Old Town School – On The Road
Dispatches from the road from our wayfaring travelers.
¿El Mundo Está Muy Pequeño, Verdad?
This is Gerardo, Lani and I. Here is the awesome story about how we met him.
Monday took us to two meetings with cultural representatives in Morelia. The second was with Dr. Javier of the Conservatio de Rosa, which is a concert music school. It had already been a hectic day, with Shana and I playing for the pre-school, then rushing to another meeting and then rushing to the meeting at El Conservatorio.
So when Lani and I sat down in Jardin de Rosa, we were quite ready just to kamikapila (that’s “hang loose”). And that’s what we were doing.
Remember how I was talking about the idea of putting it music out there and just seeing what comes back. Well, about 10 minutes after we recorded the video from my post about the Hawaiian song Lani taught me, this gentleman sat down across from Lani and I. He was listening very intently to what we were playing. I noticed that he had some sheet music in his hand and I asked if he was a musician. He said he plays viola and he came over to join us.
After about 15 minutes of playing and talking (his English is excellent) he asked about he school we work at. Then he paused and said, “Wait. Do you know Victor Pichardo?”
Of coarse I was quite surprised and said, “Yeah! He’s my teacher of Méxican music.”
It turns out that Gerardo is the son of one of Victor’s friends and his whole family plays Son Jarocho.
In case you don’t know him. Victor Pichardo teaches the Mariachi and Son Jarocho classes at the Old Town School. He’s also the Musical Director of the wonder group based in Chicago, Sones de México.
How about that, huh? Of all the people in Morelia we bump into Gerardo.
We wanted to make some music together in the evening, but there was just too much going on. We had a 6:00 meeting at a school called Casa de Cultura (which is an awesome school) and then Anacron and I had a 10:00 appointment to be interviewed and play some music on an internet radio school. Then this morning (Tuesday – martes we had to leave the hotel at 7:00 am to catch the bus back to D.F.
But I certainly think we’ll be crossing paths with Gerardo again. Maybe someday I’ll be sitting out on the front porch in Chicago and he’ll walk by. Wouldn’t that be something. You never know what’s going to happen when you’re sitting on the front porch.
P.S.
This is a video of Gerardo and Herman, who is studying singing at the concervatory, playing a song called La Flor Canela. Neither of them had ever played ukele or banjo before this afternoon. ¿Está padre, no?
Filed under: Mexico,Notes from Jason by Jason | January 27, 2009 | Comments (3)
3 Comments so far
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Loved to see and hear you. Trip sounds great!
MOM
This video is awesome…it’s so cool to see them playing! What a fun day!
Wow! Que rico la estan pasando!
Hey Lani, you are rocking in Mexico! Where’s Shana?
I want to see her play too!
Have fun guys and enjoy the weather…and of course la cultura!