Brian Allen Mexican Quartet in the Yucatan :: January 5 & 6

[Gerardo A]

Trombonist Brian Allen (who posts here as brain) arrived in Mérida last night to play a couple of concerts this weekend with a crack Mexican band we have assembled, in what may very well be the musical event of the year for our town.

Besides being a super nice guy with a special craving for Mexican food, Brian is a strong free improviser who has played in projects with Anthony Braxton, Ellery Eskelin, Satoko Fujii and has even shared the stage with Wolf Eyes. His latest CD, Synapse, is a much recommended trio with Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey. His complete biography and list of recordings can be seen at his website, http://www.braintone.com

In order to finance his trip, Brian won the Meet the Composer grant through its Global Connections Program, sponsored by the local jazz organization I've been running for a couple of years.

He will play in a quartet formed by two Mexicans: local guitar player Armando Martín (who played duets with pianist John Blum a few months ago), and double bass/electric bass player from México City Arturo Báez "El Bebé", originally from Michoacán (who, as the readers of Dennis' thread may remember, played in a trio with sax player Remi Álvarez and Stefan González during Stefan's recent visit to México City), as well as one Argentinian who lives in México City, drummer Hernán Hecht, arguably México's top improvising drummer.

The luxury of this project is that Brian and the musicians arrived with several days in advance of the concerts so the quartet is rehearsing everyday this week, besides hanging out in the Mayan sites, beaches and generally having taco and seafood feasts every lunch and dinner. The players will hopefully get to know each other and effectively develop Brian's compositions and improvising strategies. It seems that there will be something for every taste, from cathartic energy jazz to meditative ruminations and spiky electronics (all four musicians will use effect pedals and so forth).

There will be two concerts in Mérida (a 3 hour bus ride from Cancún), on Friday 5 at Unas Letras and Saturday 6 at El Cervantino. Details in the flyer below. I will post videos and pics of the gigs next week. Cheers everyone!

[Dennis Gonzalez]

Yeah, Brian...kick some ass down there! We're rootin' for you...

Looking forward to the movies and stills!

[Gerardo A]

Thanks Dennis, your support is much appreciated, hermano!

Hopefully you'll also join us in Mérida later this year!

[Dennis Gonzalez]

S-Toy Liss-Toe!

[brain]

hola from Merida. We are about to go play the first concert tonight downtown in a beautiful casa about 300 years old, as much of the buildings are at least 300-400 years old.

The players in the group are great and devouring this new music. We are having a good time this week. The food is amazing, the city beautiful and the people warm and generous.

I am looking forward to tonight and tomorrow and playing the music written especially for these musicians and this event.

thanks again to Gerardo for helping this happen.

and thanks to jazzcornertalk for existing because without it, I would have never met Gerardo or seen the pictures of Merida or heard about the food that made me want to come down here and create the Meet the Composer Global Connections Grant. We hope that there will be much more interaction and exchange with Mexican musicians. It is a special place.

[robin bell]

Originally Posted by brain

hola from Merida. We are about to go play the first concert tonight downtown in a beautiful casa about 300 years old, as much of the buildings are at least 300-400 years old.

The players in the group are great and devouring this new music. We are having a good time this week. The food is amazing, the city beautiful and the people warm and generous.

I am looking forward to tonight and tomorrow and playing the music written especially for these musicians and this event.

thanks again to Gerardo for helping this happen.

and thanks to jazzcornertalk for existing because without it, I would have never met Gerardo or seen the pictures of Merida or heard about the food that made me want to come down here and create the Meet the Composer Global Connections Grant. We hope that there will be much more interaction and exchange with Mexican musicians. It is a special place.

hey brian, great to hear from you. please let us know how the gigs go. have fun!!

[Gerardo A]

Originally Posted by brain

without [Jazzcorner], I would have never met Gerardo or seen the pictures of Merida or heard about the food that made me want to come down here and create the Meet the Composer Global Connections Grant

Ha. I'm glad that all my ranting about Mexican food led to something productive.

[Ron Thorne]

Me too, though I wasn't any part of the process.

[Gerardo A]

Okay, so here's the first YouTube video from the concert, a 2:30 clip. I took it (with my small digital camera) on the first set of the first night at Unas Letras, the same place where John Blum played last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LikVoBSVCAw

Brian Allen: trombone and electronics
Armando Martín: guitar and electronics
Arturo Báez: double bass, electric bass and electronics
Hernán Hecht: drums and percussion

I'll post some pics here as soon as I organize them. Cheers everyone!

[Dennis Gonzalez]

Wow! Beautiful, and exciting. Was the image of the band projected behind them? I'd love to see more!

[Gerardo A]

Thanks Dennis! Yeah, we usually project the image of the band whenever we record the concerts at Unas Letras, it adds a nice visual element. The house was packed that Friday, between 80-100 people. Next day, at El Cervantino, we had between 120-140 people in attendance.

I'll try to get more clips from both nights, since I was running with things I didn't have a chance to record more videos. Some friends of mine who run a visual arts studio recorded professionally the second night at El Cervantino; I actually have the plan of making a DVD from that to promote our local creative music organization. I'll keep you and everyone else here posted about it.

Oh and I also failed to acknowledge Ron Thorne's and Robin Bell's support a few posts back, thanks guys!

[brain]

Howdy folks,

I wanted to give an update on the fantastic Merida experience. We had a great time and some really exciting concerts. I can't say enough about how wonderful it was. I created a website for the quartet and the trip and everything. You'll find videos, MP3s, pictures, press coverage, bios, etc.

There is also a page for a really cool project that we did with the audiences from the two concerts. We passed out paper and pencils and encouraged people to draw or write any impressions during the concert. I was pretty blown away by what we got. There are scans of all the pictures. Some people also gave me origami animals but I couldn't scan those!

We hope this is another step to help further the collaborations happening between Mexico and the U.S. Just last week, a great percussionist named Emilio Tamez came up to Austin from Monterrey and played a solo concert and also with a few of us.

Thank you Armando, Arturo y Hernan for making this music work. They are such good people and it is a blast playing with them.

Of course I am thankful to Gerardo (another good guy!) for making everything happen and to Meet the Composer Global Connections. Thanks Dennis, Ron, Robin and everybody for your support!

Brian
......
www.braintone.com/quartet (in English)
www.braintone.com/quartet_espanol (in Spanish)
and on the youtube
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_lis...92228973CB8A1D

[Gerardo A]

Pretty cool, Brian, thanks!

I'd especially invite people to check out the audience artwork that Brian gathered, it's very moving.