale Sainte Croix des Aemeniens about 3 km east of our apartment to attend three recitals. Along the way we saw a lot of interesting triangular buildings, some women on a building holding up a balcony, and we walked through a large flea market before we got to the church. The church was old and not in the best repair, but the acoustics were phenomenal. The first recital was Youn Soon Lee on piano. She played Beethoven so well her playing was like listening to an orchestra. The pieces she played were light and showy with lots of flashy runs and arpeggios that she would build up, pull down, build up, pull down and build up again until she brought the pieces to their explosive climaxes. Ms Lee’s performance was magnificent.

After the first recital we walked down to a restaurant/bar and got coffee before the next recital. The area we were in had a lot of art studios and private art galleries, the bars were filled with people, and the streets bustled with people walking, riding bikes and navigating cars through the crowds making their way to and from the flea market.

I didn’t think we could hear much better than Ms. Lee’s performance, but Miran Dévétak’s interpretation of List and Fauré was nothing short of phenomenal. List was heavy, complex and melodic, punctuated with fits of quick runs and dynamic, loud sets of chords. Fauré was a little lighter with a modern (1900sh) rhythm, and very quick, complex fingerings that Mr. Dévétak executed flawlessly.

The third recital was a violin/piano duet by Eun Bi Gang on violin and Jean Dube on piano. They were also fantastic performers. Ms Gang started by doing a solo of Martinon Sonatine No 5 op 32. The piece had some amazing secondary rhythms that she played under the melody, which was really remarkable. Mr. Dube accompanied her on the piano on Bach’s Sonate 2 Andante, Mozart Concerto No 5 1st Movement and Tchaikovsky’s Concerto op 35 1st movement.

On our way to Notre Dame in the morning, we came across a bird market that had cages and cages of small parrots, parakeets and finches. While I was photographing flowers (the poppies were huge) and roses in the garden behind Notre Dame, I came across an early bird getting worms.

Holy Moses

March 11, 2013March 11, 2013 Timothy Price2 Comments

I had my day all planned out — go to the second service, get material on the way home to finish the door, do more watering, herd cats — or so I thought. After the service, which had a wonderful liturgical dance to “Moses”, Jerri asked me if I had gone to their concert at Keller Hall last night and photographed it — I hadn’t, so she asked me if I could photograph the concert this afternoon. The concert was great. A mixed Choir, with the Symphony Orchestra of Albuquerque, performed the Easter selections from Handel’s Messiah, then the SOA played Brahms’ “Academic Festival Overture” and Camille Saint-Saens’ “Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor,” with Natalia Tikhovidova on piano. Ms Tikhovidova is a phenomenal pianist and the “Piano Concerto…” was very lively and showy. The SOA and choirs will do another performance on March 17, 2013, 2:00 pm at John XXIII Catholic Community, 4831 Tramway Ridge, NE.

I started out the photo session standing with the choir in the beginning of the concert, so I got a super-wide angle photo from the choir’s/orchestra’s point-of-view, with the audience in the pews. The percussionists were fun to watch because they followed their music with such intensity — there were times they played only one or two notes, so they obviously didn’t want to miss them.

Although I had to lay aside my well-laid plans for the day, the concert was well worth it.

Pipes

March 6, 2013 Timothy Price3 Comments

I was studying for the French test tomorrow while listening to the choir rehearse Messiah pieces with the Symphony Orchestra of Albuquerque at Heights Cumberland Presbyterian Church. On the way home I started thinking about what kind of effect studying while under the influence of Handel might have. Let’s say there’s a question like “Why did the south lose the Albigensian Crusade?” I could answer “They were like sheep!” and that answer would be correct.

The Choir and SOA are performing selected pieces from Handel’s Messiah this Saturday, March 9 at 7:00 pm at Keller Hall at UNM and Sunday, March 10 at 2:00 pm at Eastern Hills Baptist, 3100 Morris St NE.

White Girls

February 28, 2013 Timothy Price6 Comments

Coheed & Cambria, Between The Buried & Me and Russian Circles played tonight at the Sunshine Theater, and these white mannequins were among the gear in the staging area behind the theater.

Full Moon on Fatter Tuesday

February 27, 2013 Timothy Price1 Comment

The UNM Brazil Club had their first annual “Fatter Tuesday” A Carnival Extravaganza tonight. I was expecting more costumes, but, there were few. Two organizers were the best dressed for the event, and also the young woman in the last photo who painted her face. They had a band and percussion ensemble so the party was loud, festive, and the dance floor was crowded. The moon was stunning this evening. We had the pleasure of watching it rise on the way home.

Q~?

January 31, 2013 Timothy Price5 Comments

Q~Lesque

Old and Cold

January 16, 2013 Timothy Price2 Comments

There were a lot of band tour buses parked out behind the office this afternoon, so I looked up on the Sunshine Theater’s schedule to see who was playing tonight. As usual I had never heard of or heard any of the groups listed, so I looked up samples of their music on Youtube. The first group in the list is Emmure and the music video I chose at random was what I would call hyper-grunge with caveman lyrics, although to be fair, cavemen were probably much more clear and articulate. After a few painful seconds on listening to Emmure, I looked up Whitechapel, the next group on the list, and the random song I chose sounded just like the song I listened to by Emmure. I had to do a double take to make sure I hadn’t reloaded Emmure — I hadn’t. Obey The Brave and The Plot In You also sounded the same to me. If I got it right, these bands tour together as Brothers of Brutality and from the snippets of the songs I listened to, they are brutal.

I guess I’m getting too old, because I don’t know why the groups want to subject themselves to themselves, or why anyone else, of any age, would want to subject themselves to the Brothers of Brutality, but there is an appeal that goes beyond both my understanding and sensitivities. I left the office a little after 5:00 pm tonight, a bit later than I had intended since I was supposed to pick up Laurie and Tristan at school at 5:00 pm. When I walked out the door the cold hit me like a stinging slap on my face, and I shivered as I walked to the car. While I was sitting at the light at 2nd and Gold, I got a text from Laurie that read “Hypothermia!” The light turned green and as I drove by the Sunshine theater, I noticed that many of the kids who waiting in line for The Brothers of Brutality concert were wearing short sleeve shirts and shorts, and many of the girls who were wearing jeans had slits all over them and plenty of flesh exposed to the cold air. Maybe being brutalized by the elements is a required to properly experience The Bothers of Brutality? Call me old, call me a prude, but it’s much too brutal and mysterious for me.