I've not posted for way too long...busy summer, yes.  Lots of cool gigs and opportunities, yes.  Lots of Face Book and social media stuff, yes indeed.  But:  NO EXCUSES! You gotta go to youtube and watch "El Sol, la Sal, el Son----its a 2 hour special by Jesus Quintero that is chock full of great performances of a number of Spain's top artists of today.  Since receiving the UNESCO recognition, el Patrimonio de Humanidad,  flamenco seems to be reveling in its own genuine awesomeness.  I love this show in particular. And what's up with Beni de Cadiz?  I know very little about him except that he is 1. great and 2. sings in Arabic as well as Spanish. And yes, indeed:  ROGUE TANGO is for REAL!  We've taken over hosting the Sunday evening milongas (tango dances) at the Loring Pasta Bar in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  We have a FB presence, also;  "friend" us at Rogue Tango!  Mandragora Tango is winding down their activities. particularly since leader and bandoneonist Bob Barnes has decided to greatly curtail his performing schedule.  Ironically, Mandragora's newest CD:  Barrio Longfellow is finally out and soon available on i-tunes.  We have a CD release show planned for early November of this year.   I am very excited about this CD.  Seriously excited! Several former members of Mandragora Tango, through the years, are now participating in Rogue Tango.   I am so happy to be reuniting with these wonderful musicians.  Not to mention:  playing Argentine Tango is a delight all of its own.  And Rachel, laMala, is such a talented singer as well as percussionist.  So for those of you out there bemoaning the passing of Mandragora Tango:  Take Heart!  We're Alive and Active!  We Need Your Continued Support!

This my final post about my April 2012 in Spain and the musical highlights.  All in all---it was una marcha alucinante! ARTEBAR is a wonderful place, in the La Latina barrio, on calle San Bruno, Madrid.  My friend, Anya, is one of the owners and she has a strong commitment to flamenco.  She dances and sings and keeps it always happenin' at the club.  They have peñas of cante flamenco on Sunday and Monday evenings.  FLAMENCO INTIMO performs there on most Thursdays and Fridays.  David Serva is the centerpiece of the group, a guitarist of renown and still keeping it real every time he picks up the instrument.  They do a cuadro show with 2-3 dancers (Anya and Clara Mora and often a guest) and KeiOko singing which is really enjoyable. David Serva is also the protaganist in the recent film: GYPSY DAVY,  which was shown at the 2012 Sundance Festival and is recommended viewing, in my opinion.  His daughter, Rachel Leah Jones, directed the documentary and there is some very very good footage, such as the Moron de la Frontera sequence at the film's end. Next bit of excitement on my agenda is the Chicago Flamenco Festival, June 11th through the 24th, 2012.  I'm happy to be a guest guitarist this year and to be working with some very good artists, indeed.  Google the Ensemble Español, Chicago for complete information.  In any event, it is full spring-time and I am happy about it!

ABADJI.  A Lebanese exile, multi-instrumentalist/singer whom I heard at the LiceoFrances (Madrid, April 10th) along with dancer Nawal Raadi.  Just a super-musical guy with tons of personality, playing his own music based upon Middle-eastern influences.  He basically blew different flutes and horns and plucked strings utilizing the "maqamat" and it was all of a piece.  Certainly never boring, he created wonderful trance grooves that had me totally relaxed and happy. Plaza Santa Ana:  a day later, while taking a late-afternoon stroll through the plaza, I happened upon 4 gypsies, 2 Spanish and 2 Bulgarian.  They were sitting at a table, drinking, smoking, and jamming---seemingly oblivious to the rest of Madrid.  I quietly took the table right next to them, ordered a copita, and gave myself up to their intoxicating and virtuosic musical meanderings.  They sang, danced and jammed.  Accordion, guitar and their curiosity about each others music were the underpinnings.  An absolute delight!

Another musical highlight of my recent time in Spain.  I realize all these posts are in inverse order;  I suppose I should organize my thoughts better.... April 14, 2012 at Casa Pata's Fundacion (that's upstairs---quite a cool facility, actually). Fernando is an excellent guitarist and his CD release show was very good.  He is Brazilian (Sao Paulo) and, so, mixed a lot of Brazilian aire with his flamenco in his original compositions.  To my mind, not the greatest marriage....He had some sterling guests and an absolutely full house to rock-out. Rafael Jimenez "Falo" sang really well, utilizing his voice effectively and emotively.  Domingo Ortega danced really really well.  His marking was particularly strong and affecting, for some reason.  Pablo Martin Jones played very sensitive and spot-on percussion.  The other guests were a bit "regular,"  The mood was up-beat, even exuberant,  and everyone had a great time.

Without doubt, the musical highlight of my Primavera 2012.  April 13.  Farruquito is an amazing dancer---this is well known.  What I was not prepared for was the overwhelmingly powerful presence of this remarkable man. He has real star power, projecting a warmth, a humility, a humanity that is unbelievably compelling.  This from a man who killed a workman in a tragic hit and run incident in Sevilla not so many years ago.  Perhaps he has suffered---perhaps he has sought to atone for his crime.  I don't know.  I do know that he completely won me over with his powerful powerful personal presence. The show was fabulous:  3 great singers---Pikina, Zambullo and Mari Jimenez---with voices perfectly complimenting one another.  2 wonderful guitarists---Antonio Rey Navas and Roman Vicenti Mero---each confident, lyrical and strong in their toque, trading licks back and forth, really rockin' the house.  4 supporting dancers---Barullo, Pollito, Gema and La Sentio---passionate, precise, perfect.  And Farruquito. An amazing Fandangos opened the show.  Later, a spectacular Sevillanas---who would expect to see these?  Every number built upon the preceding and the effect was so potent the entire audience (myself included) exploded in shouts and jaleo between them.  You had to so-as not to implode with the emotion engendered by each particular piece. Truly remarkable.

I just returned from the better part of a month in Spain:  Madrid, Cordoba, Jerez and Tetuann (Morocco).  As always, a wonderful time and packed with adventures.  I thought I'd blog about the musical highlights. Semana Santa:  Holy Week for a non-religious person as myself means:  escape to Morocco and I did.  I renewed my love affair with Tetuan after nearly 40 years absence.  However, both on the front end and back end of Tetuan we caught Semana Santa.  This year, we heard 4 consecutive Saetas sung (in San Miguel, Jerez de la Frontera) that were absolutely soul-stirring.  We is Rachel "la Mala" and myself.  She was most insistent upon wanting to hear some real good Saetas and, well, we hit the jackpot.  Having just returned from hearing the Muezzins 5 times a day calling the faithful to prayer, the similarities are striking.  North African music, and Middle eastern music in general, are the greatest influence on flamenco, to my mind.  Standing in front of Peña Buleria, with the singers directly above us on the balcony, pouring out their hearts in supplication to Christ and la Virgen---its a pagan experience of the highest order!

As everyone knows; as everyone is reminded of practically everyday:  this is a tough economy.  Trying to survive as a full time musician is very difficult.  Sadly, I know so many really wonderful musicians who are working for $30 to $50 a night.  Club owners know they can get away with paying $100 to $150 a night for a full group.  Still, they continue to complain that they're losing money and that their commitment to live music is losing them money.  They're probably right.  As I said:  this is a tough economy. And, so it is, that it is increasingly common to see a tip basket or jar or whatever placed in front of the performers.  It is somewhat humiliating to musicians to have to place that basket there and even more humiliating to have to solicit tips.  Yet, I see how very generous the patrons are.  It seems they become ever more generous as the economy toughens.  In my case, I have weeks where these (largely) unsolicited tips are the difference between making it and not making it. I have lived in many different countries---many that are referred to as "baksheesh" countries.  "Baksheesh" is a difficult to translate word that means a tip,  charitable giving, sometimes a bribe---it is a way that things get done in a lot of countries, particularly in the Middle East.  I am comfortable with this, in fact, I've always been fascinated by the inner-workings of this system.  Well:  the United States is increasingly becoming a baksheesh society. My heartfelt thank you to those generous and caring souls that are reaching out to service and entertainment sector workers.  We are all in this together.  In the end, we all profit by helping each other out. Thank you.

Some corrections to my last post:  Theatre in St Joseph was the Robideaux,  A beautiful 1927 Art-Deco structure with oriental rugs hanging on the walls.  Just what I love! Had a night off on Thursday Feb 2nd while at Overland Park, KS----its a suburb of Kansas City, as it turns out.  So I went out with my pal Beau Bledsoe and had a fabulous time at a jazz place called Grunauer (with the umlaut...).  The theater in Overland Park is called Yardley Hall and its a 1600 seater that is just state-of-the-art.  Show was a blast! I flew back to Minneapolis for a few days and, now, tomorrow I'm off to Washington DC for the final show of this tour.  Its at the Cultural Arts Center,  Montgomery College.  That's all I know about it. A RUMI poem I came across: This being human is a guest house. Every morning       a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and attend them all!  Even if they're a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture,  still treat each guest honorably.   He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them all at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes,    because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

I was told recently that social media have rendered blogs obsolete.  Maybe so.  None-the-less I am happy to report that I'm alive and well in....St Joseph, Missouri.  As it happens. I'm delighted to be on tour with the Ensemble Espanyol once again.  We performed 3 concerts at the Touhill Theater in St Louis last weekend.  We just finished a show tonight at the Missouri Theater in St Joe.  All 4 shows were exceptionally well received and all the houses have been sold-out or nearly sold-out.  Cristian Lozano and Paloma Gomez, from the Ballet Nacional, are with us and they are great artists as well as lovely people.  Manuel Palacin (Jerez) is the principal singer---nothing like the resounding cante jondo of one such as Manuel.  Paco Fonta and I are the guitarists.  Have I said Paco is a remarkable artist?  He is. Later this morning (it is 2 am) we head to Kansas City---Overland Park, I guess it is, for a school show and final concert blow-out on Friday.  I'm not sure of the venue:  go to Ensemble Espanol's website for details.  We have another show next week in Washington, DC.  I love working with this company.  My first opportunity with them was in 1989 and, OMG, that's more than 20 years ago!  Wonderful people, excellent quality, very well organized and managed. So, I guess my calendar entries are a little skewed.  I'll fix it when I get back to Minneapolis.  Looking at a month or so in Spain---soon.  March, I hope. Enrique Melchor passed a few weeks ago.  He was a great guitarist and son of Melchor de Marchena.  Too young to die, as was Moraito.  I heard his toque often in Madrid in the late 80s and 90s.  Descanse en paz, los dos gran artistas.

...and I see I haven't had a blog entry since August.  Blame it on Facebook!  I have been very busy---almost all of it in a good way---and as 2012 looms large,  it seems change is in the air. For one thing, Mandragora Tango has decided to concentrate their forces on recording, concerts and tours.  They are letting go of their weekly gig, at the Loring Pasta Bar in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and will only appear there once a month.  This gives me the perfect opportunity to launch my new project:   ROGUE TANGO.  This group will feature vocalist/percussionist Rachel Milloy,  finally giving her a great forum to share her talents with the tango world.  I'll be playing guitar.  Our first gigs are December 11th and 18th, at the fore-mentioned Loring Pasta Bar.  Laura Harada and Peter Susag will be with us, as featured violinist and bassist.  Exciting! And speaking of recording, the new CD of Mandragora's is about 75% finished!  It is an album of TangoNuevo, mostly original, with original looks at a couple of Guardia Vieja tunes.  We're really taking our time getting this recording done;  its been about a year so far.  I am hopeful we'll have an outstanding finished product.  I'll be putting up some MP3s on the "recordings" page;  soon!  In fact, I'm looking to update this entire site.  It's a little shop-worn.... I am 100% behind the Occupy Wall Street Movement.  As musicians, we're facing some very tough times.  Thank God for the music itself.....it's own reward.