• Home
  • About
  • Contact

Jazz With an Accent

~ Global music in the 21st century

Jazz With an Accent

Monthly Archives: March 2016

Miami City Ballet re-imagines Shakespeare, Balanchine and Miami

14 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by Fernando González in Home, In Other Words

≈ Leave a comment

MCB_MSND_ChaseLauren-960sq

Miami City Ballet dancers Jennifer Lauren and Chase Swatosh as Hermia and Lysander in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Photo © Alberto Oviedo.

This piece was posted on the Knight Foundation blog  in March 2016

That the centerpiece in the 30th anniversary season of the Miami City Ballet is an ambitious re-imagining of George Balanchine’s interpretation of  Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is only fitting. It has a rich history — but it looks forward.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is not just one of Balanchine´s masterworks; it’s also his first original, full-length ballet, a piece to which he dedicated more than two decades to select the music and develop. It premiered on Jan. 17, 1962. This is the first time The George Balanchine Trust agreed to have one of his works reimagined. Also, this production is an unprecedented collaboration that brings together Cuba-born, Miami-raised Lourdes Lopez, the ballet’s artistic director, and two Miami natives, artist Michele Oka Doner, charged with costumes and set design, and playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, the project’s dramaturge.

Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Life on The Road of the Souls

13 Sunday Mar 2016

Posted by Fernando González in Home, On Music

≈ Leave a comment

IMG_2613

Pavel Urkiza and his Road of the Souls band at Miami Dade County Auditorium, Miami. Photo by @tatychio

Pavel Urkiza and his Road of the Souls band presented music from the project La Ruta de las Almas (The Road of the Souls) as part of Global Cuba Fest 2016 at Miami Dade County Auditorium, Miami, Saturday, March 12th. The event was presented by FUNDArte and Miami Light Project.

Urkiza´s set was an at times messy but also often wondrous affair built on ancient traditions re-imagined. 

The ten piece ensemble, featuring musicians from places as disparate as Iran, Cuba and Moldavia via Israel, kept reconfiguring on stage almost from piece to piece. In a given song, the batá drums or an Urdu drum would unexpectedly engage in conversation with the oud, the electric guitar or the bansouri. At one point, the waters parted and there was solo feature of voice and pandero cuadrado (square, hand-held drum) by the astonishing Eliseo Parra. An accordion had its say, but so did a cuatro and a violin and sometimes a cello. The terrific Spanish singer/songwriter Javier Ruibal was another luxury treat, contributing his voice on one song. The violinist, as we learned, doubled as dancer. An electric bass offered a foundation to the swirling sounds.  

To list the musical influences on each song — an Afro-Cuban groove with a Middle Eastern melody and a hint of flamenco et. al. — would be to miss the point. This was not the place or occasion for purists. Sometimes in mid-song you found yourself doing a second take. Who played that? Can you do that with that rhythm?… and then, just as quickly, it was gone — but the sound, and the questions, stayed with you like a new, strange scent. Urkiza, an expressive singer and genial host/conductor, offered a calm center to the storm he conjured. A line kept coming to mind: “Make a joyful noise …. This is a Road worth traveling.  Search for it.

The evening also featured two smartly short sets. Pianist Iván “Melón” Lewis opened with a solo performance that coalesced at the end, as he deconstructed “Son de la Loma;” singer/songwriter Yadam has a warm voice, a soulful phrasing and a writing style that, Saturday, evoked both Jorge Drexler and Brazilian standout Ed Motta. His duet with Beatriz Luengo completed what turned out to be an effective sampler of his talents.

Original for Jazz With an Accent

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Pavel Urkiza and a world of musical connections

09 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by Fernando González in Home, Latin Jazz, On Music

≈ Leave a comment

PageImage-487258-4085847-_MG_3196

Singer/songwriter Pavel Urkiza with vocalist Sofía Rei Koutsovitis recording “Jerusalem” for La Ruta de las Almas. Photo David Arenal.

A version of this piece was posted on Artburst Miami, March 2016

If someone knows about displacement, life at a crossroads and the impact, on a person and a community, of carrying one’s culture from place to place, it might well be Cuban singer and songwriter Pavel Urkiza. Best known for his work as part of the 1990s duo Gema y Pavel, with singer Gema Corredera, Urkiza was born in Ukraine (a geographic quirk, his young parents had gone to study to was then the Soviet Union), raised in Havana and, for more than two decades, a resident of Madrid, Spain. He now lives with his family near Washington D.C.

One lesson learned from those experiences, he says, is that what connect us is much deeper and more powerful than our differences and it’s all there for us to hear — in our music.

Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...
← Older posts

Search

Categories

  • Home
  • In Other Words
  • On Music
    • Jazz
    • Latin Jazz

Recent Posts

  • The Palladium Ballroom Alive Again in Miami Beach
  • Astor Piazzolla and a GRAMMY Nomination
  • Gustavo Matamoros and the mysteries (and possibilities) of sound
My Tweets

Archives

  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • September 2022
  • June 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • October 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • December 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • May 2011
  • December 2009
  • September 2009
  • December 2007
  • January 2001
  • September 1995
  • December 1994
  • November 1987

Archives

  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • September 2022
  • June 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • October 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • December 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • May 2011
  • December 2009
  • September 2009
  • December 2007
  • January 2001
  • September 1995
  • December 1994
  • November 1987
My Tweets

RECENT TWEETS

Error: Twitter did not respond. Please wait a few minutes and refresh this page.

Categories

  • Home
  • In Other Words
  • On Music
    • Jazz
    • Latin Jazz

Archives

CONTACT INFO

P.O. Box 402702 Miami Beach FL 33140 - 0702 USA fernando@fgonow.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Jazz With an Accent
    • Join 29 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Jazz With an Accent
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: