entertainment
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From the Mountains to the Sea — A Musical Journey Christie Seeley
vezelay@mac.com
Vallartasounds.com
From Oakland, California to Puerto Vallarta…lured by music of guitars and sounds of the sea. vallartasounds.com
C
oming off a fun filled weekend of incredible music and great company and looking forward to another, I am rushing to get this little review off to the Vallarta Tribune that so generously publishes these articles so you, our readers, can stay up to date on musical happenings! Last Saturday I had the good fortune of attending a musical retreat hosted by Tree House Bar of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle in the picturesque mountain town of San Sebastian del Oeste. The program featured the exciting music of the full band
of the group Media Luna. Joining brothers Caleb and Jair Cabrera and their cousin Gibran were the Renteria brothers from Queretaro, Julio and Armando, on voice, bass and percussion, and talented guest accordionist Gilio from Colombia. The incredible concert was followed by two wonderful encores demanded by the enthusiastic crowd. Around a welcoming bonfire after the show, several of the guests played guitar and sang accompanied by the others and, to their delight, by the cheerful Caleb Cabrera of Media
Luna who joined them on guitar. Later in the evening singer/guitarist Cheko Ruiz with Daniel Barragan Navarro on trumpet arrived with more lively music. The celebration went well into the night. Guests were housed in historic hotels around the plaza of the Magical City of San Sebastian del Oeste and enjoyed a succulent dinner of Mari Chuy’s barbecued ribs and joyful conversations with the lovely people who attended the event. It was all I might have expected and more. Definitely an event to put on your calendars for next year! Sunday, rolling down the mountain and back to the beach, I visited the charming town of San Pancho just north of Sayulita for their 19th Annual Music Festival. I arrived at my airbnb room early enough to explore the town and be at the Plaza del Sol just as the music began. The event was community sponsored and entertainers were all top quality. I got there on time for local banda Ojo de Agua including one of my favorites Charly Peña on flute. They were followed by the rockabilly group the Jokers who had everyone dancing. As a finale they invited visiting bluesman Craig Caffall to join them for some real down home blues. Tatewari, the group I really came to see, lit up the evening with their fiery flamenco guitar music for the twelfth year in a row and thrilled the audience with original compositions and surprising renditions of familiar classics. Following their performance there was a tribute to the organizer of the event over the last nine years who retires this year, Chas Eller, founding member of the fusion jazz group Kilimanjaro. For me the highlight of the experience were Lobo and Jaguar (Wolfgang Fink and Esaú Galván) who had the crowd going wild with their inspired improvised flamenco guitar and to top it off they invited bluesman Craig Caffall to join them for a one of a kind performance of these three very talented performers. The interaction was formidable. Three maestros of varying generations spoke to each other in a way only they could. The audience was totally blown away. With a full weekend like that all I can think about is getting on the bus from San Pancho, arriving home and resting. Not so fast Christie. This week, like all others at this time of year in Puerto Vallarta will be filled with more and more fantastic music opportunities! For further details see my website vallartasounds.com.
Feb 28 - March 6, 2019 www.vallartatribune.com
Comings and Goings Marcia Blondin
marciavallarta@gmail.com
Long-time columnist Marcia Blondin resurrects this preview/review column each season devoted to local entertainment that she has had the pleasure of seeing lately or in seasons past.
Birds & Ponies Comings… Saturday, March 2 at Plataforma 322 on Lucerna 153 in Versalles (next to the Hospital) “el pequeño poni” opening night at 8 pm. A Perrobravo Production starring Samantha Dueñas and Cesar Bravo. They are the dynamic duo that was established in stone during the staging of ”Equus” at Act II a couple of years back. Directed again by Alain Perreault, Sam and Cesar have their work cut out for them in this controversial and very human play. It will be in Spanish, BUT program notes will include a full storyline in English (bless you!). A great opportunity to allow your Spanish-listening abilities to grow. ”The Little Pony” runs Saturdays, March 2, 9, 16 and 30, at 8 pm. Starting Friday, March 8, and continuing the 9th and 10th at the Vallarta Botanical Garden, the “Vallarta Bird and Nature Festival” celebrates everything that grows naturally and lives in our part of the world. The Garden is a birder’s paradise; if you are new at it and unsure how to go about it, you can join a tour, or you can sit in the restaurant and watch caciques (perhaps including the anomaly photographed ONLY at the VBG so far!), and a hummingbird might quietly sit on your finger. See this issue for an entire schedule of events and enjoy the extraordinary beauty of our Botanical Garden. Take a bus or a taxi; there is very little space to park. Saturday, March 9th at River Café “Artists for Orphans” from 1 to 4 pm. Sixty local artists have
donated paintings, sculptures and other works of art to raise funds for Corazon de Niña. Of the 77 children currently living “at home” at Corazon, many of them are extremely artistic, and they will interpret some of the artworks that will also be for sale at the fundraiser. This is always interesting and great fun to look at how these kids reinterpret what they see in the original piece of art. It is money well-spent in the beautiful surroundings of the River Café, with tapas provided and a no-host full bar. Just a note here: Corazon de Niña feeds, clothes, houses and educates their 77 orphans by donations alone. The results in just seven years have been exemplary; with your help, these kids will continue on the right path in good health, good surroundings and more important, in the arms of their great big, huge family! …and Goings Soprano Vanessa Amaro and baritone Juan Carlos Villalobos presented an out-of-theordinary recital at Incanto last week. There were many operatic arias including Tosca, but the one that brought the house down was Rossini’s “Cat’s Duet” simply titled “Meow.” And yes, the only word in the entire song; it was delightful! Then, pianist Dennis Crow joined Vanessa and Juan Carlos on stage for a medley of Rogers and Hammerstein that encouraged audience participation. I have spent the rest of the week with ‘Do, Re, Mi’ locked in my brain. I hope we will see and hear much more Vanessa soon. Young baritone Juan Carlos Villalobos has a super bright future.