http://www.myspace.com/gonzalobergara Where else could you go and hear Django Rheinhardt music
live?
KJAZZ kicked off their ‘Wine and
Jazz’ Tuesday night music series at ..Hollywood..
and ....Highland.. ..Center.... last week with Gonzalo Bergara,
the Argentine jazz guitar whiz.
Of
course by ‘Django Rheinhardt music’ I mean that style, the old swing-style acoustic
jazz guitar that Django perfected before electric blues and rock opened up a
whole new dimension in guitar playing, before Pat Metheny and others ‘redefined
jazz guitar’ to mesh with different expectations.
If it seems odd for an Argentine to be
carrying on the old tradition, it shouldn’t, given their still-current
attachment to tango, their huge population of Italian immigrants, and their
strong ties to the European old world (probably more than Europe itself).
Then there’s the tradition left by their own
Oscar Aleman, a son of natives in the Argentine Chaco region.
Little known by most Americans (his skin was
a bit dark for most American tastes in the thirties, so he spent little time
there), Aleman was Josephine Baker’s guitarist in Paris for many years and a friend
of Rheinhardt’s before WWII came along and forced him to return to Argentina,
where he lived many years in obscurity before finally being ‘rediscovered’.
.. ..
In many ways Gonzalo Bergara one-ups both of them, having
seen what electric blues and then rock were able to do with the solo guitar style
that Rheinhardt largely invented. That
influence is incorporated into his more modern style, which sometimes ebbs and
flows in a style more akin to ‘Chuchito’ Valdes’ sonic keyboard washes than
typical guit-picking. Rob Hardt’s
clarinet serves as a perfect counterpoint and twin lead, picking up wherever
Bergara leaves off and doing some woodwind acrobatics before taking it right
back to him, enriched and enhanced.
Jeffrey Radaich and David Tranchina round out the band, on rhythm guitar
and upright bass, respectively, keeping rhythm the good old-fashioned ‘swing’ way,
drumless and tight. Hollywood and
Highland keeps up the good vibes all summer, all for free (no, not the wine,
silly), with such luminaries as Carl Saunders, Bobby Matos, Ernie Watts and
many more all lined up and ready to go.
Check it out; the red line goes right there.
.. ..
There’s another ..California..
just across ‘....la linea....’ of course, lying there like a
sixth dimension that most US Californians only access occasionally for cheap drugs,
carnival ambience, and underage drinking.
I’m talking about Baja, of course, and specifically ....Tijuana...., which is its cultural capital. Don’t laugh.
Manu Chao plays there every chance he gets, as does Lila Downs, and
there are scores of local groups trying to emulate the recent success of locals
Julieta Venegas and Nortech Collective.
The more the tourist strip dries up and literally goes south with the
triple-whammy of narco violence, pig
flu and economic collapse (guns, germs, and deals?), the more that Tijuana
becomes a center for local and regional culture and entertainment. Let the tourists have their safe haven down
in Rosarito; ....Tijuana....
is blossoming in the ashes. So what if
some parts of the city look like 90’s-era ....Phnom
Penh....? It keeps
rents reasonable and beer costs low, like $2-$3. Try to find that in LA. Planeta Tijuana (ex-MultiKulti) is one of the
best examples of this, occupying an old abandoned movie theater and booking
acts like Manu Chao, Maldita Vecindad and Sigur Ros. Even EZLN spokesman Subcomandante Marcos
showed up at one point, so how’s that for variety? The Chilean reggae act Gondwana played there
last night, but I didn’t make it.
They’re good though, as good as any reggae I’ve heard in a long time,
with a creation myth on ‘Kln’ (?) to rival Sam Sparro’s on ‘Black and Gold’ any
day. Who said ‘reggae en espanol’ doesn’t cut it? I didn’t.
.. ..
Others are getting in on the act. ‘Le Drugstore’ is an actual drugstore that
occupies only a corner of a large split-level facility which yesterday hosted a
‘Metal Battle’, TJ’s best heavy-metal bands vying for top prize right on
Avenida Revolucion. But the new plum
venue is the beautiful old jai alai
fronton’, now converted into El Foro
and open for business. Friday they
hosted a punk-rock festival which didn’t seem very well attended. The musica
ranchera place across the street was hopping, though. I guess you can take the Mexican out of el rancho, but you can’t take el rancho out of the Mexican. There are things going on all summer, but no
big names yet, being hard to compete with the big bucks on the Gringo side of
town. While the gueros blow off their fireworks and celebrate their freedoms,
Mexicans go through another important vote, the first in which the
congressional majority will be of a different party than the president. They’re in a process as painful as that of ....Moscow...., and now with the
world’s 12th largest economy, just as important.
.. ..
The Freak Film Festival starts Monday, an ongoing event
(which originated last year in ....Spain....)
in which short films and videos are submitted by Internet link. Winning entries will be shown simultaneously
in ..Spain.., ..Berlin..,
....London.., ..New
York...., and… LA maybe?
....Tokyo....? ....Beijing....? Guess again.
How about TJ? Hopelessly small
time, you say? Who knows? That’s what they said about You Tube. Maybe these videos will have more than dogs
that surf. There’s more to TJ than
border-blasting discos and cheap Viagra.
Check it out sometime. Or
don’t. They say it’s dangerous. Of course the conspiratorial ‘they’ say a lot
of things. The editorial ‘we’ take it
with a grain of salt. Now THAT is what
is dangerous, that and sugar. You gotta’
wear protection. That’s what Uncle says.