My Peru diary - day 15 (all about the BIG SHOOT)

Peru diary (Dec. 19, 2014)

Well, yesterday was the BIG SHOOT, the reason that I scheduled my trip when I did, so that I could get all three great percussionists together:  Lalo Izquierdo, Juan Medrano Cotito, and Huevito Lobatón.

We filmed the conversation part in "my apartment."  l to r:  Cotito, Huevito Lobatón and Lalo Izquierdo.

And they were, well, great!

We started off by filming a conversation between the three of them, in which I presented three topics and asked them simply to talk about them.  The first topic was...how did they learn Afro-Peruvian rhythms.  Of course, I knew they had all learned as kids in their homes, watching parents, family, and friends but I wanted them to talk about this in front of the camera.

They did, indeed, talk.  After an hour on the topic, I had to raise my hand and ask them to stop since I was running out of film.  (I still shoot with videotape, although the other two camera people had video cards.)

Me with Huevito Lobatón.  We filmed the interviews in a park in Barranco (another district of Lima).

What they said as they talked was really fun and interesting.  I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Because of the time factor, we had to skip topic two, and I had them move briefly through topic three (what they think is the future of Afro-Peruvian music, rhythms and dance).

Next, we filmed short interviews in which I asked each of them separately a very few questions.

Lalo Izquierdo and Juan Medrano Cotito in the park.

Finally, the big thing:  the performance part.  We filmed this in a cultural organization which has a stage and puts on performances.  It's called Casa Shenan.

They did four numbers:  one with just the three of them playing cajón and singing;  one with Lalo Izquierdo and Huevito Lobatón performing zapateo footwork (with a guitar accompanying them) and two with a guitar, a singer, and the three of them playing percussion - cajón and some quijada de burro.

In Casa Shenan, setting up for the performance part.

It was really great.  In fact, I've decided I'll use this material (supplemented by other things I shot in Peru) to make a documentary called Masters of Percussion...because they really are, and all three are fascinating people.

_____________________

I am in Peru for reasons related to our documentary, A Zest for Life, and other work about Afro-Peruvians.

(For more photos, go to the Facebook page of Palomino Productions, A Zest for Life Afro-Peruvian, and Eve A. Ma.)

5th Annual International Cajón Festival

The Fifth Annual International Cajón Festival is in progress right now in Lima, Peru.  It runs from April 10-22.  Yesterday, organizers were expecting 1,500 cajón players (of all skills) to participate in a massive -- and undoubtedly loud and upbeat -- celebration open to anyone who had a cajón was invited to this event, intended to break the record set last year.

On other days, the festival features famous cajón players including Rafael Santa Cruz, Cotito (seen briefly in our documentary, A Zest for Life--both in a photo and also playing the checo), and performers from Spain (including two flamenco performances), from Brazil, Cuba, Mexico and Venezuela as well as, of course, many from Peru.

Cotito, with cajón, checo, and other Afro-Peruvian percussion instruments.

There are also videos, lectures, conferences, music clinics, and a couple of slots set aside for the checo...and again, LOTS of cajón performance.  If you are a percussionist, this is where you should be!

The web site for the festival is here LINK, but it is in Spanish.....

Although people of all kinds (and all races) now play the Afro-Peruvian cajón, the festival is giving due attention to its origins in the Afro-Peruvian community, featuring many great Afro-Peruvian percussionists as well as plenty of focus in the talks, videos, etc., about the Afro-Peruvian origins of this instrument.

OUR NEXT POST will be about the upcoming trip to Berlin for the Black International Film Festival (where A Zest for Life will be screened).  OK--next post will be about a video of zapateo, cajon, etc. that a nice person named Kevin sent me, and the one AFTER that will be about Berlin.

The "checo," an Afro-Peruvian percussion instrument

The "checo" is a percussion instrument made out of a large gourd.  It was developed by Afro-Peruvians and had nearly passed into extinction.  It wasn´t known outside of the Afro-Peruvian community, and Afro-Peruvian traditional music itself was in danger, due to commercialization and the financial instability of the Afro-Peruvian community, which made it difficult for people to take the time to master their music and retain all of its flavor.

Even the seeds of the gourd out of which the checo is made were getting hard to find.

Couldn't find photo of a checo.  Imagine THIS gourd without the top part, just the spherical section at the bottom.

A town called Zaña in northern Peru has undertaken to help restore and popularize the checo.  To this end, residents have tracked down and conserved the seeds, planted them, and grown more of the gourds.  They have also established music classes to teach the use of this instrument, and participated in festivals both local and in Peru´s capitol city, Lima.  And now, they´ve made a video about it, explaining its history and demonstrating its use.

You might find this interesting.  Here´s the LINK.

The video, produced by the Museo Afroperuano de Zaña, is in Spanish...but the music and the dancing, well, everyone can enjoy those whether or not they speak Spanish.

The marvelous adaptability of Afro-Peruvians, their ability to make music and other forms of art out of the most mundane objects, is one of the hallmarks of the community.  May we all learn to make beauty out of the commonplace, and music out of  what's around us.

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about the CD we're about to release.  It'll be the musical track from our documentary, A Zest for Life:  Afro-Peruvian Rhythms, a Source of Latin Jazz.