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.
Yesterday I performed a dance program with Maria Rääk (dance, castagnets, clapping, choreography) and Reigo Ahven (cajon) at the Haapsalu Kuursaal (look at the second picture).
Haapsalu kuursaal
The program was partly same as my Dance Album tracklist but we’ve taken everything non-Spanish as this show was a total Spanish romantic era program.
We played:
Turina Fandanguillo (with castanets and clapping)
Anda jaleo (with dance and cajon)
Albeniz Tango (solo)
Spanish romanza (the famous anonymous piece, with dance)
Seguiriyas (cajon, clapping and dance only)
Tarrega Adelita & Lagrima (solo)
Serrano Farruca (with dance and cajon)
Malats Serenata Andaluza (solo)
Albeniz Asturias (with dance and cajon)
Albeniz Cadiz (with dance)
Tarrega Malaguena (with dance, castagnets and cajon)
Some Sevillanas as encore
Hall was packed but sound was a little bit uneven – the stage room is round and is made to amplify sounds but the sound doesn’t often find its way out from there:)
Here’s a little sample of what we did (sound is poor as always:)
There are so many dances that classical guitarists perform every day! Minuets, waltzes and mazurkas in music schools, allemandes, courantes, gigues and all Baroque dances at the academies and not to tell about the world of the Spanish music! Sometimes you don’t even realize that you are actually playing dance music!
My approach to the repertoire that I play after graduating from the academy of music has been to play only what I like. I don’t care if the music is old or new but if I like it then there are chances that one day I could play it myself. Next come the listener – if I know that the listener wouldn’t like my choice then I will not play it. After all – I did not educate myself to a master degree classical guitarist to sit home and please myself! The audience must approve my choices and then, if I have their permission, I can insert something slightly different or unexpected to my programs.
So the program of my CD turned out to be a total mainstream! I am happy because then it is possible for the audience to compare them with the “ordinary” interpretations. When my album was done and I had sent it to my colleagues in different countries then I got some feedback that people had put the CD aside when they got it because the program seemed mainstream bullshit. Later, when they decided to give it a try (after all – I have to listen to THEIR discs, too!), many of them were really surprised.
I tried to include dances from different eras. Here I have the branle, galliard and saltarello representing the medieval and renaissance period. Then come the bourree and gigue from the Baroque master followed by Spanish music and the Latin grooves in the end. Finally, under number 13 I’ve got the only Estonian dance. I had to have it. And what kind of percussion did I use to mark the measure in this dance? Violoncello
