E-mail From Vaquero

If anyone's around this part of the world, his music events listing may be of interest. Yes, he this obnoxious e-mail habit of ignoring the use of the shift key -- he says it saves him keystrokes It drives me nutz.

[ an episode of afropop worldwide uplinked this week that i guest-produced: Afropop Shoutouts to Colombia and Cuba. If you don't live in a city where the public radio station carries afropop worldwide, you can stream it at:
http://www.afropop.org/
(go to the "listen on air" section). there's a variety of music on the show, but my favorites might be banda la república from medellín (a sharp 13-piece band that plays pan-american music and does a really good job of reinterpreting the sound of cuban timba) and choc quibtown (a bogotá-based trio from quibdó, in the province of chocó, that does afro-colombian roots music in a hiphop context).

we are now in the high season of music in new york. if you had nothing todo but run around town catching musicians from all over the globe, and an unlimited amount of money to spend or infinite guest-list cachet, you could have a great musical experience every night and quite a few afternoons.

for that matter, there are a lot of free shows, like victor manuelle at centralpark summerstage this past sunday afternoon. yesterday evening i went to a press party for the queens theater in the park 12th annual latino cultural festival, a great series that this summer will have los gaiteros de san jacinto (a fine revived version of the folkloricinstitution from the caribbean coast of colombia), zemog el gallo bueno (modernist puerto rican music from nyc), aquiles baez (guitarist fromvenezuela), and lots more, including -- my reason for being there -- the bachata roja tour.

which was how last night i got to meet ramón cabrera, better known as el chivo sin ley (the lawless goat), possessor of one of the great voices of old-school dominican bachata, who had arrived the day before and was singing in new york for the first time ever last night (two numbers), backed up by joan soriano (el duque de la bachata) and el chivo's longtime colleague edilio paredes (who plays most friday nights at the 27 de febrero restaurant on st. nicholas, about 11:30). el chivo's comment: "who ever heard of a flying goat? but i flew!" the bachata roja tour kicks off in chicago next week:
http://www.iasorecords.com/tours-concerts.cfm
and finishes up at the queens theater on august 1.

i dashed from there up to tavern on the green for eddie palmieri's latin jazz sextet. three cubans (yosvany and yunior terry, mike rodriguez) andthree puerto ricans (little johnny rivero, josé clausell, and EP), playingthat palmieri book, and it was a magical set in the TOTG's glass gazebo,with elaborate chandeliers and a full house demanding more.this weekend is dafnis prieto at the jazz standard, and there are more installments of the week-long tribute to miguel "angá" díaz at the jazz gallery
http://www.jazzgallery.org/live/, reaching a peak on saturday.

on friday (the summer solstice and official first day of summer), we havethe superduper cheo feliciano 50th anniversary concert at the madison squaregarden wamu theater, which will feature, besides Cheo, Ruben Blades, EddiePalmieri, Johnny Pacheco, Ismael Miranda, Papo Lucca, Bobby Valentin,Roberto Roena, Jimmy Sabater, Oscar Hernandez and The Spanish harlem Orchestra.
http://www.thegarden.com/events/cheo-feliciano-0608.html Fox here: I'm really looking forward to this one!

more: sunday is joa~o gilberto at carnegie hall, and the 24th is gilberto gil at the nokia theater.and the smithsonian folklife festival kicks off next week in washington dc. in the middle of a week dedicated to texas, with a lot of first-rate people(mingo saldivar, lloyd maines and terri hendrix, joe ely, asleep at thewheel, guy clark, marcia ball) they have a concert at 6 PM on the 28th honoring rené lópez, featuring a reconstituted version of the groundbreaking (in the 70s) grupo folklórico y experimental nueva yorquino. schedule at:
http://www.folklife.si.edu/festival/2008/Evening_Concerts.html

james early's piece about rené is at http://www.folklife.si.edu/resources/pdf/2008PBk/SFF08_PBk_Rinzler.pdf ]

In the meantime, the rivers flood and the levees fail. Our agricultural practices, I'm convinced, have played a significant role in this disaster.