I Went To See A Band...

[Ries]

Thursday - there is a weird club in Palermo called CasaClub- ClubHouse- a private club, for "mingling".
Not the kind of place I would be a member of.
But they occasionally do music, and this was a night for that. You had to know it was happening, and buzz to get in, but Paula Garcia / Sobrenadar was playing on the patio by the swimming pool.
It was a very hot night, and her music was perfect.
Washes of sound, ethereal vocals, moody trance.
Just 20 or so people sitting around the pool.

here she is last year- she sounded a lot like this.
https://youtu.be/5CbMdftvHkg

 

[Ries]

Friday night was the final night of Villa Diamante's cycle of concerts at the terraza of CC Recoleta.
Free, with children, jubilados, and hipsters sitting on the picnic tables, or the plaza, drinking artesanal beer or eating pulled pork sandwiches from the food truck.
This was a more hip hop oriented night, but eclectic hip hop.
They basically did a sound check which morphed into a DJ set by Pato Smink, which then turned into various artists coming up, alone and together, for several hours.
By 830, a few hundred people were dancing.
Trumpet player Fermin Etxeveste was doing his best ambient Miles Davis, mostly with a mute.
Sof Tot, a female rapper and singer, mixed it up.
Cehache Respira, another rapper, did a set.
A very feisty Kris Alaniz rapped, and then brought on a 7 year old girl to rap along with her.
Villa DJ'ed, Pato played handsonic.

 

[Ries]

sof tot, acoustic.
https://youtu.be/zU9e-mmY704
of course, in this day and age, a woman like this, living in Patagonia, is also completely fluent in rap, cumbia, classical, jazz, and rock.

and here she is with Cehache Respira.
https://youtu.be/4-oebKQoreI

 

[Ries]

Yesterday was my last Tuesday at La Grande, for this trip. I am heading back up to the US this week, not without some trepidation.
La Grande began with the "house" band- the standard 8 musicians who have been playing here once a week for about 4 years now, most of whom who played together for years before that. Cello, Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, two horns, two drummers.
Tonight they were mostly taking songs by the leader, Santiago Vazquez, many from his album Raamon.
Songs like this- Mini-Bop.
https://youtu.be/0nx_7lfFgZY?list=PLodDnpR2BIylSZmlB91vG0bBM4D6dgMJo
But they deconstructed the songs, adding and subtracting, soloing and changing pacing and structures. Returning, occasionally, to familiar riffs.

This band reminds me of other bands, not so much in that they sound alike, but in that they are similarly constructed and working with jazz, and improvising, but adding other elements. In this case, caribbean sounds, brazilian rhythms, cumbia, and tango.
There are echos of the New York Loft Jazz scene of the 70s, of the jazz funk fusion of bands like Defunct, of the big band era of Frank Zappa in the 70s, of fake jazz like the Lounge Lizards.
Some of that is the power of two trombones, and two drummers.
Most of these guys studied composition for years, several have advanced degrees in it.
All have played as session musicians and sidemen with every style of band.
Most have led bands of their own.
They have an easy mastery of the music, but also long familiarity with each other.
And, over it all, Vazquez is a conductor.
Using his own sign language of ritmo, which he has written a book on, and frequently teaches workshops in worldwide, he directs the band succinctly and directly- they are working within the framework of a song, and improvising, but also playing exactly what he tells them to, live.
He does this while playing drums himself, and, sometimes singing, as well.
The other drummer in the band is well known and a brilliant drummer himself, but here, he often functions more as the rhythm drummer, keeping the beat, soloing now and then, while Vazquez leads the band with his drumming, simultaneously leading the band with hand signals, sometimes with one drumstick in his mouth, and then, out of nowhere, will actually DRUM, himself.
He is an amazing drummer- some great drummers are all power and fury, creating clouds of atomized sweat around them, all glistening muscles- Vazquez is sneaky and not showy- but when he attacks, its effortless, it seems like he is hardly working- but its powerful and potent. It seems to come out of nowhere, and kick everything up a notch.

 

[Ries]

I am still in the chilly Pacific Northwest- temperatures in the 30s farenheit- you know, 3 to 5 degrees.
But soon, in a couple of weeks, I will be back in Buenos Aires for the summer, going to see all the live music I can find and stay up for.

So I am starting to watch who is playing where.

Thursday, if I was in BsAs, I would be heading down to visit my homies at Mercurio, in Patio del Liceo on Santa Fe.
For the annual noches de la disquerias, they will be hosting a half dozen live and mostly acoustic acts, in the patio. Free, of course.
CDs of the bands will no doubt be available, and there is reasonably priced beer and snacks from the little bar in the patio.
Plus another dozen or so galleries, shops, and artist studios will be open.
https://www.facebook.com/MercurioDisqueria/

 

[Ries]

The first night we are in Buenos Aires this year, we took the bus over to Centro Cultural Recoleta. One of the ways Argentina differs from the US is the concept of the Centro Cultural, of which there are many, with varying degrees of government support. It has constant visual art shows, film presentations, performances, classes, and events. All free, of course. And, especially in the summer, outdoor concerts. Villa Diamante, an incredible local musician, DJ, and scenemaker, has been curating a series this year called Pachamama Cosmica, on Thursday evenings.
Tonight featured a DJ set by Barda, and then a performance by a collaborative group called Ensamble Folklórico Digital including members of Bienvenidos A La Computadora, Alejandro Lauphan, Rumbo Tumba, San Ignacio, Cehache Respira y Villa Diamante.
We arrived early, to find the main terraza, a beautiful terrace overlooking the park, is not accessible due to construction, but instead we go to the patio de Aljibe, which is a smaller courtyard in the complex.
We saw many of our friends, and had a chance to talk before the set began, with Barda and Gus, her frequent collaborator. She is one of the many musicians these days who are called “DJ's” but in reality are much more. She does play portions of songs, both her own, and those of other musicians- but mixes them, adds beats, samples, live vocals, live acoustic instruments, and, in general, creates improvised music on the spot, using previously recorded songs as only one of her many sources. Not exactly Dick Clark. This hybridized way of creating music is becoming quite common around the world, but doesnt fit into the traditional division between DJ and musician- instead, it spans both. I have seen Barda before- she is magical, part folklorico, part electronic, a perfect music for a warm summer night. Gus drops in and out of the hour long mix, singing a bit, then falling back and letting Barda change the mood. As she plays, the patio fills up, by 8:00 pm there are a couple of hundred people there, chatting, listening, sipping on beers. Dancers from the greater familia moved among the crowd all evening- The Dance collecitve Manada is in the house, a group that translates as something like “The Herd” and who call their style animal dance. Goth, hip hop, trancing and dancing in ones and twos and herds, they come and go all night.
After about an hour, Barda ends her set, and Ensamble Folklorico Digital begins, with computers, beat machines, charengo, bass, and an acoustic guitar played with a bow, along with a rapper, and a variety of vocalists. This is one of the new sounds of Argentina, a combination of electronics and hip hop with Gurani, gaucho, and andean sounds, mixed with the history of rock, and jazz, ambient and dance.
We weary travellers bow out before it ends, taking the 92 collectivo home.

 

[Ries]

Barda-https://youtu.be/IhA5cz1yvDc

 

[Ries]

This series will continue, and I highly recommend Dat Garcia, who will be playing on the 21st of December.

 

[MikeB12]

The only reason I still check baexpats is for Ries posts on live music in Buenos Aires

 

[Ries]

Some of the bands I like to see play very rarely- Sexteto Irreal, for example, may only play twice a year, because all the members are so busy with other bands and projects. Last year, I saw a legendary group, Estupendo, that only plays live every few years. Other times, I will see an artist multiple times in one month. I have found, in Argentina, that you must always take advantage of opportunity, because things are not always available- that applies to shopping, or seeing friends, to most things, in fact, and it is true for music as well.

So, for the second time in a few days, I saw Barda.
This time, in a very different context, and a different aspect of her work.

This was a show at El Quetzal, a small converted house that is cafe and club. There is an art show on the walls, friendly staff that is more like family than employees, and it still feels like a house, not a big commercial space.
When we arrived, the promoters and the musicians were decorating the stage, draping LED strip lighting across mounds of tulle and hanging floral fabrics, and then, swinging from the rafters, putting gigantic tropical leaves everywhere. 1 meter long leaves, freshly cut from some jurassic jungle plant.

The decorations were in honor of the guest DJ, Agatha Barbosa, or Cigarra, from Brazil.

First, Barda- tonight, she played more of her club set- she starts a beat, and under everything, slowly revs it up and slows it down, sets the baseline and heartbeat for a set where she then drops in samples from a wide variety of sources- folklorica, choirs of women, solo voices. The set ebbs and flows, less experimental than the other night, but accomplishing one of its goals- it fills the small dance floor. Its always interesting to see a musician respond to different audiences, and present differing approaches.

Then, Cigarra- she has ducked into the tiny back room, and done herself proud, with amazing makeup, glittery bat wings of eyeliner.
Her set is very unexpected.
I have friends from the old House music days, who love nothing more than the same basic beat for an hour, with minimal variation. This is the opposite- the first section features sampled violin that is probably classical, over a beat and wild bass drones, seguing into a quarter hour that is mostly middle eastern beats and squawking horns, but laid over cumbia/afro beat drum tracks, and somehow, blending perfectly. She increases and decreases BPMs, and in general freestyles much more than the rigid commercial EDM dictates of the big famous DJ's.

Needless to say, we love her.
And the beer is only 50 pesos a pinta.
Who can complain?

Here is a more songlike Cigarra cut. Live, its more a long everchanging dance set.
https://youtu.be/gxdVCHBeHJs