Sam's Sounds

Latin American Festival 2011

2011-10-11T10:47:00.001-07:00

It was with great anticipation that returned to Charlotte this past weekend for the 21st Annual Latin American Festival. I reconnected with many of the musicians and friends that I met during my time in Charlotte. The festival was exciting- beautiful weather, good food, lots of people, and the main act- Aterciopelados! Plus, this year I wasn't working the event, so I got to relax and actually enjoy the festival. Here are some photos and explanations:

(Big) Product placement: Wells-Fargo and Coca-Cola.

The first band of the day was Fuzion Latina, which is a new group that sings cumbia and salsa, has a Peruvian lead singer and several members of other bands who sit in on drums and horns.

Jacobo poses with Rosalia as she paints a scene of the Festival. Notice the ICE agents carrying ice buckets.

Los Tarascos de Michoacan were the next band to perform. They play traditional music from Mexico with acoustic instruments.

Dancers from a ballet folklorico performed on the cultural stage.

The next performer was Gersy Nicolas, who sang bachata and merengue.

Staff from the Latin American Coalition took a break for lunch.

Student activists from the "Drop the 'I' Word" Campaign took the stage to talk about using the word "illegal."

Jose Conde was the next performer. He had a small band and sang some chill songs from his new album.

Atlanta's Apu Inka performed songs from Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador at the cultural stage.

Miami's Xperimento took the stage as the penultimate band. They played merengue, reggae, and cumbia, with some R&B mixed in, covering Bill Winters and featuring songs from their new album.

Some more folkloric dancers.

The Plaza de Artistas featured works by local artists.

The food aisle.

Coca-Cola puts its imprint on another Carolina tradition- cornhole.

By late afternoon, the crowd had begun to grow; this year the festival seemed to have its largest crowd ever.

One of the emcees, Sendy Mendez, works the crowd.

Aterciopelados' guitars awaited their entrance.

Andrea Echeverri, lead singer of Aterciopelados.

Venturing into the crowd.

"Florecita Rockera"

Sunset at the end of a long day of good music.

But wait, the afterparty was just getting started. Bakalao Stars opened up the Neighborhood Theatre for a free concert.

Then Xperimento livened up the audience with some reggae and cumbia.

Fanta Festival 2011

2011-05-03T13:07:00.000-07:00

Festival time was approaching and so my wife and I decided to return to Charlotte this past weekend to attend the 2011 Cinco de Mayo Fanta Festival. After spending the first part of the weekend hanging out with friends, on Sunday afternoon, we went to McAlpine Creek Park for the festival. It felt a little strange to be there and to jump back into the thick of anthropological fieldwork for a day, but I managed to take some photos and make a few observations for my study.

Here's what I saw.

The first band I heard was Los Tarascos de Michoacan. They played acoustic instruments and featured some traditional regional Mexican styles. At one point, a young boy sang with them.

A vendor covered American pop songs on his pan-flutes.

Grupo Painalli vigorously danced Aztec jigs for over a hour on the festival lawn.

The next band, Lizbeth and sus Incomparables de la Sierra, featured Lizbeth on keyboards (another young performer) and bubble gum pop style regional mexicano (if such a thing exists).

D-Amantes Musical were an interesting group. Thay started out a little weak, with some iffy vocals, but they played a variety of styles, including rock covers, and grabbed my attention even if they could use a little vocal tune-up.

Conjunto Escorpion played some cheesy love songs punctuated by the occasional keyboard-synthesized machine gun blast and shot out to Mexican football team Chivas.

By far the best band of the day in my view was Banda Los Guanajuatenses. They came on stage roaring with a Sousaphone, baritone, two drummers, three clarinets, and a brass section. Their sound was loose and blaring, just as a good banda should be. And they coordinated dances as brass and reed sections traded off lines. I found it refreshing that they forego the keyboard and make all the sounds of banda on acoustic instruments; does that make me a banda purist?

By this time the crowd had grown quite large.

Ruben and Jess of the Latin American Coalition were joined onstage by all the student volunteers for the Drop the 'I' Word campaign. The campaign is trying to educate people about how derogatory it is to use the word 'illegal' to generalize about immigrants and their immigration status.

The final act of the day was the headliner, La Autoridad de la Sierra. They played some uptempo numbers that got people dancing.

La Casa del Ritmo: a film about Los Amigos Invisibles

2011-01-30T12:17:00.000-08:00

I first saw Los Amigos Invisibles over 12 years ago in a little stadium in rural Ohio. It was a weird concert, and I'm not sure anybody really 'got' what they were trying to do. Since then, the Venezuelan band (now based out of NYC) has continued to push boundaries by amassing a unique body of work that defies easy categorization: it's rock, pop, funk, disco beats, verbal wordplay, sexy dance music...

But now, there is a documentary in the pipeline, La Casa del Ritmo,that will give an inside view of the band and their music. How does this connect to Charlotte? Well, the producer of the film, Juan Marin, was a member of Charlotte rock band La Rua. He became friends with Los Amigos Invisibles when they passed through Charlotte, and when he and his wife, Catalina, moved to NYC last year, the project took off.

However, the film needs help. To make it complete, the filmmakers are planning to record LAI live in concert on March 11 in New York. If you've ever seen the band play, you'll understand why- the tremedous energy of their live performances, the interaction with the audience, the way the funky bass and organ meld into the light show-all are part of telling the story of LAI. Filming this type of live show takes money, especially if you want to make it high quality (this won't be one of those shaky youtube videos with tinny sound where people keep wandering in front of the camera). So Juan is asking, and I'm passing on the word, for people to visit kickstarter, which is an online fundraising site, to check out the film preview and see if it is something you might want to support (monetarily).

Preview video

Kickstarter weblink:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233082065/la-casa-del-ritmo-a-film-about-los-amigos-invisibl

Film Website
http://lacasadelritmo.net/

Bakalao Stars "Soundcocho"

2011-01-02T12:54:00.000-08:00

On December 18 I returned for a whirlwind tour of Charlotte, mainly to witness the album release party for Bakalao Stars at the Neighborhood Theatre. Their new CD includes songs the band has been working on for several years; it also features two guest collaborations, 'Verde,' recorded with Itagui from Locos Por Juana while that band was in town playing the Latin American Festival in October, and 'Gitana,' with local reggae singer Ras-Congo. In the days leading up to the performance, Bakalao Stars received a heaping of local press coverage, including reviews in both Spanish and English papers.

After two months in New York spent writing up the first chapters of my dissertation, I flew down to Charlotte Friday afternoon and spent the evening catching up with friends on the latest news and gossip. On Saturday afternoon it snowed, but didn't really stick. Luckily, the bad weather didn't prevent several hundred people from coming out to see the show and celebrate with holiday cheer. I hung out for the soundcheck and then spent some time interviewing Bakalao Stars about their album.

Messing around during soundcheck.

Ultimanota, another local band that readers of this blog will be familiar with, opened up with some uptempo rock-infused tropical numbers. For the first time, I heard them cover the salsa classic 'Juanita Alemana' which had a nice groove.

Tony and Oscar jamming out.

Fans having fun.

Next Bakalao Stars took the stage dressed in red Santa costumes. After showing a promo video on the screen behind the stage, they started playing a mix of old stuff and songs from the new album.

Bakalao Stars played a full set, which intensified as the night went on. Dancers skipped around and fans sang along to songs they knew.

After a short break, the encore featured Ras-Congo, who, after prancing around the stage all night, finally took the mic and sang 'Gitana' to an attentive audience.

Many folks hung out afterwards to congratulate the band and say goodbye to Daniel, the lead vocalist, who is leaving the band after many years to study in Argentina.

Ras-Congo and Greñas show off their locks.

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Pro & Con: Should Congress pass the DREAM Act for immigrant children? | ajc.com

2010-11-23T08:32:00.000-08:00

Sharing an opinion pro-con from Atlanta on the DREAM Act, Sam

Pro & Con: Should Congress pass the DREAM Act for immigrant children? | ajc.com

Back in NYC

2010-11-22T08:34:00.001-08:00

So as you might have guessed from my lack of posts, I'm back in New York City, hard at work writing my dissertation and applying for funding so I can "write my dissertation," or at least pay myself back for the expenses incurred on this money pit of a project. Chapters have been written: an Introduction; an overview of Charlotte's Latin music scene. And now I'm working on a chapter that talks about several bands and their audiences- how they form communities and how important where they play is, whether it's Kalipso on North Tryon or the Neighborhood Theatre, Cosmo's Cafe or A Piece of Havana.

Here are some pictures to keep it interesting.

Welcome-back cakes for the return party.

Daliz with her friend Sabine who came all the way from Belgium to run the NYC marathon.

My archives (newspaper clippings from Charlotte)

My tree nut and legume collection; if I'm hibernating, might as well eat like a squirrel (I like to snack when I write).

My work space.

Again, to all the folks in Charlotte, THANKS! and keep in touch, I'll be back to visit soon.

Latin American Festival

2010-10-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

Boricua!

The 20th Annual Latin American Festival/ Festival Latinoamericano took place on October 10 at Symphony Park in Charlotte. Once again, I was involved as part of the organizing group at the Latin American Coalition and I spent most of the day backstage at the Main Stage which featured live music. Unlike last year, when I mostly got in the way and mucked things up, this go-round I actually felt useful; tapping into my experience working several other live music events, I queued up artists, helped arrange the backline during band changeovers, and gave the MCs cues when the bands were and were not ready to start.

The stage show went off without any major hitches, and the crowd grew from nobody to a large and enthusiastic gathering as each musical act finished their set with sweat on their brows and smiles on their faces. Beautiful weather and good publicity meant that the festival brought out more people than last year (they even sold out of beer!).

But numbers aren't everything, this festival also marked the (more or less) official closing date of my field study. Sure, I'll come back to visit and follow up with people, but I am no longer working at the Latin American Coalition and by next week I'll be back in New York writing my dissertation.

So, here are some observations from the festival and beyond:

1. Although as an anthropologist the first theoretical framework that might come to mind for a festival is Clifford Geertz's study of the Balinese cockfight, I can attest to the inadequacy of this idea. Behind the facade of a self-contained event that embodies a culture is total chaos that festival organizers must try to manage with a smirk and a calm demeanor. As the festival approaches, it becomes a runaway train with no brakes, you hurl labor and equipment at it, hoping something will land on a boxcar and not underneath the wheels, while months and months of planning go into making the tracks straight so the beast won't derail midday. At the end, you are left with a silence of empty fairgrounds and a distant hum in your ears from standing too close to reverbrating speakers; sort of like a Doppler effect tailing from a just-passed freight train.

While sometimes the repartee between artist, MC, or audience might seem well-grooved and rehearsed, as someone asks, "Donde estan las mujeres?" and the ladies cheer and men grin, it is impossible to choreograph that moment in a concert when you get chills realizing 15 thousand people are shouting the same synchopated gutteral syllable in response to a plea from a singer on stage. You can't force these moments, only observe the common parameters for when they happen and try to create fertile soil for their blossoming.

2. Ethics are important, and so are aesthetics. During my year in Charlotte, I had a chance to see many shows, concerts and festivals, some of which were organized ethically, others not. What I mean by this is that the organizers paid musicians fairly, provided quality sound and stage equipment, and offered a fair exchange to the audience attending the show (the concert started on time, had the advertised bands performing, no unneccesary delays between acts, etc.). In almost ever case, the shows where the organizers acted ethically turned out to be better shows, aesthetically than those where organizers acted unethically. I base this assertion on my own observations and subjective taste, but also on the opinions of musicians and friends in attendance at these shows. All organizers make compromises in the process of putting on a show, especially in tough economic times, but there is a difference between cutting costs and cutting corners. I had the privledge to work with musicians and event planners who have scruples, and it shows in the quality of their music.

3. Throughout my study, I have attempted to gather information on the 'political economy" of the Latin music scene in Charlotte. This doesn't just mean an accounting of the living expenses and pay of musicians, although that is part of it. Nor does it mean looking at whether musicians are political activists or write political songs. Rather, a political economy of musicians means looking at the power relations among musicians, audience members, club and restaurant owners, concert organizers and their ilk. It refers to their daily lives, the practice and preparation for brief moments on stage, the day jobs that musicians work to support their dream or hobby- to be in a band. It requires looking at the institutions that support musicians and channel their talents, often profiting more than the musicians themselves: clubs, restaurants, festivals, non-profits, etc. And it means placing the entire Latin music scene in larger context...Charlotte's music scene, Charlotte as a city proper, the South, the United States, Latin America, the World... while realizing that only by being local is this scene special and distinct from anywhere else. Festivals are usually just showcases of what is going on already in clubs and other venues; they are necessary but cannot support a scene by themselves. Understanding a local scene requires tracing the veins of music that lead to this showcase and understanding that many artists do not make it to the big stage.

Onwards to some photos from the festival:

The emcees for the main stage showing their Puerto Rican pride...

The opening band was a local Latin jazz group, Rhythm +

Local group Bakalao Stars played next, rocking out with afro wigs and matching t-shirts in the hot sun...

From Durham, NC, Orquesta GarDel played some old school salsa classics...

Elastic Bond, a band from Miami, played some funk and electronic music with Latin-inspired beats...

Charlotte's Soul Brazil worked the crowd with samba, while Iya from Movimentos de Samba danced in front...

Locos Por Juana, also from Miami, rocked the stage with some stirring cumbia...

Direct from la isla del encanto, Puerto Rican group Plena Libre tore through a set of bomba y plena, as the crowd gravitated to the singers shaking hips and call and response vocals. Africa is alive and well in the Caribbean...

Tropic Culture with Bakalao Stars

2010-10-03T08:28:00.000-07:00

Let's take a further look at Tropic Culture. I've seen this Charlotte band play several times over the past year, and what I saw this past Friday at the Visulite was a step up from their previous concerts. They have augmented their horn section, adding an incredible saxaphone player, Adrian, who in many ways stole the show.

He played an autotune machine during a couple of songs, seducing the women in the crowd with distorted growlings of the song's melody. He ventured out into the crowd during that time during the show when all but the most dedicated dancers grow weary, and engaged the audience directly, even climbing the stairs to the bar to get the barflies moving and grooving. Along with the rest of the horn section, he massacred a cover of Chick Corea's "Spain," so much so that a fellow saxophonist in the crowd was by the stage clapping and cheering. Tropic Culture is developing new songs, which are not perfected yet, but showcase some improved ideas for the band. Overall, I was intrigued and the concert had me anticipating what these guys might do next.

I've heard Tropic Culture described as a "festival band" or jam band, the type of group that most in its element at fairs, festivals, and outdoor celebrations. I think this is an accurate description, if you take this label to mean that the band is a "big tent" affair, where various styles and genres exist side by side, and are imperfectly and messily mixed together. At times, Tropic Culture brings the funk of Tower of Power, the throwback disco of Jamiroquai, or the breaks common in lite, smooth and acid jazz, all with a side of tropical rhythm. When I interviewed the group this past July, they hinted that they were in the process of changing their sound, and they appear to have made that change. They call what they are doing a "Dance Revolution," again this is festival music, not "serious" rock you stand around contemplating (for better or worse).

Tropic Culture has always had a certain socio-political stance, in the feel-good, spread-the-love vein of listeners of Bob Marley who adhere to his pop songs and sidebar his Garveyite lyrics (War, Burnin' and Lootin'). In songs like "Eliminate the Hate" and "The Train," they advocate a pleasant social activism, never threatening or controversial. In this concert, they dedicated a song to the people of Ecuador, after a chaotic week when the Ecuadorian president was attacked by striking police. This song included the lyrics, "the revolution must begin." Without reading too much into it, we can at least say Tropic Culture want us not to forget the troubles of the world, but at least be aware of them while we dance to their music.

With Bakalao Stars opening, the crowd got warmed up, and, as always, there were some Bakalao fans in attendance.

Tropic Culture headlined the show

Bakalao Stars joined them onstage for a Manu Chao medley.

The crowd was excitable and excited-

Some lady fans join them onstage

Bakalao Stars at Smokey Joe's

2010-09-28T07:59:00.001-07:00

Last Friday night I went to see Bakalao Stars play at Smokey Joe's in Charlotte. Smokey Joe's is a dive bar/music venue, walls covered with old concert posters and beer signs. Bakalao Stars came dressed Hawaiian style to match the sandy beach- themed outdoors patio of the bar (although they played inside).

The crowd was small but enthusiastic-

The lead singer from Tropic Culture joined them onstage for a couple of numbers:

Tax Breaks and Wage Theft

2010-09-23T10:42:00.000-07:00

If you've been paying attention to the news lately, you may have noticed there has been a lot of discussion about taxes, specifically regarding what to do about the Bush-era tax cuts set to expire at the end of this year. President Obama wants to keep the tax cuts in place for what he terms the 'middle-class,' families making $250,000/year or less, and revert to pre-2001 tax levels for those making more than $250,000/year. Republicans, on the other hand, argue that 'raising' taxes on this upper income bracket above $250,000 would hurt the economy because many of these people are small business owners who, if taxed at a higher rate, would not expand their businesses or hire new employees, thus exacerbating high unemployment levels. Moreover, Republicans argue that small business owners aren't hiring now because of a lingering uncertainty about whether their taxes will climb. The Obama administration has countered with proposals targeting small businesses with incentives and funds that would supposedly offset the coming rise in tax rates. And so we would appear to have a political debate about tax policy.

Sidebar: Does anybody really think that someone making $240,000 is middle-class? That's a hell of a lot of money to me.

John Boehner plays working man...

According to the US Government's Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy, small businesses employ about half of US workers (at least of those not working on farms or for the government)and, between 1993-2009, created about 65 percent of new jobs (http://www.sba.gov/advo/stats/sbfaq.pdf). The same source classifies small businesses as firms employing 500 people of less.

Yet, I would like to take a step back here and ask, what makes small business owners so special? I believe both sides of this debate have attached themselves to a romanticized figure of the small businessman, who, as a rugged and entreprenuerial individual, if only were it not for the other side's thick-headed policies, would be able to overcome great obstacles and gladly behave with munificience towards his employees and their familes. This Guy who put the pop in Mom and Pop, needs help, whether its government assistance or the desire that the government should just leave him alone. He (in my observation, this is pretty clear-cut gendered figure) and his unwavering work ethic harken back to those early days of American history when frontiersmen set off into the woods and made something of themselves with their bare hands.

In reality, there is nothing inherently good or bad about a small business owner, just as there is nothing inherently good or bad about a large corporation. Rather, it is their actions and relationships, their position in relation to political and economic structures, that determine this. Gigantic corporations might be evil (they often are) say, because they pollute the Gulf of Mexico, but internal HR policies and a history of lawsuits might mean that they actually fairly compensate and insure workers and attempt to give back to the community. Small businesses, while they surely can't release destruction like a Hallibuton or BP, can fail to provide health insurance to workers or discriminate against certain classes of workers. Bigger, or smaller, is not always better (or worse).

I suppose someone could make a counterargument here along the lines of, "Hey, big corporations get tax breaks all the time, so why shouldn't small businesses owners get relief?" Touche!

Which brings me to the second theme- wage theft. A few days ago, I was talking with two undocumented Mexican men who work in the construction industry. These men are hard workers and they give back to the community, a fact I can attest to because they have volunteered to help move heavy furniture, carry supplies out in the hot sun, and paint walls for a local non-profit in Charlotte. They also are struggling to make ends meet. At the same time they aren't taking jobs away from "hard-working Americans" because no jobs in construction are to be had, they are owed significant sums of money from contractors who hired them to work jobs and then never paid up. This means they can't pay their rent and bills in a house they share with their families, including several children. One contractor owes these two men, and several of their coworkers, over $7000 each for a painting gig near Charlotte. Another contractor neglected to pay them over $11,000 each after they traveled to Boston to work on houses there. When I spoke with a person who advises clients at the Latin American Coalition on wage theft issues, she remarked that these two gentlemen are not alone. My conversation was just the tip of the iceberg of hundreds of cases of wage theft they see yearly. Contractors at job sites subcontract to other businesses who hire workers, then underpay or abscond with these workers' wages. It is left to the worker to sift through the multiple layers of contractors, to pursue legal action in small claims court, or to hire a lawyer to file a lawsuit, all the more difficult if you are here illegally, don't speak English as your first language, and are broke and falling into debt.

Who are these contractors perpetuating wage theft? Why, small business owners, of course! (Corporations engage in wage theft too; Wal-Mart come to mind.) So while politicians lionize the small business owner, we should keep in mind the explotation, the paternalism, and the off-the-books nature of many small businesses. If small businesses are given a tax break or incentives, maybe there should be a provision that they won't receive money until they can prove they have paid all their employees all their wages for the past year. Or that they have to comply with OSHA standards in the workplace and provide health insurance for all employees to be eligible?

Last Weekend

2010-09-21T07:32:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I managed to go see several bands play, although there were also several performances I ended up missing. On Friday night I went uptown to Chima to listen Reinaldo Brahm and his group play Brazilian music (Sorry, no pictures this time). I didn't stay too late, because I had already planned to wake up early and go see the band Dorian Gris play at a festival, "Rock the Block," in Winston-Salem. It was a bright sunny day, but unfortunately no one was out and about at 12 noon for the show. Here are some photos, including of the empty amphitheatre.

Later in the day, Baco played and few more folks were listening.

On Sunday, I attended the Club Dominicano de Charlotte's annual end of summer party at Park Road Park. After some difficulties with the sound system, Miami band Los Reyes Tipicos played some perico ripiao. They were energetic, but please, it's comical when you spend 20 minutes telling the sound guy to keep turning up the mics to max level- and then when you play every note sounds distorted and tinny.

DS Evolution played next. These guys are on tour around the US and abroad and on the cusp of making it big. They spit rhymes while mixing in bachata and merengue. Their promotor, correcting me, said their style is musica urbana, not reggaeton...

Bachata Flow came on stage next. These guys continue to impress, especially the drummer and lead guitar player.

Leydy Bonilla joined Bachata Flow for a set on songs.

All in all an entertaining musical weekend.

Leydy Bonilla article

2010-09-15T18:37:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, the Charlotte Observer published an article on Charlotte-based merengue singer Leydy Bonilla. Mark Kemp, who has written extensively on Southern music, rock, and other things (often for Rolling Stone), wrote the article.
Here's the link:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/09/12/1677116/a-voice-that-carries.html

El Grito in Charlotte

2010-09-14T16:56:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, I went to McAlpine Creek Park in Charlotte for an event organized by the local Spanish radio stations. "El Grito" is modeled after ceremonies and festivities that happen across Mexico on the evening of September 15. Around midnight on this day in 1810 the priest Miguel Hidalgo gave the cry that started the movement that eventually led to Mexico's independence from Spain. 200 years later, Mexican immigrants in North Carolina celebrate this legacy with music, dance, food, and a bit of pagaentry. Here are some photos with commentary.

Grupo Apasionado opened up the day. They were passable.

Alejandro Galvez brings handmade toys for kids of all ages to play with in his Juguetelandia.

Local dance group Cielito Lindo performed some folkloric dances.

Salazar Band played a competent set. They kept up the energy and sang a few extra to fill time for a band that cancelled.

Afterwards they posed backstage:

Rey Norteno took the stage and played some corridos. I think these guys show potential.

A local mariachi band waiting backstage...

And then onstage-

Local promotor Alex Ruiz lipsynched his way through a set. Enough said.

By late afternoon, the crowd was filed in...

Mexican Consul Carlos Flores Vizcarra gave the grito and raised the flag

Lalo Mora (formerly of Los Invasores de Nuevo Leon) was the headliner. He has a voice Janis Joplin would have killed for- gritty with undertones of tequila. He worked the crowd and any women he could find nearby.

La Raza

Remembering and Forgetting

2010-09-12T07:20:00.000-07:00

There was beautiful weather as I walked the few blocks from my apartment at 140th and Broadway to my job at Jackie Robinson Park (the site of the old Polo Grounds) that September 11. And by beautiful I mean 70 degrees, bright and sunny, zero humidity, a slight breeze which after a stagnant New York summer means relief anf joy that the seasons are finally changing. I was looking forward to my day, to giving a morning training, finishing up some paperwork, and then going to vote in my first primary election in New York. I arrived at the park's recreation center to give my training in job skills to a group of welfare-to-work recipients. as I was starting the training, one of my coworkers, a manager at the center, pulled me out of the session to show me what was on TV.

On a local news channel we saw live images of smoke billowing from one of the World Trade Center towers and they kept replaying the images of a plane plowing into the tower. At first I thought, "wow, what a horrible accident," but then we saw another plane crash into the second tower, got reports that a plane had crashed into the Pentagon building in Washington, DC and that a fourth plane was somewhere up in the air unaccounted for... and so the slow realization that something was amiss. Soon, the towers collapsed.

Looking back, what seems incredible is how I proceeded for several minutes, calmly, returning to the training, informing the class what had happened, cancelling the class, but telling them what to study for our nect meeting, and even reminding them to go vote. Although I had a knot of dread in my stomach, and I knew things were serious because I had called my boss and she told me not to come down to our main office on 61st Street but to go home instead, it wasn't until I walked the hill up 145 Street and I could see down Fredrick Douglass Ave a furious pyre of smoke and dust rising 9 miles south at the bottom of Manhattan that it really hit me.

The buildings were gone. I had little personal connection to the towers, I had never even been up in them. Like many, I used them to orient myself when I got lost in the meandering streets of the West Village. I had seen buildings demolished, like Atlanta's old Fulton County Stadium in controled explosions, but this was chaos, with people falling, shards of glass, and plumes of toxic smoke drifting over Brooklyn.

I spent the rest of the day holed up in my apartment. I talked to my mom, who was freaking out in her own conspiritorial way. I talked to my dad, after almost a year of not talking to him. I heard from a friend,(now my wife) Daliz, who lived in San Francisco and was trying to find her dad who worked downtown near the World Trade Center. I took a break from the somber news reports and walked down to the Hudson River, where thousands of people in suits and ties were walking miles up Riverside Drive trying to get home.

Now when you read or watch the news, or even in academic circles, many talk about the world pre and post 9-11. As if the world suddenly changed, which it did at least in New York City. But I think the jury is still out on this point.

First, the death toll. Over 2,000 people died on September 11, 2001 but does it compare to the 20,000 who died in an earthquake in India in February 2001, or the 17,000 who died in an earthquake in Izmit, Turkey in 1999? 9/11 was a man-made destructive event, terrorism from an external enemy, but does it compare with the backstabbing neglect our government wrought upon its own citizens after Hurricane Katrina? Or the man-made disaster of slums and subhuman living standards that resulted in Haiti losing over 230,000 people?

Second, how does this September 11 compare with that other September 11 (1973) in Chile, when a US-backed coup d'etat deposed Salvador Allende and led to the rise of Augusto Pinochet as dictator? Thousands were disappeared, tortured and killed. That September 11 marked a new era of dirty wars and totalitarian military states throughout Latin America, most often with US complicity and support.

In my job training class that day, there were several Muslims- immigrants from Pakistan and the Middle East (one was named Mohammed) along with folks from Latin America, African-Americans, and whites. All were just as shocked as I was, speechless, worried about their children in schools in Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn. Now we debate whether to put a community center near the World Trade Center site. They were and continue to be New Yorkers just as much as me, and they deserve to be treated a citizens of this city without hatred or malice.

Orquesta Mayor at Cosmo's Cafe

2010-09-11T17:47:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Daliz and my brother Ben and his girlfiend Callie were in town and on Sunday we went to see local salsa band Orquesta Mayor play at Cosmo's Cafe in Ballyntyne. Although we mistakenly showed up two hours early, we stuck around and heard some jumping music and took a few turns on the dance floor.
Here are some photos:

Orquesta Mayor playing some old-school salsa classics-

The dance floor-

Daliz-

Ben and Callie-

Festival Peachtree Latino in Atlanta

2010-08-31T13:48:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday I was in Atlanta and I decided to go see one of their Latin festivals, the Festival Peachtree Latino, to compare to festivals in Charlotte. This event celebrated its 10th anniversary at Underground Atlanta downtown, which, if you've never been, is a veritable hellhole of bad urban planning and privatized public space. But on Sunday, the space was filled with festivalgoers ready to have fun.

The day started out with a parade of high school drill teams, motorcycle clubs, and these vaqueros riding down Peachtree Street.

Then, a couple of security guards got swallowed up by this inflatable-

The flags of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic were raised high along with the Stars and Stripes near the golden Capitol dome.

The music started out with some local acts. I was sorely disappointed, they all sang with playback and were really cheesy. Really, you can't find a good local band in Atlanta?

The only bright spot was this drumline and brass group from Panama.

After the local acts, Belinda, a telenovela star came on stage. Her singing left a bad taste in my mouth, along with her poser mohawk.

The crowd danced when El Gringo de la Bachata performed.

But the festival organizers dropped the ball, El Gringo was followed by...
nothing, 40 minutes of stage silence when nobody was on stage. The audience was bored, and I think there were even a few fights as teenagers wondering around found there was nothing to do. I almost left but decided to stick around for one more act.

Some Dominicans decided to take musical matters into their own hands:

Pee Wee, another teenybopper telenovela singer took the stage. He had a lot of energy, but only the tween girls were excited. I guess with Telemundo as a sponsor, the organizers used the network's talent rather than looking for something more original. Too bad, several weak spots and poor planning put a damper on what could have been a great day downtown.

Los Tucanes de Tijuana

2010-08-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

Sunday night I shelled out the money for a ticket and went to see Los Tucanes de Tijuana at Kalipzo nightclub in Charlotte. For those of you who might not know who Los Tucanes are, they are know as the "papas de los pollitos," a Norteno group who over the last twenty years have written corridos and love songs. After Los Tigres del Norte, they are probably the second most influential group playing regional mexicano music. Their song, "Mis Tres Animales," is one of the most recognizable narcocorridos, spawning wallets, belt buckles, and t-shirts with the now infamous images of the parrot, the rooster, and the goat, symbolic stand-ins for cocaine, marijuana, and heroin respectively. Another song, "La Chona," is one of those upbeat dance numbers that sticks in your head and is instantly recognizable from its pop accordion riff; fittingly the song is a tribute to a woman who goes to the club, is first on the dance floor, and whose dancing skills can't be topped.

On Sunday, I watched the club slowly fill up. A local group, Voluntad Musical, opened up the night. They played some upbeat dance numbers, with the lead singer gyrating and working the crowd from the tiny stage. They even covered "El Tarasco," with the lead singer lifting his arms in flight while he sung,

"Yo soy un ave nocturna
Que aterriza en cualquier milpa"

Appropriate for carousing on a late Sunday evening, I think.

The DJ played some upbeat banda songs, people danced the quebradita across the floor (which if you've never seen it, is a feat in itself). Then a long video dramatically introduced Los Tucanes de Tijuana. The video was bilingual, with English subtitles, and showed the band's accomplishments, platinum album sales, bringing joy and hope to crowd across the migrant universe, and a funny shot of a toucan shitting in a Border Patrol agent's coffee cup and then having him gulp it down.

Los Tucanes played a number of their hits, the crowd was dancing and singing, because lord knows they didn't pay all that money just to stand around and watch people having a good time. The lead singer, Mario Quintero, gave a shot out to fellow singer Larry Hernandez, sitting in VIP. He managed to keep singing while ladies climbed on stage and danced with him, timing his turns to sing into the mic. All in all a sweaty but impressive concert.

Vulgarisms and Chingaderas

2010-08-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

*******WARNING! Graphic Images and Language******

10 years ago, I wrote a paper about Mexican narcocorridos where I explained the central role of vulgar wordplays and jokes in songs about drug trafficking along the US-Mexico border. I posited that songs constructed gender roles into highly sexualized, constrictive portrayals, yet some musicians attempted to undermine and bypass these archetypes through creative songwriting and performance. This past weekend, I saw a concert that gave me pause to return to this theme and consider what vulgar means a decade later.

First, to be honest, I was not the first or the last to connect the vulgar to border culture or Mexican culture in general. Octavio Paz, in The Labyrinth of Solitude, devotes a chapter to the verb "chingar" and the Mexican psyche, analyzing the historical roots back to the indigenous guide, Malinche, who aided and abetted the military and sexual conquest of Hernan Cortes' army over the Aztecs. In music, norteño and banda are not the only Mexican styles that stylized cursing and vulgar expressions to get their message across and endear artists to their audiences- think of Molotov or the between-song live ramblings of Alex Lora of El Tri.

Yet when I read US writings on norteño music and narcocorridos, the most common metaphor is that this music is the "gangsta rap" of Mexico. This comparison is both valid and false. Certainly the narcocorrido has been attacked and censored by the same sort of "morally righteous" crusaders in Mexico that once went after 2 Live Crew, Snoop Doggy Dogg, and Tupac Shakur in the US- middle-class, socially conservative people removed by generation, geography, and socio-economic standing from the "reality" sung about in these songs. And the recording industries of both genres developed and remain centered in metropolitan Los Angeles. But by comparing gangsta rap to narcocorridos, writers impose a US-centric idea of music development on an autochthonous form that developed in Mexico over centuries, reached a stylistic maturity during the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s, and continues to retain many of the stylistic and technical forms of a century ago, even as it has evolved to incorporate new technological innovations and lyrical themes.

Not to pick on gangsta rap, which evolved in its own right, very quickly crossing over to a younger, middle-class suburban white audience and leading the charge of rap music that transformed American and global popular music in the late 1990s. But norteño and banda, the two most common subgenres which feature narcocorridos, have not been crossover successes. One could point to a language barrier, but even within the Latino community in the US (at least this has been my observation) the style is incompatible and culturally incomprehensible to folks from the rest of Latin America. Compare this with the general popularity and acceptance of salsa, cumbia, merengue, rock en español, and reggaeton; it seems people just can't get over the polca beat or the gritty lyrics.

When I lived in Ciudad Juarez in 1999, the narcocorrido appeared in a different light than it does now. Call it a loss of innocence, the end of an era, whatever...
I was aware that drug-trafficking was a serious business, and saw brief glimpses of the seedy underbelly of the border. But drug cartel members seemingly just killed each other, and if you kept your head down, so to speak, you'd be alright. I was aware of the killing of women maquiladora workers in the outskirts of the city, of drive-by shootouts in downtown intersections, of the rise in kidnappings, but it didn't seem like the mounting evidence of a violent drug war that now glares in the rearview mirror.

Where I once joked that musicians who wrote narcocorridos surely must have visited the villas of cartel lords to describe their wild parties in such detail, now musician after musician is shot down on dark highways. Where I once admired the bravado and wit of musicians who critiqued the hypocrisy of the US drug enforcement certification process for foreign aid, now I wonder if Mexico can survive a full fledged drug war with its sovereignty intact and a functioning economy.

Which brings me to last Sunday. Viva la Musica, a local concert, featured several regional mexicano groups. One group, Los Amos, really caught my attention because of the vulgar nature of their lyrics and over-the-top performance style. For example, they sang a love song, but instead of the usual syrupy lyrics, the chorus sounded, "chinga su madre." Another song had the lead singer conducting a call and response, "when I say ex-girlfriend, you say puta." Throughout the show, Los Amos brought out bottle after bottle of Buchanan's scotch, encouraging each band member to drain a bottle; then they called out the radio DJs from La Raza to join in the binge drinking. Women in the crowd screamed, threw bras on stage, and exposed their breasts to the band. Meanwhile, the women passing their children onstage to dance and then a bevy of women joined the children onstage for the final song.

Los Amos wear some feminine headgear-

What does all this mean? Should one judge using middle-class western values that say that vulgarity and "family friendly" activities don't mix? Does the performance of binge-drinking remind you more of fraternity antics or men and women in villages throughout Mesoamerica who get fall-down drunk on Saturday afternoons? Should Los Amos be decried for their profanity and crassness or applauded for their entertaining shtick?

Viva la Musica

2010-08-10T08:51:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, I attended a marathon music concert called Viva la Musica put on by local Spanish radio station La Raza at the Grady Cole Center in Charlotte. Viva la Musica featured three local bands and several of the hottest new bands playing regional mexicano music.

Local group Conjunto Escorpion opened up the show-

Another local band, Kautivo Musical, went on second.

Then Grupo Tecno Caliente heated up the stage-

Los Compas del Terre brought the music into the crowd.

El Guero y Su Banda Centenario

The Bimbo bear made an appearance-

Beto y sus Canarios

Palomo played some norteno-

Los Amos closed out the night-

Twofer

2010-08-07T09:44:00.000-07:00

This entry you get a two for one, because last night I decided to hit up two different places to see some local music.

First, I witnessed the continuing saga of Ultima Nota, who played at Dressler's amid threatening rainclouds. Some friends and family of the band showed up. The darkening skies made for pinkish hues and am element of danger as lightning struck off in the distance.

Some may ask why I keep following a band like Ultima Nota, even after having heard every song they could possibly play in every possible way. Maybe it's for moments like this, joking around in the down time between sets.

Next, I hurried over to hear Reinaldo Brahm play at Chima downtown. The first Friday of every month, the Brazilian steakhouse hosts a party in their upstairs cocktail lounge. I had stopped by briefly a couple of times before, but last night I stuck around. Reinaldo played some classic samba and bossa nova singing and strumming guitar, while a couple of guys accompanied him on percussion. The atmosphere was ferstive, with two birthday gatherings going on in the back corner, and by the last few songs, everyone was up dancing.

Various Concerts

2010-08-01T14:42:00.000-07:00

In the past 10 days, I've gone to see a few shows, but have been neglecting my blogging duties cause I'm a lazy bastard. So here's a recap...

On July 23, I went to the Neighborhood Theatre to see Tropic Culture open for Toubab Krewe. Before the show, I managed to gather TC's band members together for an interview. I lined them up for a group photo.

Tropic Culture played some of their older material, plus a few new songs they have been working on. Although the crowd started out small and sitting down in the rear seats, by the end the band had managed to get some of them up and moving around near the stage. Which is what the opening act is supposed to do, right?

Toubab Krewe headlined the show, which meant I got to kill two birds with one stone, since I had been interested in hearing them for some time. Toubab Krewe are a group of white guys from Asheville, who, having made several long sojourns in West Africa, channel Ali Farka Toure by blending West African styles with American rock. They sounded intriguing, though their instrumental compositions were offset by the weird ululations issued from the crowd as groups of frat boys and dead heads showed their appreciation by yelling something that sounded "African." Their enthusiasm was not contagious, and I left the concert early- a good singer, in any language, would add a lot to Toubab Krewe's appeal.

By Wednesday, July 28, I was in New York City, where I went to preview a Puerto Rican group, Plena Libre, who will be headlining Charlotte's Latin American Festival on October 10. Daliz and I arrived a little late and the party was already in full swing at Wagner Park in lower Manhattan. Plena Libre played an intense version of traditional bomba y plena from the island, adding in some salsa and even samba. It was a perfect evening, warm, clear skies, dancing by the harbor with a view of Lady Liberty. I look forward to seeing how they do in front of a Charlotte audience.

Back in Charlotte on Thursday, I observed Bakalao Stars rehearse in their practice space. On Friday, I went to see Ultima Nota play for the first time at Dressler's, an upscale restaurant near uptown Charlotte. No pictures of these two things, sorry.

Sam's Sounds on the radio!

2010-07-19T07:56:00.000-07:00

That's right, this blog, or rather yours truly, was on the radio last night. KPFA, a community radio station in Oakland has a show called Rock en Rebelion. The host/DJ Eva, is a friend of a friend who I met at the Latin Alternative Music Conference, and she called me up a few days ago to interview me about my thoughts on the conference. My segment is just a brief part near the end, but the entire show is worth listening to because she interviews musicians from the festival and plays some of the featured music.
Here is the link, I believe it plays in both Windows Media Player and iTunes.

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/62643

Bakalao Stars at the Evening Muse

2010-07-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

After a six month hiatus, we have finally heard back from the Bakalao Stars. On Friday night they played the Evening Muse in NoDa with Avion Sans Pilot opening the show. I journeyed to NoDa and walked around the gallery crawl where artists and craft vendors were presenting their wares on the sidewalks. I was a little early for the Bakalao show, so I ended up listening to a jazz combo playing outside at Salvador Deli's:

After running into some friends, I went inside to see Avion Sans Pilot perform. They play heavy metal and loud. It's nice to see a little gender equity with two women, the lead singer and guitarist, fronting the band.

Then Bakalao Stars took the stage, in this configuration with eight members, dressed in party outfits:

They played a few new songs, including one inspired by the trip by two of the band's members to New York for the Latin Alternative Music Conference. And they played a few of their older favorites, jamming out as the crowd danced. One thing that never fails, the Bakalao Stars always seem to bring an audience of people that are enthusiastic about their mix of ska, rock, reggae, and funk.

Latin Alternative Music Conference- Day 4

2010-07-15T14:03:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, the Latin Alternative Music Conference wrapped up with a concert at Summerstage in Central Park by Ocote Soul Sounds, the Pinkertones, and Maldita Vecindad. Rain was threatening, but Daliz and I decided to go anyway and we were rewarded with a rain free afternoon of great music. Ocote Soul Sounds opened the concert with their laid back version of cumbia. Then, the Pinkertones came on stage and played some songs from their new album with a full band, adding some rock guitar and keyboards to their electronic compositions. Finally, Maldita Vecindad y los Hijos del Quinto Patio came on stage in zoot suits and the crowd went wild. A giant mosh pit formed and we hightailed it to the safer margins of the audience. The crowd surfing, the jumping, the excitement did not let up for the entire show. Maldita Vecindad played "Pachuco" and "Lo Pasado, Pasado," their version of Jose Jose's song (a personal favorite). They played "Fut Callejero" to remedy World Cup fever and they made a statement against Arizona's law. They generally rocked the house. Here are some photos.

Aztec Warrior

Gas Mask

Ocote Soul Sounds

The Pinkertones

Maldita Vecindad

Mosh Pit

LAMC Day 3

2010-07-14T12:04:00.001-07:00

The third day of the 2010 Latin Alternative Music Conference began with a panel on the music industry where managers, label reps, and publishers talked about how bands should get their names out there. The debate was supposed to be "nonviolent," which hinted at some sort of underlying tension between labels and managers, but the panel agreed on mostly everything, from the importance of bands hiring a manager to how to present your recorded music (MP3s not CDs).

After lunch I caught the tail end of the second panel on how to market your music for TV, movies, and video games. The panel was different, maybe because the speakers were in advertising and TV, and seemed much more straightforward in what they were looking for from musicians.

Next, I attended the third and final panel of the day entitled "Cutting through the Clutter" which consisted of writers/publishers of online and print magazines about music. This panel sounded off on the amount of music demos they receive and how they don't listen to most of the stuff or even read all their e-mails. Several panelists said they don't usually consider an artist unless a knowledgable source, say in a blog or e-mail, recommends their music. In other words, you have to know someone to get coverage. One of the panelists kept harping about how she detests CDs and press kits because they are a waste of resources, bad for the environment, etc. At the Q & A session, a Colombian musician asked the panelists why, if a musician spends months and years of his/her life working on a CD, then why can't you spend a few minutes listening to the demo? The audience clapped and I thought it was a damn good question. One panelist gave a stock answer about not having time, getting thousands of e-mails, etc. Another panelist remarked that she discovers new music all the time at conferences and festivals like this one, again begging the question of how artists get chosen for the LAMC and who gets left out and overlooked.

Overall, I found the panels informative, but there was one theme that kept popping up- how musicians could get their music in front of somebody at a label, venue, magazine, etc. I found many of the panelists' answers to be condescending. It reminded me a lot of the dynamics of graduate school research proposals for granting agencies. The answers and explanations given by panelists began to sound the same as the rejection statements and advice I have received from funders: "No means Not Now;" "We get thousands of submissions;" "Keep trying;" "Stay true to your heart and something positive will happen." These are truthful statements, surely, but they reinforce the dependence of graduate students and struggling musicians on the opinions of a few gatekeepers who guard the ever-shrinking monetary and honorary pathways to institutional success. And these statements fail to alliviate the demographic pressures they readily acknowledge, if "record numbers" of applicants or demos of "high quality' appear, then why is not more effort made to open up wider avenues of access to the next level. Or perhaps we should begin to question the whole competitive nature of these contests, and encourage more collaboration in creative enterprise. Second, I was struck by how business focused the panels were. I wondered why there were no workshops on technical aspects, say a field guide to working with ornery sound men, or how to use new recording technology to get the "sound" you want.

Anyway, after the day's panels, I met Daliz and we traveled to Brooklyn for the night's concert at Prospect Park's Bandshell. There we met a few friends, ate some dinner and enjoyed the music of Toy Selectah, Fidel Nadal, and Ozomatli.

Toy Selectah is a DJ, he played some stuff to set the mood, did a good job.

Fidel Nadal is a reggaeman from Argentina. I liked his style and he had a few entertaining songs.

Ozomatli, a band from LA, is a multicultiral hodgepodge. They played myriad styles, from rap en espanol, early 90s R&B (they covered Color Me Badd), heavy metal, James Brown-funk, ska, reggae, pop, cumbia and even merengue. One of the singers showed off something from their recent tour of China and Mongolia, throat singing through a couple of numbers. One catchy song had this refrain, "Oye baby, oye mami, donde esta el afterparty?" The only song Ozo didn't play that I wanted to hear was their composition "Gay Vatos in Love." At the finale, like at all Ozo concerts, they came down from the stage and into the crowd, playing drums and horns and gathering everyone around them to chant. Then they paraded around the venue, bringing the crowd with them.

Latin Alternative Music Conference- Day 2

2010-07-13T09:44:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of my attendance at the Latin Alternative Music Conference began with a panel on cloud streaming and the future of digital music. I'm not going to lie; it was kind of boring, maybe because I still listen to albums on CD and vinyl. I still prefer to go to a physical location, thumb through bins, come across a group I've never heard of or vaguely am aware of, and buy a few records. That's not to say that I don't buy CDs on Amazon or download an MP3 of a catchy tune by itself if I don't feel like purchasing the whole album, but there is nothing like the hit or miss of browsing- I've come across some of my favorite music this way.

Anyway, onwards and upwards, after a quick lunch at Grand Central station, I returned for the afternoon's panel on festivals and converts. This panel was more up my alley, since I help plan events with the Latin American Coalition in Charlotte. Included in this panel where Todd Patrick, who organizes concerts in Brooklyn and recently was featured in the NY Times for a rock festival he put on in Monterrey, Mexico. Also present were Andy Wood, who puts on the La Linea Festival in London, Laura Quinlan, who organizes the Heineken TransAtlantic Festival in Miami, and Erika Elliot, who choses the acts for NYC's Summerstage concert series. Something Mrs. Elliot said struck me as funny; she says she searches the world for up and coming artists and cutting edge acts, yet I've often been struck by how mundane and unoriginal the choice of featured artists at Summerstage has been. I'll give three examples:
1. The R&B and Rap artists featured at Summerstage are usually washed-up singers or over-the-hill rappers; where is the focus on finding young performers?
2. While the Latin musicians featured this week were outstanding performers, I noticed that all of them were from Nacional Records. All of them, except perhaps Ana Tijoux, hail from traditoinal centers of Latin music production, whether it be the Los Angeles metroplex, Mexico, or Spain. How alternative is that? Why, if one is searching the world over, can't you find talented musicians in Cochabamba, Guayaquil, Asuncion or Atlanta?
3. This one Mrs. Elliot said herself: Country music is not featured much at Summerstage. Wow! Now I'm not the biggest fan of contemporary country music, but I appreciate a good country song as much as I would a good South African isicathamiya performance or an Indonesian gamelan composition. She made it seem that the omission of country music was not because of a lack of space but through her bias or disdain for the genre.
But I digress, the panel was entertaining and informative, and afterwards I spoke with Laura from Miami about the possibility of collaborating on bring artists through Charlotte when they play in Miami.

After the panel, I met Daliz and we headed downtown for a quick bite to eat before the first concert of the night. At Le Poisson Rouge, I listened to an acoustic set where 10 different bands each played 2 songs. They were short sets to say the least, but the groups made the most of it, giving energetic performances. In particular, I enjoyed hearing The Pinkertones and other groups that rely heavily on electronics and technology show a different side. While other artists demonstrated how comfortable they are in a coffeeshop/lounge setting playing laid back gems and wooing the crowd. For singer-songwriter Alex Cuba, for example, the night show was just a continuation of an impromptu afternoon set where he played his guitar in the hotel lobby in front of gathered friends. While there were a few complaints from the crowd towards the end, I thought the sound man did a wonderful job changing out the bands in record time and getting almost all the equipment to work properly (There were more changeovers in 2 hours than in an all day festival). The barrage of music kept coming, and I barely had time to process one band in my head before another one took the stage. The sampler ended with Moderrato, a cheesy retro glam band playing, giving me a taste of what would come in their set later that night. Here are some photos, I apologize for the band's I don't label, help me out if you recognize them:

Locos Por Juana

Alex Cuba

Los Pinkertones

Moderrato

After the acoustic show, I headed over to the Bowery Ballroom where another concert was taking place. This was decidedly not an acoustic set, the instruments were electrified, mics turned up, and the floor was open, no lounging here.

The first group I saw featured a member of the Cuban group Orishas, Youtel, who now fronts his own rock band playing a heavy powerful style which mixes in congas and horns.

Next I listened as La Bien Quierida sang a gentler, pop style from Spain. The lead singer, Ana Fernandez-Villaverde has an intriguing voice and a few dedicated fans crowded the stage.

Isa GT, where do I begin with Isa GT. She plays an electronic funk that seems straight off the streets of Medellin and London, she dances around the stage with trememdous energy, but I was most fasciniated by her kick-ass Virgin Mary t-shirt. When she finished I wasn't sure if I liked or was intimidated by her music, but she definitely brings a stage presence.

For a few songs, an Argentine rapper crashed the stage. She had a gimmick, a rat-a-tat refain that she kept repeating, but I forgot her name.

Camilo Lara is Mexican Institute of Sound. He brought an electronic dance style to the stage with much enthusiasm. Everybody loved it and started dancing, the highlight of the night.

Moderrato- for some reason I love these guys, which everybody has already started to make fun of me for, but whatever. Apparently they started off in the late 90s playing covers of 80s hair bands for fun, and it turned into something more serious. But at 2 o'clock at the morning, I think it's sometimes better to rock some old covers rather than posture as a serious rock band. Besides the bass player had a machine gun bass and the drummer makes Ben Stiller model faces and wears make-up. What!

Latin Alternative Music Conference- Day 1

2010-07-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

I traveled to NYC this past week to visit Daliz, but also to attend the annual Latin Alternative Music Conference. I'm not one of those people who is quick enough on my blogging toes to write live from an event, so I've decided instead to give a day-by-day account, just after the fact. So pretend like it's last Wednesday and we'll start from there.

I started the day wondering just what "Latin Alternative" music means and hoping that with my $99 registration fee I was at least going to get something useful out of this conference. I juggled the conference and the world cup by watching the Spain-Germany match in the hotel bar and going upstairs at halftime to sign in and get my gift bag and conference badge. I wandered around and took some photos of the cool custom guitars they had out and then headed over to Central Park Summerstage for the evening's concert.

At the LAMC

Guitars:

It was HOT! On Tuesday the temperature reached 103 degrees (F) and Wednesday wasn't much cooler. Right away I ran into some friends, including a fellow graduate student, Oscar, doing his fieldwork on music as well. We chatted and half-paid attention to the first act, French-Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux, but to be honest she wasn't that impressive. She rapped in Spanish and had a DJ and another MC backing her up, and the only time the crowd got involved was when she played her most recognizable song "1977." This song starts with a sample of James Brown's "It's a Man's World," and the chorus is the title, she repeats "mil novecientos setenta (y siete)" over and over again.

Ana Tijoux

Next up was El Guincho, a musician from Barcelona who was joined on stage by two fellow musicians. He managed a little better, playing a rhythmic pop style. However, I overheard several people say that the live performance did not live up to the quality of his recorded material.

El Guincho

Finally night fell, a respite from the heat, and with it came the sounds of Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich+Fussible. Nortec brought a lot of energy and funk. I had seen them once several years ago as an opening act, but this time they had a greater impact. Two musicians manned computers (Ipads) while another two musicians, one on trumpet/sousaphone and the other on accordion, played along to the beats created on the computers. A video DJ flashed video and photo images on a large screen behing them in sync with the beats. It looked and sounded impressive; unfortunately I was only able to get a good photo of the accordion player.

Next: Day 2 of LAMC- way too much much to process...

Carnaval Carolina 2010- a critique

2010-06-29T17:07:00.000-07:00

On Sunday afternoon, I went to the 13th annual Carnaval Carolina at Metrolina Expo in Charlotte. I wasn't sure what to expect; I'd heard a lot of hype and a lot of negative comments about the event. As I walked into what was a glorified parking lot sweating in the insufferable heat of a hot June day, I took a look around to see what was up.

First off, the sonic dissonance was overwhelming, at least during the moments when music was being played at multiple stages, and blaring out of a DJ booth in a sponsor's tent. This is one thing I've noticed at a few festivals lately, you are trying to listen to one band and the sound's a bit off, then you realize it's because there is another band starting to play across the way on another stage. (Note to festival organizers, if you are going to have multiple stages, point them away from each other or put some sort of sound barrier between them!)

As I walked around, it appeared everyone was having fun, families taking their kids to ride amusement park-type rides, teenagers watching the stunt bicyclists do tricks off of ramps and checking each other out, and everybody passing by the main stage(s) to listen to music.

Monster Energy Drink biker doing a stunt-

One group that wasn't happy, it appeared, were the bands. The main stage was set up with two stages side by side, so that, ostensibly, while one band was performing, the sound guys could change out the other stage and prepare for the next performance. So when Rey Norteno, for example, started playing on the left hand stage, the right side was abuzz with activity. However, the musicians were not pleased when, two songs into their set, the radio DJs rudely cut them off and started talking to the audience. I could tell from my spot next to the stage that the lead singer was pissed, and the band kept playing, until the organizer cut their mics. As someone told me after the event, the first song was spent trying to get the sound right, and just when musicians were getting into a groove in the second song, they were cut off. But the two stage thing wasn't that effective, 10 minutes was not enough time to switch over and there still ended up being a lot of dead time between acts.

Rey Norteno performs briefly-

And for one changeover I witnessed, the switch was not from band to band, but from band to a string of celebrity appearances and proclamations from government officials and sponsors. I was treated to a 30 minute performance by La Chilindrina. If you don't know who that is, she is an adult who dresses up like a child, with pigtails and nerd glasses, and talks in an annoying high-pitched voice on a daytime television show. Her "jokes" weren't funny, and after a few minutes the whole act seemed a little insulting to the audience's intelligence. Not very many people were laughing, even those who could hear the poor sound quality coming from her faulty wireless microphone. By the end, the audience, and especially the young men in the area near me, started calling for MUSIC!

But the organizer decided one celebrity should be topped by another. Carmen Salinas, a telenovela star and singer, came to the stage. Proclamations by city and state officials followed. They let so many media on stage that the cameras surrounded the diminuitive actress, and the crowd couldn't see her to take pictures. So folks started throwing water bottles at the cameramen and shouting for them to get down. Finally Senora Salinas took the mic, told the cameramen to get out of the way and then turned around to tell the politicians they should take heed not to pass a law similar to Arizona's harsh immigration policy in North Carolina and moreover, that they should get rid of the 287(g) program. This lady had spunk!

Carmen Salinas on stage-

I listened to a few more bands, including one called Voluntad Musical that had a lead singer with a pot belly who was tearing it up like James Brown. But finally the heat was too much for me, and I decided to head out.

Voluntad Musical-

Some other observations:

1. Unlike years past, this year the carnaval did feature port-o-johns. Which was lucky, because I did have to pee at one point.

2. I found it a bit tacky that the organizer of the event, Alez Ruiz, performed a set (of many more that 2 songs) with his band. His excuse that he was hoarse (from annoucing celebrities) was a laughable explanation for his lackluster singing performance.

Alex Ruiz performs:

3. I heard through the grapevine that, on a 95 degree day, Mr. Ruiz did not provide any of the performers with water or refreshments.

4. For $10 entry and $10 parking, I'm not sure how much of a good deal this carnaval was, especially since it's in the middle of nowhere.

5. What's the newest thing in cowboy boots? I saw a few guys walking around with these on:

6. Quite a few people showed up, but it is false advertising to claim that this is "la fiesta mas grande de los Estados Unidos." Umm, No.

A view of the crowd-

7. Here are a few of the bands that performed:

Salazar Band-

La Autoridad de la Sierra-

I didn't catch the names of the following groups; if you recognize someone, let me know.

Tito Puente Jr. with Charlotte Symphony

2010-06-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

On Saturday evening, I attended a concert with Tito Puente Jr. and the Charlotte Symphony. Puente Jr. played some of his father's classic compositions and a lesser-known piece he wrote near the end of his life for the Orquesta Sinfonica de Puerto Rico. Two local bands I have been following, Ultimanota and Orquesta Mayor, opened up the show at Symphony Park. It was a hot and muggy night, but that didn't stop people from dancing and having fun. Here are some photos.

Isaac warms up on Orquesta Mayor's upright electric bass.

Tony tries to keep cool-

Ultimanota on stage-

A group photo backstage-

Helder of Orquesta Mayor warming up.

Orquesta Mayor's vocalists-

Orquesta Mayor backstage-

Tito Jr. takes the stage:

Like father, like son (facial expressions)-

Dancers in front of the stage-

Virginia Beach Latin Music Festival

2010-06-16T17:29:00.000-07:00

The Hardee's Latin Festival in Virginia Beach is two afternoons and evenings of music by the water. Which by itself is a reason to go, but I went as part of my research, traveling with the band Ultimanota by car 6 hours north from Charlotte. One of the goals of my study (or at least this is what I wrote in my grant proposals) was to document the "going on tour" experience. So far, I hadn't had an opportunity to travel with bands, but I hitched a ride last weekend.

Attending the festival was important because several bands from Charlotte were booked to play there. In fact, for a few hours on Saturday, the hotel where we stayed took on a reunion atmosphere as band members from Banda Tecno Caliente, Leydy Bonilla & Bachata Flow, and Soul Brasil all passed through. The other (non-Charlotte) groups included Locos por Juana and Mala Fe. The crowd was impressive, especially at night, with a lot of Puerto Ricans, some Mexicans, some Brazilians, and a diverse mix of everybody else.

In the end, we returned exhausted but with plenty of stories, some of which I can share here:

1. You can learn a lot about musicians' influences by spending hours in a car listening to each others ipods and debating who has the better song selection.

2. A good way to save money on such a trip is to find an all-you-can-eat BBQ place for lunch, fill up, and skip dinner.

3. A Brazilian group is good, but having professional samba dancers go into the crowd is the best way to get people dancing.

4. Reinaldo from Soul Brasil was supposed to play a couple of songs with Ultimanota, but just before the set, he reached into his bag, cut his finger on a razor, and started bleeding profusely. Good thing another musician from his band was talented enough to step in his place.

5. Four passengers giving directions at the same time is not always helpful, but GPS on a phone is.

Here are some photos of the weekend.

Leaving Charlotte-

Arriving at the hotel-

The infamous Beatles shot-

Latin Jazz Conspiracy performs on Friday evening-

Local 34 plays-

Locos por Juana performs (everything's cooler when you wear a captain's jacket)-

The crowd at night-

Banda Tecno Caliente plays on Saturday afternoon-

Soul Brasil on stage-

Movimento de Samba's dancers get the crowd on its feet-

Ultimanota takes their turn-

After the show, the guys were joking around. "You're shittin' me," Oscar exclaimed.

Baby, I want my money...

Ultimanota and me in front of the boardwalk-

Leydy Bonilla & Bachata Flow got everybody dancing with their high energy flavor-

Azucar!: a Caribbean Celebration

2010-06-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

On Friday, another event that I helped organize for the Latin American Coalition was held at the Neighborhood Theatre in Charlotte. This time it was called "Azucar!" which means sugar in Spanish, but the phrase means more than that. The late great Celia Cruz would call out Azucar! and it became her catch-phrase. But it also signifies the excitement of Caribbean music, the driving rhythms of salsa, the powerful harmonies of a bolero, the tingle of goose bumps on your neck when you hear a sad bachata, or the pulse of feet stamping to a merengue. Originally the show was conceived as a Cuban show, but then we decided to make it about the entire Spanish-speaking Caribbean, to highlight the common threads between the islands but also to showcase the region's diversity of music and dance.

The show was broken up into three parts, the first featuring music and dance from Cuba- son montuno, cha-cha-cha, mambo, then moving east to the Dominican Republic- merengue, bachata, and reggaeton, and ending up with Puerto Rico- bomba y plena and salsa. Each section had bands playing live music and dancers performing to recorded tracks.

The theater was packed, the crowd energetic, and people didn't stop dancing until close to midnight. There was even an after party.

Here are some pictures.

Havana Social Club giving dance lessons

Cubanos-

Dancing-

Orquesta Mayor plays some Cuban son-

D.S. rapped some reggaeton-

and got down and dirty...

Bachata Flow played some bachata and merengue-

And then backed up Leydy Bonilla on a few songs...

Charlotte Salsa danced-

And Orquesta Mayor closed out the show.

Ahora te puedes marchar

2010-05-18T08:33:00.001-07:00

Earlier, I said I would post about a song I heard at the Fanta Festival. Here goes:

While I was standing backstage during the festival, listening to the bands, I heard a melody that was very familiar. A local band, Los Mentorosos, was playing and as the song progressed I started to sing along in English.

The melody I recognized was from Dusty Springfield's "I only want to be with you."

Which, as it turns out, was covered by the king of Latin cheesy-ness, Luis Miguel as "Ahora te puedes marchar."

And reinterpreted by Hootie and the Blowfish with melodic and lyrical influences from Bob Dylan's "Tangled up in Blue"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln6WQqRDrCo
(embedding disabled)

So Los Mentirosos are keeping this song alive, covering it while putting their own creative stamp on it. Check out their myspace page for the song, the video isn't out yet.

http://www.myspace.com/losmentirososoficial

Cinco de Mayo at Zapata's

2010-05-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

Even though I'm taking a break from Charlotte for a few weeks, that doesn't mean the blog posts have to stop. Last Wednesday, I went to see Ultimanota perform at a local "Mexican" restaurant, Zapata's (by which I mean their food approximates what gringos might call Mexiican food). Despite the shoddy food, the night was warm, the place was crowded, and people even got up to dance (although most of the dancers were my co-workers from the Latin American Coalition).
Here are some photos:

The band starts playing-

Even the younger set are fans-

Later on-

Ailen and Luki, Carlos dancing...

Sunbeams and tropical rhythms-

Dancing-

Cinco de Mayo Fanta Festival

2010-05-06T10:29:00.001-07:00

This past Sunday, the Latin American Coalition and Coca-Cola put on the third annual Fanta Festival in Charlotte. Celebrating Cinco de Mayo, an estimated 25,000+ people listened to bands playing banda, norteno, cumbia, and other regional Mexican styles with even a little bachata and merengue mixed in. They also enjoyed a cultural stage, featuring folkloric dancing and mariachis, food and craft vendors, a kid's zone, and sponsors' tents.

Besides the Latin American Festival, this was perhaps the most important part of my field study so far. Since January, I have been helping Tony at the Latin American Coalition organize the event. We fretted over logistics like how to set up the tents on the festival field, getting parking for the festival attendees, and dealing with the Department of Health's food inspection rules. We debated who would be the best musical acts to book and then tried to convince them to play for cheap in Charlotte on one of the most popular weekends for Mexican music festivals. I organized the non-profit and small business sponsor part of the festival, gathering names and then harassing them until every last one had paid. This festival is, after all, a fundraiser for the Coalition, and one of the main ways they raise funds to keep their operations running to provide services for the Latino community in Charlotte. And in the last few days before the festival, we worked our tails off preparing and hoped it wouldn't rain, checking the weather forecasts every twenty minutes.

Finally, the day of the festival arrived; at the crack of dawn I was at the park, making sure things ran as smoothly as possible. There was a minor disaster when a truck with a trailer, delivering a NASCAR car, got stuck going up a steep hill near the back entrance to the festival. This cut off incoming traffic to one of the entrances for over an hour until we were able to get the truck out of the way. Then, the opening band showed up late, forcing the stage manager (me) to switch bands around so we wouldn't fall too far behind schedule. But we rolled with the punches, and things kept moving, lots of people came out on a scorching hot day in May, and we experienced no more major problems.

At the end, I was exhausted and a little startled to realize how much work I put into something that lasted just a few hours and went by in a blur. But it was worth it to get a behind-the-scenes look at how a music festival works and to really participate in making it happen.

Here are some photos of the Fanta Festival with commentary:

Tony says lets get this party started!

The stage pre-festival-

The Coca-Cola World Cup logo (or, will Mexico's selection survive the first round?)

Sidebar: I sent my brother to a similar festival in Atlanta the same day and he remarked about how corporate it seemed. I will include a section in my dissertation about corporate sponsorship, festivals, and music. A neccesary evil? Selling out? The true definition of popular music? Worshipping at the money tree? Irrelevant?

The first band that played, Banda Pachuco, hails from Los Angeles. Que viva el Zoot Suit!

Bachata Flow was supposed to open the festival, but they showed up late, so they went on second. The musicians also played back up for another local group, Sexo, Sudor y Risa later in the day.

One of the celebrity appearances was by Ana Maria Canseco of Univision's "Despierta America." Everybody wanted to have their picture taken with her, including one of the backstage volunteers.

My favorite group of the day was Los Mentirosos. Upcoming blog entry, an exposition of how Dusty Springfield's " I will follow you" became Luis Miguel's "Ahora te puedes marchar," which Los Mentirosos cover in a banda duranguense style.

This drum is money, son!

Here's looking at you, kid.

A picture with the band.

The next group was Salazar Band.

The Carolina Panthers brought their mascot and a cheerleader to the festival.

By the late afternoon, the crowd had grown quite large. Imagine driving a golf cart with a failing engine and loaded with bags of ice through the crowd. I did it three times, but I had to get several volunteers to walk in front of me and clear a path to get to the other side of the field.

Ruben led the audience in a call for comprehensive immigration reform.

Banda Tecno Caliente really got the crowd moving. Leydy Bonilla joined them for a song, a key moment of the show that I missed. I think I was taking a food break.

The Latin American Coalition staff went onstage to ask for donations.

Aliados de la Sierra closed out the festival.

Arizona Goddam

2010-04-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

During the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Nina Simone wrote a song entitled "Mississippi Goddam" that listed southern states whose racism and violence had riled up the high priestess-

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Simone described the situation on the ground-

Hound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat cross my path
I think every day's gonna be my last

Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don't belong here
I don't belong there
I've even stopped believing in prayer

But her "show tune" wasn't just a rip on the most egregious bigots, but an indictment of moderates as well-

Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie

Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You're all gonna die and die like flies
I don't trust you any more
You keep on saying "Go slow!"
"Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Desegregation
"do it slow"
Mass participation
"do it slow"
Reunification
"do it slow"
Do things gradually
"do it slow"
But bring more tragedy
"do it slow"
Why don't you see it
Why don't you feel it
I don't know
I don't know

Until finally, Simone makes a simple demand-

You don't have to live next to me
Just give me my equality

I was reminded of "Mississippi Goddam" this week as the news was replete with reports of the new immigration law passed and signed in Arizona. And while "Mississippi Goddamn" was not Nina's best song, or even her best take on civil rights and racism (see "I hold no grudge," "Go Limp," "Brown Baby," or "To be young, gifted, and black."), the song provides an interesting polemic through which to see the present flare-up over immigration policy.

First, some background. The contemporary immigration era began with the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which replaced strict quotas on all non-European immigrants with a policy that allowed greater numbers of immigrants from Africa, Asia, and Latin America to legally immigrate to the US. The 1965 law paralleled other reforms, on civil rights, voting rights, housing, resulting from the pressure placed on the federal government by the Civil Rights movement to supersede state laws in many southern states officially sanctioning racist behavior and discrimination. The next significant law, the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, provided a carrot and stick approach to immigration policy. Offering amnesty to undocumented residents of the US, it also laid out a policy of strict enforcement that had been bubbling up since the Nixon Administration. IRCA sped up the process of militarization along the US-Mexico border (described in Timothy Dunn's book of the same name), and set the legal stage for the deportation of large numbers of Latinos during the Los Angeles riots of 1992. The next legal step, the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, came in the midst of the debate over welfare reform and the clamor over California's Proposition 187 (hence the "immigrant responsibility" part). IIRIRA beefed up the border security trend, while further criminalizing the act of immigrating to the US without proper papers. It also included a now infamous section, 287(g), which authorized local police to be trained in immigration law enforcement. Since 1996, except for parts of the PATROIT Act, no new federal laws have been passed dealing with immigration policy. Not for trying, for in 2006-7 Congress attempted to but did not pass any of several proposed laws.

Which brings me to Arizona- or rather Arizona is the tip of an iceberg of a growing trend, beginning perhaps with Proposition 187 in California (1994), where states pass laws that address immigration by denying immigrants access to driver's licenses, social services, etc. Many commentators have remarked that states are merely legislating policies in the absence of federal leadership. Obviously, this is true, 14 years is a long time to go without changes in immigration law, especially in the midst of the largest wave of immigration since the "Great Wave" of European immigration from 1880-1920. But the bigger question is what kind of federal immigration law would we see if it occurred- would it provide amnesty and an eased path to citizenship, mirroring some provisions of IRCA? Or would it continue to ratchet up the criminalization of undocumented immigration and harsh enforcement strategies of IRCA and IIRIRA?

What the state laws provide are models, particularly since the bills are often written by the same anti-immigrant groups, of the second option above. In effect, these laws at the state level are attempting to preclude movement toward amnesty, while establishing an already functioning structure of immigration policy to draw from in drafting future federal policy.

Or perhaps no federal immigration law will be passed at all, which could provide an even more frightening result. In the past few days, I've read and viewed the news reports on the Arizona law, and noticed how many compare this moment to the Civil Rights movement, or to 1990s California. I would draw a different historical comparison. Today reminds me of a prior turning point in America, the end of Reconstruction in the South and the beginning of what southerners of the time called "Redemption." In 1876, a federal government weary of the political and armed struggles over the civil rights of freed slaves in the South, effectively abandoned the policies put into effect by Radical Republicans at the end of the Civil War, pulling armed forces out of southern states as part of the Hayes-Tilden compromise determining a highly contested presidential election. While African-American and populist white farmers banded together and attempted to grasp power, ultimately failing in the face of the economic and political power of a new generation of southern elites allied with northern capitalists, by the 1880s, Jim Crow laws enforcing segregation and legitimizing discrimination, racism ,and terror against blacks were passed. The accommodation realized in 1876 precluded any federal legislation that would have mitigated Jim Crow laws, while the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision by the US Supreme Court showed that in the absence of federal Civil Rights law, the state policies of Jim Crow would work just fine, as long as on paper they didn't violate the 13th and 14th amendments to the US Constitution.

So could the Arizona law and others like it be the beginning of another dark period in American history, this time where non-citizens are treated like second-class human beings ? Will immigrants to Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia, and Pennsylvania live in a state of limbo, like Nina sang, not belonging here, not belonging there?

Will the children of immigrants and immigrants who came here as young children, face dismay when the opportunities of America are unavailable to them? Like Sister Sadie, will they be unable to attend college even though they "washed and cleaned [their] ears?"

And what of moderation? In the face of such a future, should we really take a 'go-slow' approach? Is there a moderate way to live in the shadows? To move to the back of the bus? To be killed when teenagers go "beaner-hopping?"

I'm not sure if a way forward to Nina's equality is presently visible; as she says,

This is a show tune
But the show hasn't been written for it, yet

The name of this blog is Arizona Goddam
And I mean every word of it.

Tropic Culture

2010-04-22T10:54:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, Daliz was in town and I took her to see one of the local bands, Tropic Culture, play at the Visulite in Charlotte. Tropic Culture plays a mix of funk, reggae, ska, and rock. The last time I saw them, they played an acoustic set that had more of a coffeehouse folksy feel, but this time they pulled out all the stops, presenting the full band with horns, drums, electric guitar and voices.
Here are some photos from the concert.

The opening acts paired visual and musical artists. Here a spoken word poet from Atlanta collaborates with a painter on stage.

Another painter works during the show.

Tropic Culture took the stage in retro 80s get-ups.

Get on up!

The audience

An audience member on stage dancing samba

The guitarist wearing short shorts

Singing a song

Daliz was entertained

Bolivian Birthday

2010-04-20T18:19:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Ultimanota were hired to play a birthday party for a Bolivian woman. I attended and observed how the band plays when they are performing for a private party rather than at a restaurant or club. The hosts had requested more upbeat fare and the band responded by playing mostly salsa and cumbia. They added a guest drummer to pep up the sound. The atmosphere was much different, with people dancing constantly, singing along to the songs, and enjoying the night out with family and friends.

An emotional moment occurred when, during a break in the music, a video played with the woman's family members giving their birthday wishes from across the globe, Spain, California, Bolivia. Talk about transnational networks!

Here are some photos of the celebration.

The partygoers dance in a circle

The band gets lively

Gettin' Down

A Collaboration with the son.

Setting up the video birthday greetings

The band out back afterwards

Remembering Sean

2010-04-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

April 15, 2008: I can't remember who called me first, my mom or my brother, to tell me the news that local Atlanta blues guitarist Sean Costello had passed away in the night. Found in a hotel in a seedy part of Buckhead in an apparent suicide, dead just before his 29th birthday, his death gave me a shock that still reverbrates two years later.
He was an incredible guitarist, a blues singer just beginning to grow into his voice, a bandleader constantly touring the country playing blues festivals, clubs, and bars, but to me Sean was also just a friend from high school.
I don't have any amazing or funny stories about Sean, but I can say that in the few years that I knew him a few memories stand out. I remember sitting in the back of 10th grade English Lit. class (where we first met) cracking jokes. I remember talking with him about relationships, particularly about his Venezuelan girlfriend that sometimes sat in on my Spanish class. He would pick her up after school in his classic old car from the 60s and they made a beautiful couple. I think a few times we went out dancing with some of her friends to a salsa club. And I remember Sean sitting in the band room (we went to a performing arts magnet school) and practicing guitar riffs, channeling Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, while we sat in awe and tried to pretend like it was no big deal that this 17 year-old white boy had the blues real bad.
After high school, I lost touch with Sean until 5 or 6 years later in New York when I went to see him play at a club. After the first set I went up to say hello and he invited me to hang around afterwards. We talked awhile and promised to stay in touch. I sort of dropped the ball on that one. I saw him perform one more time a few years later, and he had developed in leaps and bounds from earlier. We talked then too, although I was with some friends and they were ready to head home because it was on a weeknight.
I know that my family loved Sean's music too, going to see him play when he performed in Atlanta and buying his albums and those of artists he toured with, such as Susan Tedeschi.
What's interesting about the recordings of Sean's music is that they grow on you. The more I listen, the more I hear little things, in the guitar solos and in the lyrics, that speak to my experience.

For example, the despair and unease of his cover of Otis Rush's "Double Trouble"

"Some of this generation is millionaires
I can't even keep decent clothes to wear."

which I had on repeat all through the fall 2009 financial crisis.

Or the rambling guitar solo on "Feel like I ain't got a home," the perfect accompaniment to an anthropological field study away from home.

And the guttural growls midway through "Can't Let Go" calling out for us to hold on tight to the ones we love.

Sean, you and your music are missed.

If you want to learn more about Sean, here is a website:
http://www.seancostellofund.org/index.html

and some youtube videos:

Rock en Español esta muerto! Viva Rock en Español?

2010-04-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks I've had several people tell me,
"rock en español in Charlotte is dead"
"no one is coming out to shows"
"there are no new exciting bands coming up" etc. etc....

I'm not sure how to respond to these comments. I have a vested interest in seeing a vibrant Latin rock scene here in Charlotte, since it is one of the musical forms that I'm studying and I've met and come to know and like some of the musicians who play rock. And I wasn't around several years ago during the heyday of La Rua and other rock bands, so I can only speculate and rely on what others say about how then compares to now. Did I sneeze and miss the moment?

While rock en tu idioma seemingly fades into the sunset, the political and economic context in Charlotte intensifies. Unemployment reaches 12 percent, budget cuts and closings are announced for schools and libraries, President Obama stops by for a photo-op but doesn't mention immigration reform while memos from Homeland Security outline a policy of increased deportation and detention of undocumented immigrants.

So if that doesn't depress you, here are some pictures of a concert where almost nobody showed up. Dorian Gris played songs from their new cd and New York-based Kofre showed up. The bands rocked, fans had fun, but it wasn't the best night for live music.

Dorian Gris gets into a song

The minuscule fan base

Chilling before the show

Dorian's rehearsal playlist

Kofre dresses for the part

Mexico vs. Iceland Soccer Game

2010-03-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

For weeks leading up to last Wednesday, one question was on everybody's lips, "Are you going to the game?" "Did you get tickets?" On the Spanish-language radio, the DJs talked up the soccer game between the Mexican national team and Iceland. And finally on Wednesday, the day arrived. I won't say it was anticlimactic, because, despite all the hype, and the fact that only the Mexican bench and junior players trying to make the last spots on the World Cup squad showed up, or that the match ended in a 0-0 tie, it was still one of the most exciting sporting events I've ever attended.

Why? Well, first off, outside the stadium before the game, there was an ocean of green jerseys, of fans with their faces painted, of flags and banners showing pride in Mexico and the provinces where people come from, of adults and kids, for many of whom this was their first opportunity to see the Mexican national team play in person. Second, both outside and inside the stadium, this mass of people translated into a wall of sound, with noisemakers, cheers, dancers dressed in Aztec headdresses and beating drums, noise sticks, etc. It was the loudest Panthers Stadium has probably ever been. Third, although Mexico was highly favored to win, Iceland's team made it a close game and held Mexico to a tie. Finally, the folks I went with had tremedous seats, three rows back from the field.

For those of you who don't care for sports (here's looking at you, mom) and might remark that this was just a soccer game, I would tend to agree that it really doesn't change the grand scheme of things, except for one nagging detail. In the Charlotte Observer on Thursday, an article by Scott Fowler described the match. The article is mainly positive, a write up in the typical vein of, "Look at the non-Americans, so crazy for soccer which we think is a boring sport here." But if you look below at the comments, suddenly coverage of the game becomes a stalking horse for the slow destruction of America by immigrants. If it's just a game, then why does it provoke such hatred and vitrol?

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/03/25/1334846/el-tri-sends-mexicos-fans-into.html?pageNum=10&&&&&&&&&&&mi_pluck_action=page_nav#Comments_Container

Maybe it's the symbolism of Mexicans taking over space downtown for one night, disrupting traffic patterns, showing that they (and soccer) deserve a place in Charlotte? Or is it that Mexicans too can engage in mass sports consumerism, having corporate "fun zones" and ads in Spanish on the giant stadium television screen?

Franco Ordonez, a reporter who write a blog on Latino issues for the Charlotte Observer, wrote about the Fowler story and the backlash. Here is his blog entry:

http://obsthisland.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-did-article-about-soccer-turn-in-to.html

And finally here are some pictures of the game:

Fans of "el Tri" gather in front of the stadium-

Ruben passing out stickers for Immigration Reform prior to the game (with Tony):

There were a few Iceland fans in attendence:

Aniel, Tony, me and Isaac, by our seats:

A true fan:

A free kick:

No trip to see Mexican soccer would be complete without a visit to the taco truck afterwards.

Music at Sunday's Immigration March

2010-03-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

When I went to Washington DC this past Sunday, I went to support the cause of immigration reform. I wasn't expecting to see much that directly related to the music part of my research, but in fact I did. There was music everywhere, from a mariachi group to people singing and banging on plastic buckets. Here are some of the groups I encountered:

This group had a small marching band.

After I got tired of all the speakers' pontificating, I walked around and found this mariachi group singing and playing "Cielito Lindo." Everybody within shouting distance joined in. Then they called forth the dancers and performed "La Negra" another traditional folkloric tune.

These merengueros were playing a little perico ripiao in support of immigration reform.

These kids were marching and playing drums.

This guy was playing songs as people marched by.

A group sang Jose Alfredo Jimenez's "El Rey."

Here is a video taken by the Georgia Association of Elected Officials (GALEO) delegation of a drum group, Cakalak Thunder from Greensboro, North Carolina.

Immigration March on Washington DC

2010-03-22T12:04:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I joined a group from North Carolina who participated in a march for comprehensive immigration reform in Washington DC. After a mostly sleepless bus ride, we gathered along with hundreds of other busloads from around the country at RFK Stadium and headed down to the National Mall. It turned into a warm, dusty day with bright sunshine. When the North Carolina Contingent arrived, we were one of the first to gather at the mall. But it quickly began to fill up, with union groups from New York, with student groups from California, with farmworkers from Texas, with a Georgia human rights group. And the people kept filling in, from Florida, New Mexico, Arizona, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Colorado, and even Montana. I'm not a good judge of crowd numbers, but the organizers said around 200,000 people. While stood around and listened to hours and hours of speeches, the crowd would spontaneously burst into chants, "Si Se Puede!, Yes We Can," or "Obama Escucha, Estamos en la Lucha (Listen up Obama, we are fighting)." Then we marched, past the US Capitol building, through the streets of the Capital Heights neighborhood and back to our buses. Then, after a long bus ride, we arrived exhausted in Charlotte at 3am Monday morning. Here are some pictures and commentary:

Our group gathers at RFK Stadium to head to the National Mall-

Charlotte Presente!

This guy is doing the calvary for Immigration Reform, while the guy in front, well he's just the coolest guy at the march-

Various groups march into the National Mall

Notice the Polish flags, it truly was a multicultural march-

The Mall starts to fill up, by 2:30 pm it was so crowded I couldn't get back to where I took this picture.

Some mariachis played Cielito Lindo and people gathered around to sing...

A huge American flag was passed over the crowd-

Bolivians making their voices heard-

One of my favorite signs, simple and to the point

Folk and electronic reprentations of President Obama-

Other great signs:

Some hippie anarchist types (they were "dancing" to Dead Prez, probably fellow Obies)-

This guy was yelling Si Se Puede! at the top of his lungs in front of the Capitol, I hope Congess heard him...

The North Carolina marchers plant thier flag and claim the US Capitol as their own-

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-16T13:44:00.001-07:00

Around Town- Wilkinson Blvd

2010-03-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

The other day I took some photos of one of the most intersting streets in Charlotte, Wilkinson Boulevard. Wilkinson Blvd is the local way out from downtown to the airport, but most people, except the taxis and public bus, take the highway. It's one of those old main drags that has seen better days, but just for that reason retains some of the old character: run-down motels, a Dairy Queen with an Eskimo girl sign (ah, the golden days of racialized stereotypes in advertising), a drive-in BBQ restaurant, an abandoned 1950's-era supermarket, car repair shops, and honky-tonk bars. Where else can you find a public school bus depot next to a strip club?

There's also a Wal-Mart and a newish shopping center that looks out of place, and the airport is enroaching on Wilkinson as they continually expand parking lots. If you take the bus out to the airport, there is a bus driver who is probably the most pleasant person I've even seen driving public transportation, she always says hello to everybody and even wishes you a good day when you get off at your stop. On the bus you'll see down-on-their-luck men carrying garbage bags with their belongings from SRO to shelter, or to an appointment downtown. Contrast this with the banking highrises uptown or the glitzy Lake Norman suburbs and you get a sense of the juxtaposed wealth and poverty of the city.

My Musical Family

2010-03-03T14:22:00.000-08:00

I guess I get my interest in studying, listening and playing music from my family. There are musicians on both sides of my family, as I was reminded this past weekend when I went to visit my dad and younger brothers in Virginia. They live in Ferrum, which is about as country as you can get on the East Coast. It's home to an agricultural school, where my dad teaches and occasionally looks after farm animals.

Nathan playing my uncle Kyle's guitar

Graham taking a turn

My dad messing around on a mandolin with Nathan looking on.

Vos Sabes...Review of Tribute to Los Fabulosos Cadillacs

2010-03-03T14:10:00.000-08:00

This week in one of the local Spanish papers in Charlotte, Mi Gente, Tony Arreaza and I wrote a review of a new tribute album to Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. The album is called Vos Sabes…Como te esperaba, un tributo a Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. For those of you who read Spanish, a copy of the review in in the online edition on page 32:

http://flipflashpages.uniflip.com/2/28973/52228/pub/

Walter Goldschmidt's Blog

2010-02-25T14:36:00.000-08:00

I recently found out about an interesting blog. Walter Goldschmidt is a fellow anthropologist, 96 years young, who writes a blog called Paradigms Regained. He includes passages from his memoirs in progress, which I've only started reading, but already are quite informative.
Check it out:

http://waltergoldschmidt.wordpress.com/

A Night in Rio Revisited

2010-02-24T17:22:00.000-08:00

Here are two videos and a blog entry from Crossroads Charlotte about the Brazilian Carnival event from last Thursday. Enjoy!

http://www.crossroadscharlotte.org/bulletins/

Woody Sez-This Machine Kills Fascists

2010-02-23T18:09:00.000-08:00

Concluding four consecutive days of going to hear live music, on Sunday afternoon I went to see "Woody Sez" a musical about Woody Guthrie. Four actors performed scenes from his life and sung songs that Guthrie and other musicians, such as Leadbelly, wrote or recorded. After the show, the theater hosted a hootenanny in the lobby where several local musicians joined the cast and we all sang folk songs.

Not Latin music, you say. Well, perhaps, but Guthrie was a key figure in the US ballad tradition, recording folk ballads that had survived in rural America and composing his own songs that followed in the centuries-old tradition of orally-transmitted music. For better or worse, popular recordings and radio transformed many of the unique and highly-localized musical styles present in the US at the turn of the century, and Guthrie was present during most of this transition, during which he tapped into and kept alive the older ways of singing and playing. At the same time, Guthrie negotiated the dramatic economic turmoil and political transformations of the 1930s and 1940s, always on the side of the common man, the worker, the unemployed.

And while the Anglo-American ballad tradition mainly died out in the US during the 20th century, in Mexico and the US Southwest, a similar ballad tradition, the corrido, thrived. Corridos, sung in one form or another since the Spanish conquest and deriving from the medieval "romance," chronicled the struggles of the 1910s Mexican Revolution, but, rather than dying out with modernization and urbanization, have continued to document current events in the Mexican popular imagination. Since the 1970s, narcocorridos, or ballads about the drug trade, have detailed the illicit drug trade, the rise and fall of cartels, and government collusion and corruption. Other corridos have told the stories of undocumented immigrants trapped in a 'golden cell' of life in the US, where things don't always turn out like they dreamed. As Elijah Wald documents, in Mexico one can still find balladeers who wander from town to town singing the people's music.

Guthrie represents the sort of on-the-ground knowledge and engagement with a popular consciousness that anthropology should strive for. Who will tell the story of today's unemployed, homeless, uprooted wanderers that continue to grow in number?

http://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/I_Aint_Got_No_Home.htm

Furia Tropical and Bachata Flow

2010-02-23T10:29:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I went to see two more bands I was unfamiliar with: Furia Tropical and Bachata Flow. They both played at a club, The Blvd, which was also new to me.

Furia Tropical plays mostly salsa and cumbia. They might be good, but who knows? I couldn't tell because the sound man had turned up the keyboards so high it overwhelmed the vocals and even the timbale. Note to The Blvd owners- hire a new sound person! Nevertheless, a few people decided to dance.

Bachata Flow plays bachata and merengue, and they are the back-up band for Leydy Bonilla. Plus they bring Washington Heights fashions straight to Charlotte, I felt like I was on 181st Street. And they are not bad as musicians either. Unfortunately, they didn't go on until 1:30 in the morning and by 2:15 I was ready for bed, even though they were still going strong.

Johnny Mortera and Los Blue

2010-02-23T10:05:00.000-08:00

On Friday night, I went to a local club to hear two groups I'd never heard before: Johnny Mortera and Los Blue.

Los Blue is a relatively new band from nearby Winston-Salem and they play instrumental rock. The guitar player really gets into it, at one point he lay down flat on his back while continuing to play a guitar solo (I wasn't able to get a picture).

Johnny Mortera and his band play classic rock songs in Spanish and English. While the band is talented, especially the lead guitarist, Mortera's singing needs some improvement.

In the next to last song, Mortera's connection to regional mexicano came through as he had his band don giant sombreros and led them in a rock rendition of Jose Alfredo Jimenez's "El Rey."

A Night in Rio: Brazilian Carnaval in Charlotte

2010-02-20T15:36:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, the Latin American Coalition put on A Night in Rio: the Brazilian Carnival Experience, an event I've been working on with Tony for the past few months. We weren't sure what to expect, since an event like this had not been tried before in Charlotte. But tons of people showed up, maybe 700 or 800 people. We envisioned the show as a way to bring the gap between the Latino and Brazilian community in Charlotte; also it was a way to showcase some of the great Brazilian immigrant musicians and dancers here. Brazil is sort of like the stepchild of Latin America, there are both similarities and differences in the cultures of Brazil and the rest of Latin America, in language, music, political history, etc. I am debating whether to include Brazilian music as part of an ethnography of the Latin music scene in Charlotte.
Wherever you position yourself in this debate, A Night in Rio showed that Brazilians have arrived in Charlotte BIG TIME!
Here are some pictures of SoulBrazil, Paulo & Ezio, and Movimentos de Samba.

Asheville Trip

2010-02-16T14:48:00.000-08:00

This weekend Daliz and I went to Asheville, North Carolina. As we were walking around downtown after eating a vegetarian meal at the Laughing Seed Cafe, we chanced upon a Mardi Gras/Valentine's Day parade. If you happen to be in Asheville, I highly recommend the chocolate creations at the French Broad Chocolate Lounge, started by an Oberlin alum and his wife (get the liquid truffle!). In Asheville, I found a statue celebrating Appalachian music and dance, which I pondered for its anthropological significance. Also, there is a hamlet called Bat Cave we drove through on our way to Lake Lure/Chimney Rock, nearby towns famous for haunting mist, moonshine, and Christian revivalism. Hence the images here...

Singing My Way

2010-02-11T06:07:00.000-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/world/asia/07karaoke.html?em

If you hold strong opinions about Frank Sinatra or about people singing Sinatra songs, you might want to check out this article.

Ultima Nota at Luna Lounge

2010-02-08T17:31:00.000-08:00

On Saturday night, Ultima Nota, one of the bands I've been following, played at a lounge downtown (Uptown in Charlotte-speak). Here are some photos.

Band Videos-See Below

2010-02-01T12:44:00.000-08:00

Enjoy these videos of some of the local Latino artists performing in Charlotte. Some of the videos are edited music videos, others were recorded live in concert. Let me know what you think about the music and the bands. I'll try to post other videos as I come across them.

Band Videos-Elio Carvajal

2010-02-01T12:40:00.000-08:00

Here's Elio Carvajal, a local mariachi-ranchera singer and his band.

"Las Mujeres"

Band Videos- Banda Techno Caliente

2010-02-01T12:32:00.000-08:00

Here's Banda Techno Caliente. They're heavy on the synthesizer/keyboards.

"Porque me enamore de ti"

"Asi te amo"

Band Videos-Leydy Bonilla

2010-02-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

This is Leydy Bonilla (singing) and her band.

Live at Latin American Festival 2009

Band Videos-Tropic Culture

2010-02-01T12:18:00.000-08:00

Here's another local band, Tropic Culture.

Live at Latin American Festival 2009

Band Videos- Sin Recursos

2010-02-01T12:09:00.000-08:00

Here is another band, Sin Recursos.

"Contra Reloj"

Live at the Latin American Festival 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrxv7cNgVDM

Band Videos- Bakalao Stars

2010-02-01T12:01:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple of videos from another band, Bakalao Stars.

"Pinocho"

"Momentos Kodak"

Band Videos-La Rua

2010-02-01T11:48:00.000-08:00

I thought I might post some youtube videos of some of the local Latino bands playing music in Charlotte. First up, La Rua. These guys have moved on to other projects, but they influenced a lot of the other rock bands singing in Spanish here.

"El Chanchito"

"La Jeva"

A Literary Detour

2010-01-29T17:03:00.001-08:00

By popular request (meaning I got a text from my moms about it), I have decided to write about a non-musical theme. The recent deaths of Howard Zinn and J.D. Salinger created a stir this week. However, I was surprised by how much praise Salinger received, overshadowing a discussion of Zinn's body of work. For example, the New York Times online version had a lead story about Salinger, while Zinn showed up only in the obituaries section. People who did pair them together, as in friends' facebook status updates, did so in a manner that made them seem compatible. I strongly disagree with this assertion.

First, J.D. Salinger.
I was required, like almost everybody in the US, to read "The Catcher in the Rye" for school. I thought it was god-awful. I never understood why a book about a disaffected adolescent from a privledged background who decides to wander around New York City after being expelled from prep school got so much praise. It just never seemed like that great of a book to me, neither the quality of writing nor the narrative impressed me. I think it ranks a distant third or fourth in an outdated genre of books about young (male) protagonists struggling to find a place while fighting the establishment (as they said back then), father figures, each other, and life's daily tragedies (everything's dramatic when you're 15). For example, "The Outsiders," "Lord of the Flies," or 'Great Expectations" fit this mold, but each presents us with some sort of moral issue in comparison to Holden's distant infantilism. These are all books that I think teachers and administrators though it would be good for us kids to read and learn valuable life lessons, while, as Howard Zinn might comment, the more valuable lessons came from the defunding of education and social welfare, the militarism displayed by nuclear posturing and the war on drugs, and the misinterpretations and erasures of significant cultural contributions and historical facts in daily classroom interactions. As my seventh grade social studies teacher once said, the Civil War was not about slavery at all (States Rights!). The commentaries about Salinger almost uniformly compared Catcher to another great American novel, Mark Twain's "Huck Finn," but I think if Huck ran into Holden in the street, he might tell him to stop whining about everybody being phony or wallowing in pity and actually leave the prison of his psyche to do something truly adventurous or heroic, like, say, helping a slave escape down river, or having fun playing adults for the fool.

Second, Howard Zinn. A popular historian in that many people read his work, he wrote history that anyone could understand, and that he eschewed the 'great man' theory of history to talk about ordinary peoples' lives. As someone who has read a lot of history books ( I was a history major in college), Zinn hit the important stuff, but in the interest of making his work accessible often left out some of the nuance and sidebars of US history, for better or worse (you decide). His was an anti-imperialist, anti-racist reading of history that paid attention to class struggles and revealed many of the erasures wrought by attempts to present a teleology of American world supremacy. Zinn, much like Studs Terkel, believed in giving ordinary people a voice and inviting them to participate by telling their own stories.

But perhaps most telling is Zinn's public life; he decided to actively participate in the struggles of his time, while Salinger turned inwards. While Zinn's life remains an open book, we may never know why Salinger became a recluse, perhaps this is why people obsess. I continue to be unimpressed.

Bass in your Face

2010-01-26T18:28:00.000-08:00

Thought this was a cool shot. Remember, you can never have too much bass.

Ultima Nota

2010-01-26T17:22:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, I went to go see a band, Ultima Nota, play at a Cuban restaurant in suburban Charlotte. Ultima Nota plays a mix of rock, bossa nova, boleros, and other Latin styles, covering popular songs in both English and Spanish. Or what could be called cheesy, dinner/lounge music. While it might seem like sort of a drag, the music actually sounds interesting, because they tend to change the songs up and make them their own.

What draws my attention is how gracefully they blend what might seem like disparate musical styles, playing North American pop songs like Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" with Latin American hits like Juan Luis Guerra's "Burbujas de Amor." A salsa classic follows an American pop ballad, a rock en espanol cover comes after their interpretation of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff." But what I find out when I talk and hang out with musicians is that these are the songs they grew up with. These songs are becoming "standards" in the sense of jazz standards because everyone knows them and the songs' structures lead to easy reinterpretation. Although you may never hear these songs played back to back on the radio or pandora, here they coexist easily.

Southern Folklife Collection

2010-01-26T17:15:00.000-08:00

http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/sfc1/

For anyone interested in southern music, particularly if you want to hear some of the early stuff, I recommend taking a look at this site, the Southern Folklife Collection homepage. Even if you can't make it to the actual library, they have five "SFC Radio" streams where you can listen to music from the collections on your computer.

Participatory vs. Presentational

2010-01-21T09:47:00.000-08:00

Take a look at these three photographs. They were taken in order (top to bottom) within the same performance by a local Charlotte band that plays mainly covers of rock songs in Spanish (and sometimes English). In the first photo, the musicians are on stage, clearly demarcated by a physical space separating them from the audience, and as you might be able to tell, the focus is on them because everyone is looking their way. In the second photo, after playing a few songs, the lead singer has moved out into the crowd, breaching the space between musician and audience. He joins the crowd in singing along to a song everybody knows the words to. Although I wasn't quick enough to capture it on film, the lead singer even points the microphone at several audience members and lets them sing the lyrics. The audience's attention is still focused on the band, but also inward to the space in front of stage. In the third photo, I would argue that the audience's attention (and mine) is no longer focused on stage, but rather to the mass of (male) bodies dancing in a circle that has opened up in front of the stage. The musicians are accompanying the dancers who have become the center of attention. Bumping into each other, roughhousing, moshing, scrumming, whatever you want to call it, the dancers are at play; although it may look haphazard, there is a certain choreography so that no one gets hurt in what at first glance appears to be a violent style of dancing. Those on the outside of the circle are glued in to the dancing as well, whether they are looking for an opportunity to jump in, tensing their arms to protect themselves from an errant body blow, or trying to protect their girlfriends, drinks, or cameras from the melee.

Charles Keil and Thomas Turino, both ethnomusicologists, have defined different types of live musical performance into two large categories- participatory performance and presentational performance. Participatory Performance refers to when "there are no artist-audience distinctions, only participants and potential participants performing different roles, and the primary goal is to involve the maximum number of people in some performance role." Presentational Performance refers to "situations where one group of people, the artists, prepare and provide the music for another group, the audience, who do not participate in making the music or dancing (Turino 2008)." I think we can see some of the back and forth between these two types of performance here. But I'm not sure exactly what it means yet. What do you think?

Rockin' Out

2010-01-16T10:34:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to a rock concert to see some bands.

Immigration Reform

2010-01-16T10:07:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, I went to a meeting/rally for comprehensive immigration reform. It was held at St.Paul's Church in Charlotte. The chapel in which the meeting was supposed to be held could not hold the number of people that showed up, so we had to move next door to a bigger building. Now that's turnout! Despite some funny translation moments, the meeting proved exciting, nothing like over 2000 people chanting "SI SE PUEDE!" to rally forces.

Check out the website: http://reformimmigrationforamerica.org/blog/
Join up and tell all your friends. Also, if you hear your backwards friends saying ignorant things about immigrants, call them on their shit. It's time we stopped policies that unjustly target working-class immigrants and violate people's human and civil rights. If you need proof just read the recent articles about deaths in immigrant detention centers, or if you read Spanish, check out your local Spanish paper.
Unfortunately the positive vibe of this night was kinda spoiled when I got home and heard the news about the earthquake in Haiti. But one positive sliver of news about Haiti comes from President Obama's decision to grant Haitian immigrants Temporary Protective Status.

The downside of a field study

2010-01-16T09:41:00.000-08:00

The big downside to doing a field study and being away from home is being far away from the people you love. It might seem like fun going out to concerts and living it up in the Queen City (really that's what Charlotte is called, and this is NASCAR country), but it's hard work doing research and doing the long distance thing at the same time. I'd be remiss, then if I didn't tell about you about my long-time dance partner and love interest (and now wife) Daliz. Here we are in Paris dancing at the National Archives Museum (yes, for all you anthropologists out there, the archives! this is about as close as I get to studying the archives). As James Brown said, " I got ants in my pants and I NEED TO DANCE!"

Dia de los Muertos/ Day of the Dead

2010-01-16T09:23:00.000-08:00

I also helped the Latin American Coalition organize a Dia de los Muertos event at the Levine Museum of the New South. It had dancing, altars, calaveras (both the sugar skulls and the poems/ lithographs, art and crafts vendors. And lots of good food, including a taco truck, champurrada, pan de muertos... there's no video so you'll just have to imagine. I was exhausted because I went to a concert the night before which lasted an extra hour because of daylight saving time.

Latin American Festival

2010-01-16T09:12:00.000-08:00

Here is a video recap of the Latin American Festival.

Latin music in Charlotte

2010-01-16T08:59:00.000-08:00

Since September, I've been in Charlotte. Here are some of the things that have happened.
For a while I volunteered at the Latin American Coalition helping Tony Arreaza out together their annual Latin American Festival. The festival had lots of great music, some local bands- Orquesta Mayor, Sin Recursos, Tropic Culture, Leydy Bonilla, Elio Carvajal- and some artists from elsewhere- Jorge Villamizar (from Bacilos) and Grupo Fantasma.
Here's Tony and I hanging out at the beginning of the day.

Liftoff!

2009-12-11T19:33:00.000-08:00

So I was recently at another boring academic conference giving a paper and, lo and behold, no one showed up to hear the panel I was part of. Well, about five people were sitting in the audience, but I realized that there must be more people in the world, probably not anthropologists, who would be interested in hearing a little bit about what's going on in the world of music, particularly some Latino musicians who play in Charlotte, North Carolina- who are some pretty interesting people, although you wouldn't know it from the reception my paper got.
So I'm starting this blog, If I can get more than five people to view it, then I know it will be a success. That's what social scientists like to call measurable (quantitative) results. Then, I won't have to rely on academic conferences to feel inadequate and disappointed. In fact, you out there in the blogosphere can do that for me, or stroke my ego and help me pretend like I know what I'm talking about.

Sidebar: Despite any impression you may have so far, this is not an anti-intellectual or anti-academic blog. If you stay with me, this rant is just a segue into something more interesting...

So to explain the blog- I am doing a field study, which, for the uninitiated, is something that we anthropologists do to try to get a degree. It's a form of self-inflicted torture that turns some of us on and then we do it for the rest of our lives while other anthropologists hide in the archives and end up being glorified historians. To make my field study more palatable, I decided to concentrate on my real first love, music, and found that it jibed well with my other interested, namely studying immigration and the US South.

Sidebar: see I'm from the South (Athens, GA) but went to high school in Atlanta (which would be the South except everybody who lives there is a Yankee, or from South Carolina), college in Ohio (where part of my family is from) then the last decade or so in New York City. Does this make me a "Native Anthropologist?"

I invite anyone who shares my interests, or has a comment on them, or just likes the music and other stuff I will be posting on this blog to join the discussion. I'm looking for audience participation here people!

Peace, Sam