Just got back from finishing up the last day at the Cha’ak’ab Paaxil Festival in Mérida.

For the concert – Carmina and I wanted to do something with Page of Madness but we were limited to 35 minutes and there was no way to really edit it without destroying the narrative – so we ended up having to use part of Decasia by Bill Morrison.  We edited it that afternoon and performed it at Ule – which was a really great space.  I was having some tech trouble before the show and we got through it with a well recieved set.

The Structured Improvisation with Film Workshop went well and had great participants. While Carmina and I have a lot of experience working with film – trying to present that in a 3 hour package and then having Carmina translate my rambling in real time was particularly challenging.  But everyone rose to the occasion and I was just knocked out by the quality of how well everyone adapted to the situation.  Special thanks to Juan Garcia for organizing the event and the College of Arts of Yucatan for hosting it.

Innumerable performance highlights but the Mandorla [Manrico Montero + Fernando Vigueras + Juanjosé Rivas] set stayed with me for days, as well as the Bhob Rainey + Manrico Montero, Bhob Rainey + Juanjosé Rivas performances and the No.Estacion.Arte [Aimée Theriot + Eli Pinto + Alfredo Bojorquez + Juan Garcia] sets.  But really all of them were memorable.  I didn’t come with any expectations (Except for Fernando who I knew from Linfa and like his playing a lot) and was just knocked out by the quality of the musicians.  How I didn’t know about Chris Cogburn or Manrico or Juanjosé before is just troubling to me.  But I plan on making up for lost time.  It was also fascinating how even though I was in Boston for years and knew about Vic Rawling and Bhob Rainey – I’d never heard them live until the festival.  The irony of that wasn’t lost on me either.

Everyone here has been awesome!

Thanks to:

Gerardo Alejos, Rejon Enrique Palma, Juan García and everyone else involved in the festival organization.
The musicians: Juanjosé Rivas, Manrico Montero, Armando Martín, Remi Álvarez, Chris Cogburn, Bhob Rainey, Vic Rawlings,  Mauricio Valdés, Milo Tamez, Elí Pinto, Aimée Theriot, Alfredo Bojórquez, Oscar García & Camilo Solís (I hope I didn’t forget anyone!!!)  You were all great and I hope we can play together in the future.
The really awesome audiences!

Special Thanks to:

mi nuevo amigo –  Fernando Vigueras (for putting up with a lot of me in a short period of time).  Getting to know him alone made the festival worthwhile.
mi mejor amiga – Carmina Escobar (for endless translating, friendship and truly great collaborations)