bailar y tocar
Son Montuno
There was so many entertaining events this past weekend they literally spilled over into Monday for one of the all time highlights of the season. It all started out at the Dakota Jazz Club.
Friday May 2, Dakota Jazz Club, Charanga Tropical. There was a private event sponsored by the coffee importers association and they opened the club up to the general public for salsa dancing to local band Charanga Tropical after 11pm. There were several rueda dancers in the house, so we got our rueda fix to the salsa and timba tunes. It was the danzones and cha-cha-cha's, however, that make the experience of dancing to Charanga Tropical truly sublime, especially in such a classy place with so much room to dance and a very appreciative (possibly highly caffeinated) audience.
Saturday May 3, Cinco de Mayo, St. Paul. Tropical Zone got the salsa festivities off to a rousing start at 2pm. After a break, they continued with a 2nd set around 3:30pm. This 2nd set also featured a dance competition to the music of the band. The closing act was Sensacion Latina from around 5 to 6pm. The weather was simply perfect, just cool enough to keep everyone moving in the street and never too hot even in the bright sun and best of all: almost 3 hours of salsa dancing.
Sunday May 4, Southern Theater, Ragamala's premiere of Sva (Vital Force). This production was a sharp change of pace. Ragamala performs the classical Indian dance called Bharatanatyam as well as fusion productions with outstanding artistic partners. This year's collaboration partner was the Taiko drumming group Tokara from Japan. The highlight of the show was a joint performance with the drums of Tokara and the dancers of the Ragamala ensemble. This weekend was their only run of this production in the Twin Cities. They will be taking it on tour to the East Coast, Europe and Japan in 2008 through 2009.
Monday May 5, Dakota Jazz Club, Tiempo Libre with Sir James Galway. It was back to the Dakota on Monday. Robert Everest (Ticket to Brasil and several other local bands) opened the evening's first set with a small combo and tunes from his South American repertoire as well as some new originals from his Mediteraneo CD. Then came Tiempo Libre and world famous classical flutist Sir James Galway. They were in town as Galway had been performing at Orchestra Hall and he had invited Tiempo Libre (from Miami) to head north to record a joint project. The show at the Dakota was billed as a "dress" rehearsal for the recording session. They featured such a wide range of music that weaved in and out of classical, jazz, afro-cuban and popular folk repertoire, it was hard to keep up. It was just phenomenal how all this music just fit together. For the final set of the evening, Tiempo Libre performed a latin jazz repertoire with Doug Little on saxophon. Doug is the bandleader of local bands Charanga Tropical, Seven Steps to Havana and Los Tres Mundos. He summed up the night perfectly when he payed tribute to Dakota management by acknowledging the art that goes into programming outstanding acts time and again. Its no wonder the Dakota is emerging with a reputation as one of the crown jewels in the national music scene.
Friday May 2, Dakota Jazz Club, Charanga Tropical. There was a private event sponsored by the coffee importers association and they opened the club up to the general public for salsa dancing to local band Charanga Tropical after 11pm. There were several rueda dancers in the house, so we got our rueda fix to the salsa and timba tunes. It was the danzones and cha-cha-cha's, however, that make the experience of dancing to Charanga Tropical truly sublime, especially in such a classy place with so much room to dance and a very appreciative (possibly highly caffeinated) audience.
Saturday May 3, Cinco de Mayo, St. Paul. Tropical Zone got the salsa festivities off to a rousing start at 2pm. After a break, they continued with a 2nd set around 3:30pm. This 2nd set also featured a dance competition to the music of the band. The closing act was Sensacion Latina from around 5 to 6pm. The weather was simply perfect, just cool enough to keep everyone moving in the street and never too hot even in the bright sun and best of all: almost 3 hours of salsa dancing.
Sunday May 4, Southern Theater, Ragamala's premiere of Sva (Vital Force). This production was a sharp change of pace. Ragamala performs the classical Indian dance called Bharatanatyam as well as fusion productions with outstanding artistic partners. This year's collaboration partner was the Taiko drumming group Tokara from Japan. The highlight of the show was a joint performance with the drums of Tokara and the dancers of the Ragamala ensemble. This weekend was their only run of this production in the Twin Cities. They will be taking it on tour to the East Coast, Europe and Japan in 2008 through 2009.
Monday May 5, Dakota Jazz Club, Tiempo Libre with Sir James Galway. It was back to the Dakota on Monday. Robert Everest (Ticket to Brasil and several other local bands) opened the evening's first set with a small combo and tunes from his South American repertoire as well as some new originals from his Mediteraneo CD. Then came Tiempo Libre and world famous classical flutist Sir James Galway. They were in town as Galway had been performing at Orchestra Hall and he had invited Tiempo Libre (from Miami) to head north to record a joint project. The show at the Dakota was billed as a "dress" rehearsal for the recording session. They featured such a wide range of music that weaved in and out of classical, jazz, afro-cuban and popular folk repertoire, it was hard to keep up. It was just phenomenal how all this music just fit together. For the final set of the evening, Tiempo Libre performed a latin jazz repertoire with Doug Little on saxophon. Doug is the bandleader of local bands Charanga Tropical, Seven Steps to Havana and Los Tres Mundos. He summed up the night perfectly when he payed tribute to Dakota management by acknowledging the art that goes into programming outstanding acts time and again. Its no wonder the Dakota is emerging with a reputation as one of the crown jewels in the national music scene.