Eine Kleine Nacht Musik

Guanajuato Moonrise

I remember when I moved to Raleigh after living for many years in the deep country of North Carolina. I was startled and shaken by the night sounds of the city.

There were several railroad freight trains that came through the middle of the city each night. There was car traffic, university students, cats howling, and all manner of assorted mechanical screeches. It took many months to acclimate.

Mexico has brought a new menu of sound to my nights. In Guanajuato it's mostly dogs and music. 

On the last full moon I was awakened at 2:00AM by a mariachi group serenading some unseen woman in the night. At the moment the music began, even though I had been sleeping soundly, I became aware of this sound's special beauty. From across Rio Duran somewhere in Cerro del Cuarto a strong baritone voice sent 'amors' and 'corazones' out into the night air and across the canyon to my window. Violins, accordions, guitars and guitarras merged their sound and I fell back into sweet dreams.
 

Coto Y Su Eco Del Caribe

Last Thursday (October 28, 2010) my friend, Rolando, and I walked down to the Explanada de la Alhondiga for a night of music. I hadn't been out in weeks due to minor illness I've been struggling with, so I was really looking forward to getting out and  hearing some good music.

I was not disappointed. The 38th Festival Cervantino which was in full tilt had booked a couple of Cuban bands and I was lucky enough to get two tickets to see one of them, Coto Y Su Eco Del Caribe.

Coto

Coto, this Cuban band's leader, appeared on stage alone at first. He was wearing a finely tailored bright canary yellow linen suit though it appeared to be many colors as the stage lights were constantly changing. He was stocky yet handsome. He walked on stage playing the instrument that was to drive this twelve piece band. It was a tresillo. A tresillo is a guitar-like stringed instrument with three sets of strings, two strings to each set (see picture below).

Coto's tresillo had a twangy mandolinish sound. You can get a little flavor of it in the video clip at the bottom of this posting. The sound quality,however, is not so hot - you should have been there! Coto played a lead line through most of the concert which guided the band.

Near the end of the concert several of his tresillo's strings simultaneously broke creating a musical explosion. So he danced and sang through the next song or two until a stage hand was able to restring his tresillo.

Tresillo

There were three brass players - a trombone, and a couple of trumpets.

The 'Horn Section'

In addition, there were three percussionists, a keyboard player, two singers and a bass player - eleven musicians.

The Singers

There were also two dancers prancing in around and through the musicians throughout the concert.

Fast Moving Dancers

There was a big crowd for this concert and soon after the music began many of them started dancing anywhere there was space. The band was very 'tight' musically yet the singers had the loose feel of a gospel group. Near the end of the concert one of the singers jumped off the stage with his microphone and was singing in the crowd. It was a great concert!

You can see all of my pictures at : http://picasaweb.google.com/1kikiwin

Below is a portion of a youtube video that will give you a taste. The sound is not so good - you should have been there!

Give it a minute to load.