Stefan Gonzalez in Mexico City Nov. 2006

Dennis Gonzalez · October-29th-2006, 05:40 PM

Café Jazzorca Presents:
Encuentros con Stefan Gonzalez

Tuesday, Nov. 28…from Dallas, Texas

1st Set:
TRIO: Stefan Gonzalez / drums, Remi Álvarez/ sax, Aarón Cruz/ bass and electric bass

2nd Set:
DUOS: Stefan Gonzalez / drums, Germàn Bringas/ sax, piano, found objects Alexander Bruck/ viola, Itzam Cano/ bass, Juan Pablo Villa/ voice

Wednesday, Nov. 29

1st Set:
PERXNSAMBLE:
(A) Stefan Gonzalez / drums, Sim Bringas/ drums, Rafa Gonzalez/ drums (30 min.)
(B) Stefan Gonzalez / drums, Gabriel Lauber/ drums, Ángelo Moroni/ percussion
(30 min.)

2nd Set:
FIESTA EN 2: Stefan Gonzalez / drums, Carlos Alegre/ violín, Remi Álvarez/ soprano sax, Darrell Zimmerman/ alto sax, Germán Bringas/ tenor sax, Itzam Cano/ bass, Gabriel Lauber/ drums, Rafa González/ voice; electrónics, Alex Castañeda/ guitar, Álvaro Pedrozo/ laptop, …and more!

Cafe Jazzorca
Municipio Libre 37 A, Col. Portales
Mexico City (D.F.), Mexico
55 39 30 82

Donations: 100.00 Pesos
1st Set: 8:00PM
2nd Set: 9:30PM

Gerardo A · October-29th-2006, 08:21 PM

Awesome, it sounds like both nights will be amazing. I'll do my best effort to try and be there.

Jesse · October-29th-2006, 09:02 PM

The lad is a fine percussionist, and aces to deal with.
I will not, however, be attending the Mexico City gig.

Dennis Gonzalez · October-30th-2006, 12:31 PM

He's going to be touring with a punk group, and decided to take advantage of being in Mexico City for a few days to try to hook up with the improvisers in DF! They were overjoyed to play with him, and the great organizer on the Mexico City scene, German Bringas, decided to take him under his wing and provide two nights of great gigs for him!

Dennis Gonzalez · November-12th-2006, 10:50 AM

Jazzorca...
...then scroll to the middle of the page.

Ron Thorne · November-12th-2006, 02:47 PM

Sounds like a very hip gig. And, a very gracious, generous organizer.

Wish I could experience it.

Nice poster.

Dennis Gonzalez · November-13th-2006, 07:26 AM

German Bringas is a great, giving organizer, and a fine improviser as well. He's presenting Shelly Hirsch in concert in Mexico City next weekend.

jazzy mary · November-13th-2006, 12:25 PM

Stefan looks adorable. But was the concert $100.00?? Stefan is getting big $ these days!

Mike Schwartz · November-13th-2006, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazzy mary

Stefan looks adorable. But was the concert $100.00?? Stefan is getting big $ these days!

I don't know the exchange, but it's 100 Pesos, not dolares...

Ron Thorne · November-13th-2006, 04:36 PM

Mary, slow down your reading a bit.

Mike's right. This is what was posted in post #1 by Dennis:

Donations: 100.00 Pesos

At today's rate of conversion, here's the amount of the donation:

100.00 MXN
Mexico Pesos

=

9.19584 USD
United States Dollars

Dennis Gonzalez · November-13th-2006, 05:28 PM

Maybe he is getting USD100 per donation! If so, I'm there!

jesus marion joseph · November-13th-2006, 06:43 PM

That's great. Wish I could be there.

Dennis Gonzalez · November-14th-2006, 12:19 PM

Me too!

jazzy mary · November-14th-2006, 12:27 PM

Hmmm, I guess no one understands my jokes. Since it said $100 on the poster, I was making a joke that it would be $100.00 USD.

I think Stefan is a great musician, but I don't think anyone--'cept maybe Oscar Peterson is commanding a $100.00 cover or donation or what have you these days.

Gerardo A · November-14th-2006, 12:37 PM

I understood your joke the first time, Mary!

Unfortunately I won't be able to fly to México City for the gigs, but my best wishes to Stefan and all of my friends there!

Dennis Gonzalez · November-14th-2006, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazzy mary

Hmmm, I guess no one understands my jokes. Since it said $100 on the poster, I was making a joke that it would be $100.00 USD.

I think Stefan is a great musician, but I don't think anyone--'cept maybe Oscar Peterson is commanding a $100.00 cover or donation or what have you these days.

I caught it right away...I think everybody did, but we're just kiddin' ya back!

Oscar who?

Dennis Gonzalez · November-27th-2006, 08:31 PM

Stefan is in good hands in Mexico City (having been picked up at noon today by jazz/improv promoter and musician German Bringas) after two weeks on the road with the punk group that invited him to tour as their drummer - the group is called Rat Salad.

I was hesitant to post what was going on in Mexico because of Oaxaca and the change of presidents in mexico. Lucky for us and for him, I'd gotten him an international calling plan that allowed him to call home and allowed us to call him anywhere in Mexico. I almost flew to San Luis Potosi on Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) to be with him for a couple of days.

There's a very fine line between letting one's child explore the world freely and letting him learn the hard lessons of life on his own and being on the road in a foreign country but I wanted him to know we support him and care for him.

Stefan is with some Mexican jazz musicians tonight, and the next two nights, at 8 pm (Central) - 9 pm (Eastern) you can tune in to Cafe Jazzorca's streaming live broadcast of Stefan's sets in Mexico City.

jazzy mary · November-28th-2006, 11:11 AM

What the heck happened??

Gerardo A · November-28th-2006, 12:46 PM

Yeah, give more details D. Who are these Rat Salad guys?

Dennis Gonzalez · November-28th-2006, 08:38 PM

Rat Salad is a guitarist named Mary, and a bass player named Derek who needed a drummer to fill out the trio in order to tour the Mexican punk circuit.

Their tour started off fairly well and they played Lady Fest in Monterrey,
and they played Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi. They even put together more gigs in Cuernavaca and Monterrey (again) for the days after Stefan plays his jazz shows in Mexico City.

Stefan is being hosted now by the director of Cafe Jazzorca, German Bringas. The series he runs is fabulous, and Stefan has a good place to bathe and some good food as well. We pray that tonight's and tomorrow night's shows go really well. Plus, we'll be able to hear his concert live on the 'Net, as I hope you all do as well!

Here's a picture posted at Rat Salad's MySpace page taken in Monterrey. It is Stefan, Mary, and Derek:

jazzy mary · November-29th-2006, 11:58 AM

I don't get it. Why does someone as talented as Stefan even hang w/ these losers?

The whole thing sounds a bit weird--like how they "Straightened up" all of a sudden etc.

Well, I'm glad Stefan is safe & sound.

Dennis Gonzalez · November-29th-2006, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazzy mary

I don't get it. Why does someone as talented as Stefan even hang w/ these losers?

He plays punk and jazz as well, and those are his friends...I think if you heard him play punk, you'd be impressed. He still has his own Unconscious Collective quartet, and his playing with Yells At Eels, but he still likes "the edge", as most of us do to a certain degree. I'm sure you've had a few headaches with your girls on things you don't sgree with that they do.

Quote:

I'm glad Stefan is safe & sound.

Me too, jm, me too!

jazzy mary · November-29th-2006, 01:41 PM

Yep.

Dennis Gonzalez · December-2nd-2006, 02:40 PM

Interesting happenings with Stefan and crew...the violence in Mexico City convinced Rat Salad to leave Friday morning. They were supposed to go to Cuernavaca and then to Monterrey for gigs, but some of the bridges leading out of town in the direction of Cuernavaca were shut down by security forces. And just two hours outside of Mexico City, on the road to Monterrey, and ultimately Dallas, the old van that Mary and company brought into Mexico for the tour finally gave out...The group had to call someone to take them back to Mexico City, where they had a pick-up gig last night and one final one tonight. Mary has decided to stay in the Mexican capital indefinitely until she can find her way back to San Antonio and Stefan will fly home on Sunday.

We called American Airlines this morning and purchased a ticket for him.
We'll be so happy to see Stefan tomorrow!

Wednesday of this next week, Stefan and Aaron fly out under the auspices of The Stone and Downtown Music Gallery to finish a recording with Matt Lavelle, and then Friday we play the month-long Downtown Music Gallery Fest at The Stone.

Dennis Gonzalez · December-3rd-2006, 07:33 PM

Stefan's back in Dallas...go to my thread and read what happened today at Mexico City airport. What a nightmare!

robin bell · December-4th-2006, 04:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dennis Gonzalez

Stefan's back in Dallas...go to my thread and read what happened today in Mexico City. What a nightmare!

dennis, glad to read that stefan is home!!

Dennis Gonzalez · January-28th-2007, 06:35 PM

Update on Stefan's excursion into Mexico...things have been patched up with Rat Salad and Stefan will be heading back to Mexico on February 2.

In the meantime, here is a link to a video highlighting the best of the Rat Salad tour in November.

When the page opens, click on the icon to view it. It's quite good.

We hope to have some concert footage of Stefan's Mexico City jazz concerts to upload in the next few days.