Like Latin jazz? try some traditional Afro-Peruvian music

We´re producing a CD of the musical track from A Zest for Life, and it´s looking - and sounding - good.  It´s scheduled to arrive in the mail tomorrow, and I´m seriously excited.  It´s called (drum roll here) A Zest for Life:  Musical  Track.

There are 8 tracks on the CD, six of which are good, solid, Afro-Peruvian music including the very popular Zamacueca, along with Torito Pinto, Toro Mata, and others.  The two two tracks that AREN´T strictly Afro-Peruvian music are, respectively, a northern version of Peru's national dance la Marinera, sung by popular singer-songwriter Jorge Luis Jasso, plus a cajón demonstration by Lalo Izquierdo.

Yes, I said la Marinera was Peru´s national DANCE.  Since this is a CD, obviously what we have is the music to which it´s danced.  Jorge Luis Jasso is great singing this:  it´s one of his favorites.  He also sings other versions of la Marinera, and here is one of them-a slow one he sang for a Peruvian television presentation.



On our own CD, in addition to la Marinera, Jorge Luis Jasso also sings a song that he wrote, himself.  It´s called Ritmo Negro del Perú -- meaning Peru´s Black Rhythms -- which pays homage to the contribution that Afro-Peruvians have made in the area of music and dance.

Then, there´s Lalo Izquierdo´s the cajón demonstration.  He plays five or six different rhythms, including one from the United States (that´s US!), the Afro-Peruvian rhythm, and Brazilian rhythm.  It makes for good listening because you can tell the difference between the rhythms, and makes you realize how complicated and distinct different rhythms can be.

The music on the CD is very lively and upbeat.  This is the music that, along with New York jazz, produced that new art form, Afro-Peruvian jazz.  It resonates very well in today´s world, and it makes great listening plus you can, oh yes, DANCE to it.  We think you´ll like it.

New thoughts for our experimental "Tone Poem with Hang Drum"

A number of people, after watching our experimental short, Tone Poem with Hang Drum, have said they don't understand the connection between the two stories (or rather, the musician and the story).

Well, as someone has pointed out, you don't have to understand EVERYTHING, especially in an experimental short.

However, I think there's a certain point at which you need to listen to your audience and really think about what they're saying.  I listened and thought, and have come up with an idea for a short series of scenes that will address the question of connection.  No, I'm not going to say what it's going to be, but I plan to shoot it when I get back to Spain, to Jerez de la Frontera.

Liron Mann (Liron Man) and his hang drum.

 It will involve using our principal characters (Liron Mann and Pilar Yamuza) as well as a couple of other people.  This means I have to hope like crazy that they will both be in town and available to be filmed. 

It will also indeed be short, but I think it will add something good to the show.  We shall see.

The "checo," an Afro-Peruvian percussion instrument

The "checo" is a percussion instrument made out of a large gourd.  It was developed by Afro-Peruvians and had nearly passed into extinction.  It wasn´t known outside of the Afro-Peruvian community, and Afro-Peruvian traditional music itself was in danger, due to commercialization and the financial instability of the Afro-Peruvian community, which made it difficult for people to take the time to master their music and retain all of its flavor.

Even the seeds of the gourd out of which the checo is made were getting hard to find.

Couldn'd find photo of a checo.  Imagine THIS gourd without the top part..just the lower spherical section.

A town in northern Peru has undertaken to help restore and popularize the checo.  To this end, they have found and conserved the seeds, planted them, and grown more of the gourds.  They have also established music classes to teach the use of this instrument, and participated in festivals both local and in Peru´s capitol city, Lima.  And now, they´ve made a video about it, explaining its history and demonstrating its use.

You might find this interesting.  Here´s the LINK.  The video, produced by the Museo Afroperuano de Zaña, is in Spanish...but the music and the dancing, well, everyone can enjoy those whether or not they speak Spanish.

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about some new thoughts on our experimental short, "Tone Poem with Hang Drum."

Some reactions to A Zest for Life

We held a private screening of A Zest for Life last weekend and were delighted that all the participants liked the documentary.  Some had seen it before, and were very enthusiastic about the changes we´ve made.  Those changes include, most importantly, adding more photos, adding a video clip of the dance Hatajos de Negritos as performed in Peru, and adding more voice-overs to give more explanations and more depth to the documentary.

When organizing these screenings, I´m not really able to take photos, but I did take one snap-shot which shows some of the people who came.

Three participants in the screening:  Rossana Silva-Craig, April Wakeman, Vivian Pisano.

I also really appreciated the specific comments the participants made.  Other than the positive, people also gave me pointers on the subtitles so that I can make them easier to read, comments led me to add a little more information about the musical instruments, and so forth.

All in all, these screenings are very helpful to me and hopefully, a pleasure to the participants.  Any readers of this blog who live in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area who would like to be invited to these screenings can contact me here to let me know.

NOTE:  In the near future, I plan to start a blog specifically devoted to A Zest for Life, Afro-Peruvian music and dance, and that music´s relation to Latin jazz.

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about the "checo," an Afro-Peruvian percussion instrument made out of a large and very special gourd.   It will appear simultaneously on THIS blog and on our new blog, Afro-Peruvian.blogspot.com.

What others are saying about our star, Lalo Izquierdo

Lalo Izquierdo is the lead percussionist, lead dancer, the choreographer, artistic director and the lead interview subject in our documentary, A Zest for Life:  Afro-Peruvian Rhythms, a Source of Latin Jazz.   We thought you might like to know more about him.

He has taught, held workshops, and performed all over Latin America, the United States, and elsewhere.  He was also chosen to represent Peru in the Olympic Games held in Mexico City.  

Here is some information from articles about him, and reviews of his work:

Lalo Izquierdo is a true master of the cajón.

With his great talent, Izquierdo has been promoting Afro-Peruvian culture throughout the entire world for many decades.

                Carlos A. Quiroz, El Peruanista, Mar. 11, 2008

José “Lalo” Izquierdo is a renowned and acclaimed master percussionist, dancer and choreographer born in Peru.  He is a former member of the Teatro y Danzas Negras de Perú of Victoria Santa Cruz, a co-founder of Perú Negro, and current artistic director of Grupo Raíces Afroperuanas 

               Carlos A. Quiros

He is also charismatic with or without dark glasses.

[Lalo Izquierdo] has been artistic director and instructor in secondary schools and universities all over Peru, as well as in the United States (Standford University, San Francisco Library, Gala Theatre, etc.)  and in Venezuela, Costa Rica, Colombia, Holand and Austria.

Izquierdo was choreographer of work presented in the cities of Cañete and Lima in Perú; and in Los Angeles, Washington, DC., New Jersey, San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, and San José in the United States, as well as others.

            article in SienteMag, Oct. 4, 2011

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about the reactions from the private screening we are holding of A Zest for Life, and related topics. 

Dance of the Devils and the Hatajos de Negritos

In doing research about Afro-Peruvian music and dance, I've learned about the Dance of the Devils and the Hatajos de Negritos.

We spend a certain amount of time on the Hatajos de Negritos in the documentary, A Zest for Life.  You should even expect to see some video clips from this celebration on the DVD.  It's a 300 year old set of dances accompanied by music intended to celebrate the birth of baby Jesus.  It starts on Dec. 24 and ends on Christmas day, but then there's another celebration on 12th Night (Jan. 6) to commemorate the arrival of the wise men at Bethlehem.

Jesus Lopez in one of the hatajos.  Photo courtesy Carlos A. Lopez and los Cimarrones.

The hatajos are groups of men and boys who dance wearing costumes resembling a priest's dress, carrying bells and sometimes incense burners.  For part of the celebration, they do fancy footwork, or zapateo, as part of the religious celebration.

This celebration dates back to the time of slavery when the Spanish masters used the footwork and dance to help convert their African slaves to Catholic Christianity. 

The footwork came from out of the Spanish tradition but also out of the African tradition, and presumably the importance to many Africans of footwork as a way of communicating with Mother Earth was part of the appeal the dances and the celebration held for them.

Son de los Diablos performance.  Photo courtesy Madeleine Campos and America Baila Dance Company.

The Dance of the Devils (Son de los Diablos) is something we only have time to mention briefly in our documentary.  It also uses the zapateo, is also done by groups of men accompanied by musicians, and is also done as part of a Catholic religious celebration-in this case, Corpus Cristi, which comes in the early spring.  And it also dates back to the time of slavery.

The dancers wear masks of devils.  The chief devil carries a large book in which are written the names of all the people he will carry down to hell in the coming year (or that he carried down the past year-I'm not sure of this).

Son de los Diablos.  Water color of the 19th century Peruvian artist, Pancho Fierra.

 Currently, the dance is mostly done as a performance presentation, although in 2004 it was performed on the streets of Lima, Peru, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the ending of slavery.  (Note that sources give two different years as the year that slavery ended:  1854 and 1856.  Again, I'm not too sure why,.)

A CD of flamenco cante by Antonio de la Malena

I have been trying for at least two years to persuade Antonio de la Malena to record a CD of flamenco cante.  At last, I´ve succeeded.

Bear in mind that he has two CDs of his own already, and is one of several people on countless other CDs, but his own two CDs are of flamenco fusion and the others, well, they are group efforts.  But Antonio is first and foremost a singer of flamenco cante--flamenco puro.  The old stuff.  The original stuff.  The stuff that led me, personally, to flamenco.

El Bo, Antonio de la Malena, Manuel Parilla, and others.

I was very, very pleased, then, that he finally agreed to doing the CD.  It´s a joint venture, meaning that Palomino Productions gets to finance it (oh, joy) and another organization (which shall remain nameless for the moment) will do the marketing.  Antonio, of course, does the singing and all the organizing of the recording sessions and I go along for the fun of it.

We´ve now gotten 8 of the minimum 10 tracks recorded.  We have two more recording sessions in which he´ll record either 3 or 4 more tracks (so it will be a more-than-complete CD), then a final session where the technician works the sound (with Antonio supervising).

The bulerias fin de fiesta crowd, with a couple of friends and me, on the far right.

 For all but two tracks, Antonio is the only singer;  on the other two, he´s joined in one case by his brother Manuel de Malena, and in another (the fin de fiesta), he´s joined by 8 other people!   In all but two tracks, there is also a guitarist (Manuel Parilla for two, Malena Hijo for four and Santiago Moreno for two).   In the other two, Antonio sings alone.

Two things that make everything a bit of a cliff-hanger are that a) I go back to California in two weeks (and we REALLY want to get all the recording and sound work done before I leave) plus b) the sound studio owner-operator´s wife is very pregnant and about to deliver.  When she does, the sound studio will close down for a week.  And of course, we have no way of knowing exactly when that will happen.

El Bo is the principal palmero-jaleo person.

More on this later, but I will say that this is going to be a very good CD.

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about what others are saying about Afro-Peruvian music, dance and culture.

Photos, links and more about Afro-Peruvian music, dance, culture

Ok, so you might think that if no one knows about Afro-Peruvians, and Afro-Peruvian music and dance, well, maybe there's a good reason.

WRONG!

First of all, in browsing the web, we've come across some interesting links, travel journals, videos and other material about Afro-Peruvians and their music and dance.  Below, for example, is a link to a selection from a travel journal of a couple who decided to travel around the world (literally) and brought along their video camera.  Since one of them is a writer, and obviously one of them has an eye for photography, it's worth checking out.

LINK

Carlos Lopez/Cimarrones have kindly agreed to let us use this photo of Jesus Lopez dressed for a special Afro/Peruvian event called the Hatajo de Negritos.

 In addition, on YouTube we found a treasure trove of photos of Afro-Peruvians (and other peoples and other places) posted by Hugeaux (Hugo R. Miller).  He has 99 videos on his site, most or all of which are moving images of his photographs, with music behind them.  On the subject of Afro-Peruvians, here are two of them but you might want to take a look at his large collection.  (And by the way, he also has a blog that is his travel journal;  it's address is on the YouTube presentations, so I won't add it here unless someone asks me.)

LINK
LINK

Hugeaux has promised to let us use some of his photos in our documentary, A Zest for Life:  Afro-Peruvian Music & Dance, but since we don't have the photos yet, I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch.  Will keep you informed!

This photo that Daniel Moore is allowing us to use shows the very famous Afro-Peruvian music and dance master, Amador Ballumbrosio (recently deceased).

And then, two people who HAVE sent us photos for the documentary are also on the web:  Daniel Moore, and Carlos Lopez of the Afro-Peruvian organization Cimarrones.

Here are THEIR web sites:
Daniel Moore  (who runs a travel agency) LINK
Carlos Lopez and Cimarrones LINKhttp://www.cimarrones-peru.org

I've found lots more links, including to some fabulous music and dance, but this is enough for now.

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about recording a CD of flamenco cante by Antonio de la Malena.

Hot, Roasted Chestnuts

One of the perks of film making in Jerez de la Frontera is that in the fall, you get to buy hot roasted chestnuts from the corner stand.

I am a big believer in good food, and freshly roasted chestnuts are high on my list of good things to eat.  There are several stands near my flat, but in my usual fashion, I tend to favor one over all the others.  This is partly because it's near my bank and the ATM machine where I often find myself.  In other words, it's convenient.

Uncooked chestnuts with sea salt in a container.

Plus it's near a couple of lovely fountains, and at the beginning of one of the routes I take when I go for a walk.

The guys that run this stand get their chestnuts from Ronda, a lovely town halfway up a mountain, with a couple of ancient and wonderful bridges over a spectacular gorge.  I asked them about it and was told you can also get chestnuts in Huelva, a town on the Atlantic coast not too far from Jerez.

The chestnuts are first slit open, then roasted over a kind of oven that looks like a stove pipe.  It's filled with hot coals, and every once in a while they toss sea salt on the coals, which penetrates the chestnuts just enough to bring out their flavor.

The chestnut-roasting "oven."  Chestnuts are in the pan at the top.

A paper cone with about a dozen of them costs 1 Euro.

Putting the roasted chestnuts in a paper cone for me to eat.

You peal the chestnuts before you eat them, and there is always the question of how much of the inner skin (that comes between the hard, outer shell and the inner meat) you'll be able to get off.  Sometimes, it all comes off without any trouble.  Other times, you have to work at it and still can't get it all off.

Since the inner skin is edible, this is not a real problem.

Chestnuts roasting in the pan.

And what brought on this longing for roasted chestnuts?  Well, now is chestnut season.  Yesterday and the day before I had some, and in a couple of weeks, I'm going with a group on an all day excursion they're calling the "route of the chestnuts."  By the time I get back to California, I'll be an expert.

NOTE:  The guys with the stand didn't want me taking a photo of the entire stand.  I think they forgot to take out their peddlers' license.

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about what the world is saying about Afro-Peruvian music, dance and culture.

"Our" music--world music

We have done seven television programs about world music and dance. 

Most of what is usually considered "world music and dance" is music and dance from a specific community.  Each community considers their tradition to be "our" music and "our" dance.  Although most are happy for people outside the community to learn and perform their tradition, there is a special connection between the community and these arts.

Flamenco used to be considered a Spanish Gypsy (Gitano) art but now, almost everyone tries to learn it.

Over the years, we have acquired some great world music from our various video productions.   We're thinking about putting one selection from each country onto a CD to get this music out to the public.  We'd love to hear what you think of the idea.

And as a trial, we'll produce a CD of the musical score from A Zest for Life:   Afro-Peruvian Music & Dance.  There'll be eight tracks on the CD and for the time being, we plan to sell it ONLY with the DVD.  We'll give it a reasonable price ($5).  The total running time of the CD is about 45 minutes.

The CD will have seven tracks by the group "de Rompe y Raja," and one track in which Lalo Izquierdo gives a cajón demonstration.  If you like rhythm, you will LOVE this number.  And if you like good, lively music, this is the CD for you.

"de Rompe y Raja" with the cajita, cajon, carachacha, guitar, conga drums (photo Morty Sohl)

It will include "Ritmo Negro del Perú," an original composition sung by singer-writer Jorge Luis Jasso.  It also features the well-known guitarist Vladimir Vukanovich.  There´s even a song sung by Lalo Izquierdo, and several by Rosa Los Santos.

We´ll have the CD ready on Jan. 20, 2012 when we hold the release party for the DVD.  To keep informed, check out the web site for A Zest for Life.   Also, check out the IndieGogo campaign shown on the sidebar of this blog.

OUT NEXT BLOG will be about hot, roasted chestnuts.

Afro-Peruvians and their music and dance

And more about world music and dance, or more specifically, Afro-Peruvian music and dance:

Afro-Peruvians. THEIR music and dance are only a couple of centuries old--very young, when you compare it to the bharatanatyam of southern India.  However, the community itself is only a couple of centuries old, and their music and dance tell us a lot about their history and the horrendous conditions that the community had to endure.

Afro-Peruvians, or Peruvians of African descent, are the descendants of people kidnapped in Africa and brought cross the ocean as slaves to work the plantations of the Spaniards. Most came from West African, but others from as far away as Angola and other countries far to the east.

Photo courtesy el Comercio (Lima, Peru) from Caitro Soto:  el Duende...

Their music and dance developed in part as a way of telling of their condition, partly as a way of making fun of the whites who were dominating and mistreating them (and about whom they could not, without great risk, actually SAY anything negative), and partly because in most parts of Africa, dance was a way of speaking to the deities and spirits (especially mother Earth).

Then, let's get real, they also made music and danced just in order to have fun.

Having fun dancing!  Photo:  courtesy el Comercio (Lima, Peru)

Africans were forbidden to play musical instruments by their white masters, so most Afro-Peruvian music uses percussion instruments that were developed from found materials, like wooden packing crates of the bones of animal. The cajón has become standardized from the crates and is now used in all kinds of music.

Yes, the Cubans also developed the cajón as a musical instrument. The two (Afro-Peruvian and Cuban) developed separately.

Lalo Izquierdo playing the cajon.

The star of our show about Afro-Peruvian music and dance, Lalo Izquierdo, is a master of the cajón...and master as well of the quijada de burro (donkey´s jawbone), the zapateado (Afro-Peruvian footwork), and is a very fine dancer as well as a folklorist.  He is accompanied by the great performance group, "de Rompe y Raja."

We will be releasing a DVD soon, A Zest for Life:  Afro-Peruvian Music & Dance, which is intended for a general public audience.  (We released an educational version last year.)  If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, hope to see you at the release party.

Map of Peru

Five days in the life of a busy filmmaker

On Monday, I left California for Spain and arrived on Tuesday evening (exhausted).  On Wednesday, following the suggestions and feedback given to me by Emmy-award winning documentarian David Brown, we recorded a dub and some voice over sound for A Zest for Life:  Afro-Peruvian Music & Dance.  For technical reasons, it had to be recorded three times.  Then I edited it in.

On Thursday, we started planning some additional shooting for Domino:  caught in the crisis.  This includes ideas I´ve come up with on my own over the past few weeks and ideas from the private screening sessions I held in California with family and supporters.

Today, we shot a short scene for A Zest for Life--to re-create some missing material--and  I added a few photos--here are two of the many I had to choose from, courtesy Rossana Craig.  Rosana is a native Peruvian who lives in the Bay Area and makes many trips back to Peru with her family.  Thanks, Rossana!

Part of an annual celebration high up in the Andes.

From the same religious celebration;  note the masked fellow.

In addition, today we continued planning the shooting we´ll do tomorrow and Sunday for Domino, plus I created a DVD out of the just-revised A Zest for Life and we firmed up the dates for its release party (Saturday, Jan. 20, 7:30pm in la Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley, CA).

SO--my next blog article, which is ready to go except for the photos, has gotten somewhat delayed.  VERY SOON I will come up with some good photos for it and get it posted.

In the meantime, just thought you might like to know what filmmakers do with their time.

Bharatanatyam and Hinduism, old art and new art

I had never heard of bharatanatyam until we did a TV show about it, which I subsequently turned into a DVD.  Yes, I HAD heard of Indian classical dance, and learned that there was an excellent academy of Indian classical dance in Berkeley (in the San Francisco Bay Area).

When I contacted them to inquire about doing a television program with them, I learned they taught bharatanatyam.

Bharatanatyam dancers.

 SO--I learned.  I learned that bharatanatyam is southern Indian classical dance.  I also learned that it used to be the temple dancing performed in Hindu temples.  The dancers and musicians were attached to the temples, and being a dancer, or musician, was hereditary.  If your mother was a temple dancer and you were a girl, you would also be a temple dancer.  It was not a question of choice.

I could continue on with a deep discussion of the whys, the hows, and the historical aspects but will spare you.  Enough to know that as India modernized, bharatanatyam left the temples and, after nearly dying out completely, was saved by the efforts of a few key people.  It is now performed in the name of beauty and cultural heritage, although since the dances are a form of sign language and tell stories or sing the praises of the Hindu deities, it still has strong ties to Hinduism.

A Hindu temple in California.

 An artist friend once told me (actually, told me several times) that someone has figured out there's nothing new under the sun.  Well, whether or not that's true, what is wrong with seeing something that's been dealt with before?  If you are a ballet fan, do you walk out of a world-class performance of Swan Lake?  If you love Bob Dylan, do you refuse to listen to "It's a Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" just because you've heard it before?

Bharatanatyam repeats dances (and music) that have been performed for centuries.  It tells stories that most Hindus are already well acquainted with.

Being new is not the point.  The point is the skill and the sentiment.  And that's what art is all about, right?

P.S.  Our DVD on the subject features the advanced students of the academy, Kalanjali:  Dances of India, along with musicians and a soloist brought over from India.  It's called Of Beauty & Deities and here is it's web site:  LINK

Our singer and musicians were brought over from India.

And just to be sure you know where India is located...

Cultural diversity and the arts, part 2-fusion or tradition?

Continuing the conversation we began back in late August about cultural diversity and the arts:  is fusion always such a great thing?

There is some truth to the suggestion that if everything turns to fusion, you will lose your foundation, your basis.  This would be a real shame not only because of so much art that would be lost, but because the fusion itself would rapidly become meaningless.

Yang Hsiong (Hmong) demonstrating the "ting."

And I believe we need to keep traditional art forms not only because they help us build new art, but also because they are of value in and of themselves.  Furthermore, in my opinion it is incorrect to assert traditional art forms are frozen in time, or that the only way traditional art forms can evolve to meet the changing world is to abandon their essence.

Traditional art forms can go deeper into their tradition and still remain true to their essence.  To me, this is the best of all possible worlds.  On the one hand, you have people experimenting with fusing different art forms, and on the other, you have those that maintain these art forms and make them more profound without engaging in any fusion.

Ernesto Olmos (of Mexico) with some of his paintings.

To bring it down to a personal level, I love flamenco--and the flamenco I love is what is now called "flamenco puro," the traditional form of the art.  I don't want it to be lost.

I don't like all these dancers who think that faster and more elaborate footwork takes the place of entering deeply into the art.  I don't want dancers who think they are the center of the show.  For me, the art is much more interesting if the singer is king-or queen-and if the dancer has to follow the singer.

Carmen dancing flamenco.

Yes, I like the dancer to have his-her moment in which to show off the fantastic rhythms that can be created with one's feet (rhythms that must be kept within the basic beat--the compas).  But this moment comes only after the singer has stopped.

And yes, I like the dancer to use his-her body in a fluid way, but only when that compliments the whole.

To sum up, I like the singer to dominate, and the dancer and guitarist to respect the singing.

In any event, here are links to web sites and blogs of some of the many festivals that are more inclined to respect the traditional over fusion:

Sacramento World Music & Dance Festival--LINK
Ethnic Dance Festival (in San Francisco)--LINK

And because there ARE art forms that are not part of music and dance--

THE NEXT BLOG will be about southern Indian classical bharatanatyam.

Cajón, cajita, quijada de burro, zapateado--Afro-Peruvian PERCUSSION plus guitar

For all you people out there who appreciate good percussion, and-or Afro-Peruvian music, give this one a try:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWvhJTVggjY

And if you want to learn a few steps of that zapateado, we hope to have a short lesson at the release party for the Home Edition of "A Zest for Life."

Preparing to release the Home Edition of "A Zest for Life"

 

We're planning to release the Home Edition of "A Zest for Life:  Afro-Peruvian Music & Dance" in late November or early December in a release party in the East Bay (of the San Francisco Bay Area).  We'll have more news later, but in the meantime, here's the trailer:

Blogger is still injured...

Blogger is still injured but getting better. We plan to resume September 14th.

Injured Blogger

Blogger is injured and is asking for you to check back on Sept 7. Sorry!

Cultural diversity and the arts, part 1-enriching our heritages

There are almost always more than one side to every question.  In this and the subsequent blog, we'll look at some of the roles that cultural diversity and the arts can enrich our own cultural heritage(s).

I am going to assume that people from different cultures are reading this blog...but that all of us have a cultural heritage or in some cases, such as if our parents come from different backgrounds or we live in a country that is not the land of our ancestors, we may have two or more cultural backgrounds.

In California, there are a wealth of festivals celebrating different ethnic groups and their culture.

In California and frankly, in an awful lot of the world, we encounter people on a daily basis whose cultural background(s) is different from ours.  In some parts of the world, different cultural groups isolate themselves from each other, but in other areas, there is more curiosity and communication between cultural groups.

In California and much of the United States, as well as in Jerez de la Frontera and much of Spain, the past 30 years or so have seen a great deal of mixing and combining of traditional art forms as one reaction to this cultural diversity.  The process is often pretty selective, however.  For example, few people of either Anglo or Latino descent combine Asian classical dance forms with their own dances, and few castillano Spaniards mix Russian or central African music with their music.

In southern Spain, you find Castillianos, Gitanos, people from North Africa plus Senegalese and others.

But one of the key words of the day in the arts world is "fusion."  We see flamenco fusion, jazz fusion, opera borrowing extensively from all over, and we see people of Asian heritages in California mixing their traditions with hip hop, etc.  (even though this seems to be a one-way street).

My assumption is that this move towards fusion is not only a result of the greater ease of international travel and the movement of peoples--as refugees, ex-patriots, tourists, for business reasons, and so forth--but also due to television which has given the world an extremely distorted but deliberately attractive view of "American" culture.

Video games and movies have also played a role, of course.

OUR NEXT BLOG will consider "purity" vs. "fusion" within the topic of cultural diversity and the arts.

Working in Spain-time concepts-part 2

Continuing on about time in Spain, and working within the different time concepts:


Please note that in southern Spain (including Jerez de la Frontera where I'm working), almost NOTHING is open on Sundays.   It's part of Spanish culture.  In California, few places close down for Sunday.  Too much money would be lost.

All of these business hours, even though a bit flexible, can be pretty much counted on.  Individual people in southern Spain are, however, another matter.

In California, if you invite someone over to your house for dinner and tell them to arrive at 6:00pm, they are likely to show up at 6:00pm.  If they arrive at 6:05pm, they will probably apologize.

In southern Spain, to begin with, dinner itself is more often than not served at 9pm or so.  And if you invite someone, it is not likely that they will arrive at the hour specified.  They'll probably show up about half an hour later, under the theory that the host or hostess is rushing around doing last minute stuff.  (In my case, that's correct and for that reason, whether in California or in southern Spain, I neither expect others nor do I, myself, show up at the hour specified.)

Another couple of notes about dinner:  in California, inviting friends over for dinner is very common.  Also common is inviting friends out to a restaurant.  In southern Spain, not so.  For one thing, the mid-day meal is more important than dinner.  For another, meals are usually for family.  You DO, however, get together with friends for tapas and a beer or some wine.  And parties--well, people enjoy parties.  You don't need to arrive "on time" nor do you expect any ending time to be specified.  In the old days, for example, some weddings and parties celebrating a baby's baptism would last for three days.

People in Spain also tend to be gregarious.  This is a city street, not a fair.

What about filmmaking?  Well, if you schedule a shoot in southern Spain for the film you're working on, sometimes some of your crew and/or actors will show up 30-40 minutes late.  Occasionally, you even have to telephone your actor/actress and offer to pick him/her up in a car if it's already 30 minutes past call time and they're not there.

In my opinion, this is most uncool.  After all, you have the rest of your people sitting around waiting for the late-comers, although in point of fact, most people here take it in stride.  (They might even wander off to have a cup of coffee or a beer while waiting--something to be avoided at all costs.  You may never see them again.)

Part of the crew during a shoot for "Domino."  They're actually a great bunch.

I have been known to get uptight under these circumstances, and to try hard to find a way to start without the latecomers.  I also try to send messages to the offenders through a third party, indicating lateness is really not acceptable.  These messages have to be delivered with great care, however, or you will have trouble with your actors and crew in the future.  SIGH.

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about cultural diversity and the arts.

Working in Spain-time concepts, part 1

In California, productivity, status and big money are highly valued, while in Andalucia (southern Spain), they are not so important.  Instead, in southern Spain, there is a tug-of-war between getting things done, and being relaxed.  People are more interested in quality of life...and I must admit, it's something worth thinking about.

These are cultural differences--Spanish culture as opposed to "American" culture.

Getting down to brass tacks:  one of the significant differences between southern Spain and California is the sense of time.  In California the accepted normal work-day is 9am to 5pm.  In southern Spain it's a lot more complicated.  MOST small businesses run on a schedule of 10am-2pm and then 5pm-9pm.  In the heat of the summer, however (and it IS hot in the summer) the afternoon hours may change to 5:30pm-9:30pm, or 6pm-10pm.  One result is that, other than the "bars" (the California equivalent is a cafe), streets are deserted during the sacred "horas de descanso" from 2pm-5pm.

A pedestrian street, Calle Larga, during the "horas de descanso,"

On the other hand, the bars in southern Spain are open for the early breakfast hours (9am-noon), for lunch (2pm-4pm) and for the afternoon-evening (6pm-11pm or midnight).  Those guys work very hard.  In California, most cafes that are open in the morning close down around 7pm and those that stay open until midnight don't open before noon.  Those guys also work hard, but for fewer hours.

In both California and southern Spain, if we're talking about a dance class or school, of course, these are things that usually start really, really close to the time specified, and you might even want to arrive a bit early.  Theater and performance events, however, nearly always start about half an hour late.

In southern Spain, government offices are generally open Monday through Friday from 9am (or sometimes, 9:30am or even 10am) until 2pm, and that's it.  Banks as well are only open Monday-Friday, from 9 or 9:30am until 2pm.  Big chain stores are often open for much longer hours:  from 9 or 10am until 9pm, Monday through Saturday.  If you have government or financial business to do, you'd better watch out for the hours.

The same street at 11am, in front of one of the bars.

The fresh food market is open Monday through Saturday, from around 9:30am until 1:30 or 2:00pm.  The fresh food market consists of stalls individually rented by retailers, who specialize.  Fish and seafood are one specialty, for example.  Chicken and eggs are another, sometimes with rabbit added on the side.  Bread is another. Meat--meaning beef and pork--is another and fruit and vegetables even another.  Then there are the olive merchants, the spice stalls, and so forth.

OUR NEXT BLOG will complete this topic.

Ernesto Olmos and his magical "flute of fire"

I was fortunate enough several months ago to shoot some footage of muralist-musician-ceramicist-dancer Ernesto Olmos.  Ernesto is from Mexico but has lived in Oakland for many years.

He is steeped in the culture of his ancestors, which is Olmec, Toltec and Mistec.  These are indigenous ethnicities which produced some of the greatest civilizations of Mexico's past.  The Olmec (1200-400 BC) is known as the earliest American civilization.  The Toltec came much later (800-1000 AD), and I regret to say I know nothing about the Mistec.  There are fabulous ruins of the Olmec and Toltec in central southern Mexico.

Ernesto Olmos in his studio.

I went to interview and film Ernesto because of his murals, which depict images from his heritage.  I stayed to learn of his current paintings, his music and his dance.

And I was privileged to  hear him play his magical "flute of fire," a double-barreled ceramic flute that he made himself.

Yes, I DOES actually have fire. There is a kind of basin at the far end of the flute where he puts coals that he then lights.  At the upper end, there is a kind of cup which makes wind sounds when he blows into it.  And he uses the two barrels to produce music.

Ernesto Olmos in front of his home, with his magical "flute of fire."

The result is beautiful.  The barrels produce a beautiful music, which he elaborates with the wind sounds and you have the additional imagery of the fire burning at the far end.  A wonderful experience to hear and see.

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about working in Spain--a different concept of TIME.

Working in Spain-language, pronounciation and the "exotic"

I'm currently working in Spain...southern Spain, to be more exact...the city of Jerez de la Frontera, in lower Andalucia to be even more exact.  I'm shooting videos-films.  I'm a cinematographer.

Lots of people tell me how lucky I am to be working in southern Spain, as if I'm on vacation, which I am not.  Lots of people in California also seem to think that southern Spain is "exotic."  There is a tendancy on the part of most of us to believe that people who have a different way of life from ours are "exotic."   So let's look at that.

The old cabildo (government center) of Jerez de la Frontera.  It is some 500 years old.

By "exotic" they seem to mean that the people a) dress differently, b) make conversation using incomprehensible sounds...meaning that they don't speak English, c)  eat different foods, d) have a different rhythm of life and e) live in houses that don't resemble American homes.

To take just one of these, let's look at the language.

Yes, it's very true that people in southern Spain insist on talking in Spanish.  Not only do they speak Spanish, but they speak very rapidly (and I mean VERY rapidly).  Plus not all that many people speak English.  Plus the rapid Spanish they are speaking is not the standard Spanish taught in schools in the United States.

A street in the newer part of town.

They eat consonants, by which I mean that they leave out a lot of consonants.  Almost everyone in the United States knows that the word in Spanish for "father" is "padre."  Here in Jerez, lots of people say "pare."  Instead of "muchas gracias," people will say "mucha gracia."  And so on.

(Once, one of our actors by mistake referred to a bus as an "autobus."  This caused him to stop the scene as he cracked up laughing.  What he´d INTENDED to say instead of "autobus" was "autobu.").

Our NEXT BLOG will be about vocabulary for southern Spain.

Working in Spain-vocabulary

Continuing on about issues of language when working in southern Spain (in my case, working as a cinematographer):

One of my favorite fountains.

 People here in Jerez de la Frontera not only speak very rapidly and have a strong accent, they use a different vocabulary from the one used in Mexico and other parts of Latin America.  For example, in Spanish classes in the United States, you are taught to always use the "Ud." ("usted") form of a verb when meaning "you."  In southern Spain, people rarely use "Ud."  They use the "tu" form, which in Latin American is often rude and disrespectful, but here you use "tu" not only for good friends but also for people you've just met, for your banker, and your doctor.  Not always, but ALMOST always.

And then there are words like "coger," which here is used all the time (to catch the bus, you "coger el autobu," and so forth).  In many Latin Americam countries, the word "coger" is really very rude--kind of like...well, maybe I shouldn't say.

A narrow street in the historic district

Then, there are the distinctive, slang words that you won't find in the dictionary--Quillo.  Picha.  Perhaps also vaya tela.  and so forth.

In my video-film world, what it all boils down to is that before you can shoot your film, you need to be able to understand the people you are talking to, and have them understand you.  You will need time to find out what does it mean, and to tell your people what does it mean.

So there.

Our NEXT BLOG will be about Ernest Olmos of Mexico, and his magical "flute of fire."

Preliminary thoughts about flamenco

World music and dance certainly includes flamenco.  I really love flamenco.  I dance it.  I have strong feelings about it.  I have put flamenco in several of my film-video programs.

And right now, I'm in the city--Jerez de la Frontera--that is known as "the cradle of flamenco."  It's called that because it's in the center of where flamenco comes from and where flamenco is maintained and where flamenco is important to people.

Yours truly, dancing bulerias.

It's also called that because it is a singing town more than a dancing town...and the original meaning of the word "flamenco" was the singing, the "cante."

 So although there are people here who value fast feet above everything else, and think that the singer is simply some kind of appendage to better show off their dancing skills, far more people in the flamenco community believe you aren't a dancer unless and until you can follow the cante.

Singers-cantaores-are supposed to put their soul into it.  This is Antonio de la Malena.

 Following the cante means matching your dance phrase to the singer.  Following the cante also means that you do NOT upstage the singer.  Following the cante also means that the singer is free to lengthen or shorten a phrase at will, and the dancer must follow.  The dancer is not supposed to say "make it this or that length for me so it will fit with my dance."

And THIS, dear readers, brings us to the subject of flamenco puro, which I will save for another blog.

As between the singer, the dancer and the guitarist, the guitarist is theoretically least important  This is Malena Hijo.

In the meantime, my programs which have flamenco in them include "Improvising Jerez-Style" (a television program) and "Two Streets and Adela" (an experimental short).  My upcoming "Domino:  caught in the crisis" has flamenco cante, and when we finally get the funding, we'll finish filming our project called "The Price of a Piece of Chocolate" about the childhood of a flamenco cantaor--and there will be LOTS of flamenco in that.

Our NEXT BLOG will be about the Spanish language and pronunciation in southern Spain.