{"id":948,"date":"2020-02-12T08:23:27","date_gmt":"2020-02-12T08:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=948"},"modified":"2020-02-12T08:23:28","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T08:23:28","slug":"music-for-the-rest-of-their-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2020\/02\/12\/music-for-the-rest-of-their-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"MUSIC FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MUSIC\nFOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Meeting Of Timples, Teatro Tias, January        2020 review<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual La\nCanderlaria and San Blas religious festival in Tias always presents a plethora\nof arts that showcase the town and its artists and their guests during a week\nof events for all the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The festival\nalso seems to carry the unusual feature of offering spots in which aspiring\nstudent musicians make debut public performances in a theatre setting, in front\nof family, friends, strangers and tourists. To make that slightly less, or\nperhaps even more, daunting they play set pieces alongside a music tutor and\nplayer who has been mentoring them all year. To ensure that the nerves really\ndo jingle like Mr. Bojangles, this performance is then a contributory factor to\nthe young person\u00b4s musical grade for the year. No pressure there, then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The evening\nopened with their mentor, Jose Perez, well known on the island as a superb\ntimple player, came to the stage and explained what was going on to those who\ncould understand him, However, what we have described to you above was gleaned\nfrom the atmosphere, audience response, and pale faces of the nervous\nexaminees, because we cannot understand Spanish at this speed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have actually\nspoken to Jose before and mooted the idea of an interview with him (as his\nEnglish is better than mine!) but it has proved difficult to arrange.\nNevertheless, we remain keen to do so, as he delivers invigorating performances\nas a solo artist, and occasionally puts together his own bands when the\noccasion justifies it, and is a much in-demand guest in all sorts of other\nmusical line ups on Lanzarote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here tonight we\nsaw him in a new light, and not only because his recently bearded face seems to\nlend his smiling personality a little bit of gravitas but also because he\nembodied everything a mentor should be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
PUPIL AND TEACHER<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

He was sympathetic and empathic to his students, showing patience and cleverly disguising his own playing to fall in to support them if they stumbled, though that happened only rarely. On this occasion he was playing guitar to enable the distinctive timple styles of each student to be more clearly heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The four\nstudents seemed to range from perhaps as young as ten or eleven years old to\nfifteen, maybe sixteen. All performed more than admirably and it seemed that\nall could have careers ahead of them in the music industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The picking from\nall was excellent, often with dextrous fingers flying across the strings with\none of the two excellent male performances evoking somehow The Streets Of\nLaredo of the old wild west. The two girls, also, each gave a quite charismatic\nperformance, as if transcending exam requirements in the sheer love of playing.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the grin on\nhis face, Jose seemed pleased with his charges, and they all exited the stage\nclearly even more delighted by the words of encouragement from their mentor\nthan by the wild whoops and hollers of supporters in the audience and, even,\nmore than any sense of relief that their ordeal was over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
jOSE AND STUDENTS
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Photo 2 jose perez and all examinees<\/strong> Those few of us\nin the audience who had no familial or emotional investment in any of the\nplayers felt like judges in a talent show. Who had the X Factor? They all did. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prospects of\ncareer and fun that beckons these young musicians were then clearly shown by a\nguest band for the evening. What their name was, where they were from, why they\nwere there I can\u00b4t tell you. (What do you think I am? A reporter ?). There was\nno printed programme, the introductions were in Spanish or Lanzarotan or\nCanarian or some dialect thereof. (You have no idea how hard our life is.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, we do our\nbest and I am pleased to report that this was a wonderful ensemble, with a\nfinger-picking good timple player at its centre, an unobtrusive acoustic\nguitarist, a really cool player of a long-necked bass and a female drummer who\nseemed to somehow keep everyone rock-steady whilst constantly smiling, almost\nlaughing, at how much fun this was, being at one with other musicians. These\ninstrumentalists supported, played alongside with and were in turn supported by\ntwo female vocalists, who themselves complemented each other perfectly. One had\na soul, jazz vibe about her voice, whilst her colleague had an incredibly\nstrong voice that rang round the theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4How would you\ndescribe that music?\u00b4 asked my mate Iain as we made our way out of the theatre\nat the end of the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Rankin Family<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The answer would depend on my required word count. One word, brilliant, would do, but I would expand and say that I was particularly reminded of The Rankin Family, a group I twice saw perform in the nineteen nineties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quite why the \u00b4traditional jigs, reels and Celtic folk songs\u00b4 were\nbrought to mind by this anonymous but massively talented band in Tias tonight\nI\u00b4m not too sure, because I was throughout the show also fleetingly reminded of\nsnatches of Steeleye Span, the shuffles of the Beuna Vista Social Club and\nstrange little riffs that took me to Willie Nelson and yet to answer Iain\u00b4s\nquestion The Rankin Family was the first name to spring to mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My memories of those gigs I saw in the nineties are of The Rankin Family\nmaking music that sauntered on a walk as lonely as a cloud but at other times\nbecame part of the madding crowd, all dance and joy and call and chatter and\nlove of life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\u00b4the great unknown
a group in Tias<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This group on stage in Teatro, Tias delivered much of the same mood. It was their encore that brought the Cuban reminders, but there had also been a folk lore song, instantly memorable to any tourist to Lanzarote who has ever spent a Sunday morning at Teguise market where the folk lore dancers and timple players play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The band also gave us a folk tune, so damned catchy,  that I know I know and can\u00b4t get out of my\nhead even though I can\u00b4t remember what the tune is. It reminded me very much of\nmy Lancashire folk club days but that is what this group did all night. They\nreminded me on occasions of all the music I have ever loved, and yet somehow\npromised me new music I have yet to hear. (I always felt that way about The\nRankin Family, too)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So was this \u00b4unknown\u00b4 band simply a collection of musicians put together\nfor the night? Surely that could not be so. Although their individual playing\nwas always superb it was as an ensemble that they shone the brightest. They had\nabout them, as well, a \u00b4band\u00b4 attitude, and a modest sense of how good they are\nand they all clearly appreciated the talents of the others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am an old fogey these days on the music scene, and I know too little\nabout the potential for touring and recording profitably on The Canary Islands,\nbut if the young examinee student musicians from earlier in the evening stayed\nin the wings to see and hear this they must surely have been inspired to\ncontinue their studies and reach this level of proficiency, and be able to\nenjoy this much fun for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MUSIC FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES A Meeting Of Timples, Teatro Tias, January        2020 review The annual La Canderlaria and San Blas religious festival in Tias always presents a plethora of arts that showcase the town and its artists and their guests during a week of events for all the family. The festival also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}