Jazz Two Ways at the Morelia Music Festival

 Es asombroso cómo un compositor como Abraham puede ser tan versátil, enriquece mucho el lenguaje de mi instrumento. says HORACIO FRANCO, Mexico's gift to the recorder world. He was complimenting the H3A pianist-composer's accomplishment in enriching the language of the recorder.

You can be sure Franco also dressed flamboyantly at the concert too

Here Franco and the other members of H3A -- the name of the jazz quartet comes from the initials of their first names -- are practicing. At the concert, Franco uses first one, then another of the six recorders he brings. To my surprise the piccolo recorder makes the best jazz instrument.

I was very taken with the skill of bass player Aaron Cruz. Drummer Adrian Oropeza not only used many percussion techniques during Barrera's work but also composed the final number H3! played.

My take:  It was evident H3A takes jazz seriously, but I'm unsure that this should have been my main perception. The recorder as a jazz instrument? Maybe, but for me, some of the most tantalizing parts came when the 3As played alone. Sometimes I missed the mellow sound of a clarinet. But watching Franco's switch from the body language of a conductor leading a performance of Bach's Passion of St. John (I saw him do that a month before) to that of a jazz player was fascinating. 

In the words of this adventurous recorder player, "The technique isn't different, but the state of mind is."

For HELEN SUNG, jazz has been a state of mind since she first heard Tommy Flanagan play. After earning her masters in classical piano, she took a right turn from her formal training by applying to the inaugural class at the Monk Institute in Boston where for two years it was jazz from morning to night. After working under some of the jazz greats, she now she has her own band, the Helen Sung Quartet, in New York City.

Helen bravely started with a light silk dress but added a jacket on the cold night

If Helen doesn't love what she's doing, she's a mighty good actress. Born in Austin, the daughter of mathematicians, she clearly enjoyed inserting her basic Spanish as she introduced the numbers. Earlier she told reporters, "Jazz is fun!".She likes it for its swing, its forward movement without being rushed. "Music is magic, mystical. Swing is part of that." 

In Morelia, her band would be playing with Juan Alzate, a popular saxophone player from Morelia and Rodrigo Nephtali, guitarrist, currently teaching at the Conservatorio de las Rosas. "We haven't rehearsed yet!" she exclaims. then adds, "We all worked hard to get where we are. We'll be able to play together." She picks musicians for her own four piece band that will bring the music alive, saying "That's a great ability." 

Morelia saxophonist Juan Alzate (2nd from left) and guitar player Rodrigo Nefthali (right) added to the swing 

Although her Asian heritage has led her to value hard work, Helen smiles and says she's what is known as a banana, yellow on the outside, white on the inside. She may be changing though. In 2011, Sung played with the Mingus Dynasty Band in the city where her parents grew up in Taiwan. "We played the outdoor jazz festival, and there were more than 2000 people there, all of them going crazy for jazz,.a simply incredible experience!" she says. "It was a really cool. They were so excited that I was Asian. I felt a connection with them - and I felt connected to being Chinese - in a way I had never felt before."

In fact, this joint venture of New York and Morelia musicians got a great response from the audience. In the first half, with Helen coming on strong in the opener, we listened to the players from New York. In the second half Juan and Rodrigo joined them. The expanded band first played Helen's versions of classic jazz numbers, with Rodrigo's riff on the electric guitar the most memorable for me. The US-Mexico event ended with a so-so piece with Cielito Lindo phrases inserted ) At the end: a triumphant La Cucaracha as it has never been heard before. 

Congratulations to the Festival for daring to dream this up. 

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Morelia Music Festival: Mario Ivan Martinez, an Actor for All Ages

Martinez was beaming his show at the Festival to the children but of course their parents came too for this free concert introducing Mozart (as a puppet) and the instruments of a symphony orchestra (through his duo with Tubby the Tuba). Fun for everyone, just as Martinez planned, and now the kids will know more next time they see a band parading or attend an orchestra concert or hear music composed by Mozart.

Martinez talking with Tubby in Spanish

I've seen Martinez in action. He knows how to appeal to children with stories that hit home for them (for example, Tubby's sorrow at never being asked to play a solo until . . . )

Martinez told reporters straightforwardly that he doesn't want people to think he gives concerts for children because he can't get other work. In fact, he performs in Mexico City every week in Diario of a loco (Nicolai Gogol), a monologue with a much more somber theme. . .

Conoces a Wolfi?

What is the sound of hundred of hands clapping? If you were at the free concert, part of the Festival's effort to appeal to varied audiences, you know it's at least as loud as Tubby.

Morelia Music Festival: Three Pianists, including Philip Glass, Play all 20 of his Etudes

After hearing Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet play his compelling score for Dracula the night before, there was no way I would stay away from the chance to hear his series of piano etudes, even though Jorge Federico Osorio was playing Brahms Second Piano Concerto at the same time. Glass chose pianists Maki Namekawa and Alexandr Pashkov to join him in playing the twenty pieces which were divided into seven sets. I hope many in the audience felt as I did, that we were incredibly fortunate in hearing the composer-pianist and two others interpret the pieces he had written over two decades..

Glass has said he began writing the Etudes as a way to practice and build up a repertoire for his solo performances, but as time went on, he began to consider them his autobiography.

As he opened the concert, Glass played matter-of-factly with no hint of his pianistic fireworks that would come when he played later. Namekawa approached her opening set differently, playing with such force and at times a jazz rhythm that I wondered whether Glass had imagined his etudes sounding like this. One of a generation of cosmopolitan musicians, Namekawa, who was born in Japan but now lives in Europe, was featured at. the recent Perth Australia Festival where she premiered Glass' most recent etudes.

Pashkov, born in Russia but now making his career in Mexico, is well-known to the Festival audience.
His sensibility, especially in the first set he played, reflected his European training and intuition.
Then and later, the audience showed their appreciation.

In Glass' middle set, he displayed almost nuclear energy, and of course received tremendous applause. By that time a few in the audience had left, perhaps bored by the composer's characteristic (some would say obsessive) use of certain techniques.

The last etude could almost have been movie music from the mid-twentieth century (in fact, Glass is well-known for his movie scores) but the 18th and 19th etudes are the ones that moved me. He was indeed revealing new layers of his autobiography, looking back from his seventies in a way that reflected how many of feel and think as we do the same.

--=I have read that until now Glass's Etude 6 is the most popular, but perhaps in time it will be equaled or surpassed by these two etudes. Glass said at his press conference, a composer welcomes being popular (Mozart was in his time), but that it is hard to predict what will be popular in fifty years. As someone of Glass's generation, I hope that there will still be listeners responding to the layers, the chiaroscuro in these recent etudes

The night before The Kronos Quartet, Glass and Riesman accompanied the classic movie Dracula. Glass wrote theis tense music for a reissue of the film. I had always wanted to hear the Kronos so I looked forward to their part as well as the rest of the evening. Earlier I had even talked with one of the violinists. Philip Glass's music built up the tension as perfectly.as Bela Lugosi did in the title role. And the Kronos: another of the players said what hard work they would have playing the score. Listening to the steady tension was easy for this movie fan and a perfect prelude to hearing the Etudes the next night..
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