[Dixielandjazz] Barranquilla

Wed Nov 29 04:14:22 PST 2006

Thanks for sharing this with us, Jim.
It reminds me to some Brazilian DVDs I saw about Brazilian music, like
choros.

http://choro-music.blogspot.com/2006/07/brasileirinho.html

Keep swinging

Hans Koert
Thelonious in Action:
http://keepswinging.blogspot.com/2006/11/thelonious-in-action.html

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com
[mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com]Namens Jim Kashishian
Verzonden: woensdag 29 november 2006 12:45
Aan: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Onderwerp: [Dixielandjazz] Barranquilla

Please indulge me in this post, which is not at all about Dixieland, but is
very much about music.  Jim

Barranquilla is on the Caribbean Coast of Colombia.  I just arrived home
from a 10 day visit to Barranquilla & to Cartagena.
Our son has married a girl from Baranquilla (but, they will live in London).

All the news one reads about violence, etc, is just not there for the
visitor.  Naturally, you don't wander into weird areas, but you don't do
that in Los Angeles, either!  There was absolutely no feeling of danger.  I
feel it more in downtown Madrid!

Anyway, after 10 days of dancing Salsa, Merenque, Boleros, etc., I picked up
the horn for a blow (*) last night upon my return home, and the first phrase
that came out of the horn was Salsa!  Whatalaugh!  Me honking Salsa....  It
gets to you, that beat!
A happy, danceable music....just like ours, but with the stress in a
different place in the musical measure!   :>  The music is everywhere, piped
into the shopping centers, around the pool at the hotels, everyplace!

90 to 100 degrees F, about 85% humidity, a tremendously handsome
people....their smiles are contagious...the ocean washing in right up & over
the town's streets (we saw waves two blocks in from the beach!), no one
stops at stop signs or red lights, one way roads mean whatever way you want
the one way to be.....   it's just wild beyond belief!  And, "no pasa
naaaada"!  (No big deal, nothing happens!)

The curbs on the downtown streets are as high as 4 feet, as when it rains
the streets carry the water on down to the sea.  My wife saw a flash flood
come down a main street (it was raining in the mountains!), and motorcycles,
people, everything were washed over!  They just got up, laughing!
Apparently, that can get bad & buses & trucks are carried by the waters.
The Colombians know better & just don't go outdoors during the rains!

500 people at my son's wedding party:  50 of our family & friends & 450
Colombians!  A 15 pieces Salsa band,  & a full blown Carnaval band came in
for an hour of Carnaval music & dancing...masks for everyone!  We were
disappointed when things ended at 4am!  All my kids & friends went back to
the hotel & continued until 7am, when the hotel served them breakfast!!!

At the pre-wedding party several days before, there was a keyboard & singer,
plus a complete Mariachi (Mexican music) band.  And, that was in the
father-in-law's house!  Everyone danced so much, that the fronts of the
women's dresses were all wet from dancing up against the men's wet shirts,
mine included!.  (The wife & I took 3 months of dancing lessons before we
went to Colombia....and just as well!)

Music is everywhere!  The hotel had a guitar & vocal duo playing around the
swimming pool every evening (excellent!), & a sax & keyboard in the lounge.
We stayed 3 nites in Cartagena, also, (our group of 50), and there was music
all over that hotel, too.  Everything in Colombia is at least a quarter
cheaper than European prices.  I hired the duo at the hotel for a BBQ we had
for our group, and they cost less than what we would get in a club in
Madrid, but we would charge 4 times that for a private party!  That, of
course, equates to more musicians working, therefore the ever present group
in every bar & restaurant.  ....like it was in Spain 40 yrs ago.

We did the typical tourist bit of hiring an open bus (Chivas) for a nite on
the town in Cartagena.  The bus is many, many colors, with benches going
from one side to the other.  The center bench had a band sitting in it!  It
was Carnaval music, with various drums & a sort of clarinet.  Basically,
they played the same song all nite!  Each bench had slots for cups, Coca
Cola bottles, rum bottles & ice buckets.  The trick was, you pass your empty
bottles or buckets up to the front, and the bartender sent a full one
back....ALL nite long!   The bus stopped at various tourist sites, & we got
off, with our band coming with us...always playing!  Everyone on the
streets, as we passed...either walking or driving, danced to our music.  You
could see them still dancing as we drove up the street....kids, old ladies,
everyone!  Isn't music a great thing?  Our tour guide got us to have dancing
competitions between the back of the bus & the front of the bus....not easy
on the bouncy streets we were driving on. (The usual kind of tricks we even
use in OKOM dances, isn't it?  But it works, and everyone has fun!)

Our bus ended up at a discoteque.  The kids in our crowd continued on to
other discos, while us "older folks" took the bus back to the hotel at about
2am.  The kids rolled in for breakfast!

If you've read this far, thanks for letting me go on!  I really do believe
in the musical statements I've made, and think it is all relevant to what we
do with our own music.

Jim

(*) I take my mouthpiece on trips for some lip excersize, but get on the
horn the moment I get back home.  We have 15 straight days coming up on Dec
1st, so have to get back in shape!

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