Transatlantic Encounter 2004
Potaje with Carola Zertuche
Musicians: El Moreno, voice; La Vainilla, voice; Chus Alonso, musical direction, flute, laud and cajón; Sonia Caltvedt, flute; Lisa Larribeau, flute; Tregar Otton, violin and mandolin; Rachel Durling, violin; Jeannie McKenzie, violin; Jesse Wolff, cello; Mark Taylor, guitar; Darren Morgan, guitar; Paula Dreyer, piano; Clare Simmons, double bass; Brian Rice, percussion; Jacob Lawlor, percussion; and Dominique Cabrera, percussion – Dancers: Carola Zertuche and Alice Alonso
May 15, 2004, at the Community Music Center
The musical world of flamenco is divided into many different styles called palos. Each palo has specific characteristic: origin, lyrics, cultural connections, rhythmic groove, melodies, choreography, etc. They can be slow or fast, solemn or happy, associated with dark or bright colors, related to other Spanish folklore or related to the music of faraway places. Some are always in a mayor key, others in a minor key, but most frequently in the typical flamenco Phrygian scale.
There is a family of palos with clear influences from Latin American music. They originated because of the intense contact that existed between Latin America and Spain. They are known as “aires de ida y vuelta”, which means to go and come back. One of them, the flamenco guajira, originated in the south of Spain at the end of the nineteen century by flamenco artists coming back from Cuba, and evoking the music they heard in the island. What they heard was the punto guajiro. The country music from the western and central provinces of Cuba that, paradoxically, originated in the eighteen century as a result of the transmutation of Spanish (Andalucian and Canarian) musical and poetic elements mixed with West-African ones.
The first part of the program included several examples of the Cuban country music such as punto libre,, punto fijo and Cuban zapateo; as well as guajira flamenco and colombiana, another flamenco styles belonging to the “aires de ida y vuelta” family.
Flamenco dancer, Carola Zertuche, created a new choreography for Transalantic Encounter’s guajira.
En un Palmar te Conocí, Guajira
The second part of the program included several compositions by Chus Alonso.
Listen to “Lunares”
Listen to “Con Alas”
Listen to “El Vito”
Listen to “Travesura”