Maria and Reigo giving me the roses after the show
Yesterday we performed our dance program in a very-very suitable environment. It was as if the classic black box and a good sounding chamber hall had a child. In fact, it was a theatre hall built to an old bank. High ceiling, good stage, audience sitting around the stage.
It was a very special show. On one hand, the organizers had done great job and the house was packed. On the other hand I had a birthday and Maria and Reigo did a special dance number to me in the end of the show, right after our encore. Snow was snowing outside and wind was blowing like hell. It is normal here. But to play Spanish music at the same time? Well, a big contrast indeed.
Our program had many numbers from my Dance Album but the accent was on the Iberian culture this time. So we had Albeniz, Malats, Tarrega, Serrano and Turina on the program. I was playing the guitar, Maria Rääk was dancing and then we had Reigo Ahven on cajon and palmas.
For two days I was asked to help my friend Maria, who runs a flamenco school in Tallinn. We have been performing together for a few years but this time she asked me to participate in her special Farruca-class to accompany her students. Usually they practise with music from CDs so it was a special occasion. I know, one flamenco dancer can make a sound to beat a guitar orchestra, so what about 15 of them? It went fine though.
I was repeating sections and different parts of the Farruca and didn’t feel bored at all. I’ve thought about it before and it came to me again: accompanying dancers should be a must for all guitar students. Especially the classical guitarists who mostly play alone and don’t have to keep an even tempo. And believe me, they even cannot do it. Last week I listened to our students’ technical exams and problems with rhytm and tempo were among the most common ones. Yes, they have chamber music classes but playing together with a bowed instrument or a wind instrument doesn’t help. Those instruments have slow attack enough to let the guitarist still fool around and pretend to play.
When we started my Dance Album project I had thousands of serious sessions with metronome, dancers, clappers, percussionists etc to make it clear to myself – accompanying a dancer demands extreme precision. Imagine that a dancers jumps up and you are not ready with your next chord. A singer could wait for you but not a dancer who’s in the air! If you think that as a rock guitarist you don’t have those problems then it is not completely true if you’re not a bassist. These guys together with the drummer have to be real pros while the soloists can float around as they wish.
So I will try to find a way to get my students at the Academy to accompany dancers. It’s a pity we don’t have dancers at the academy but I’ll find some, no problem.
Vana-Vigala manor celebrated the 1st of September with a guitar and dance concert. They’ve just ended a massive renovation and the house looks prettier than ever. Estonia has plenty of manor houses but most of them are in a bad situation. But all of them have their own character and to play music in such place is always a pleasure.
This time we picked mostly the Spanish pieces from our Dance Album program but I played some Brazilian music as well. By the way – I’ve just relased a new CD to accompany “The Dance Album” in my discography. It is a live CD – “Live at cafe Sadhu” and it includes my own music besides Brazilian composers. See more about the “Live at cafe Sadhu” from here.
Seems that we’ll have some more Dance Album lives in close future. People like live music and dance and we’ve developed a good program. That’s nice.
There has been several live concerts with the dance project this summer but the one in the Meder’s hall in Tallinn is again something to talk about. It was organized by the Estonian National Concert and the hall is a special venue that they discovered and restored recently.
The hall is in the building of a school that is one of the oldest in Estonia if not THE oldest – Gustav Adolf’s Gymnasium. The history of this school starts in 1629. I think the building was actually meant for this school or maybe the house was there before but the fact is that this school has been working in the same house all the time!
The famous German baroque composer Johann Valentin Meder was born a little later – 1649. He lived and worked in Tallinn for some years: from 1674 to 1683 he was Kantor at the Gymnasium at Reval (that is our Tallinn nowadays!). So it is ok to name a hall by him. Infact this is a perfect hall for chamber music and baroque music. The old city of Tallinn is a special place in many ways but this hall suits well even for the guitar!
I have been playing in that hall with other programs and have organized guitar concerts by other players, too (Paul Galbraith and Benjamin Verdery played there). One thing is a good acoustics for the guitar but another thing is the proper environment for the dancer! Yes – this concert was again with a live dancer! Maria Rääk from Amargo has now done the choreography for some other dances besides Asturias, too.
Malaguena still goes with castagnets but now also with some dance. We have added some Sevillanas to the program that are not on the original CD. Fandanguillo has castagnets and handclapping and Danza brasileira has the shaker egg.
