by windhorse » Sat Apr 11, 2015 4:34 pm
Around Monday or Tuesday, I was contacted via Facebook by an FB friend of several of my contacts through Humboldt Afro-Cuban program that I visit every year. He wanted to know what sort of Afro-Cuban meet-ups we have around here since he’d be visiting in Denver for a week. Also, he wanted whatever contacts I had in Denver, so I shared what I could. He contacted Jeff and Mike, and came to Boulder last night to join our Friday jam. What a gift! He ended up being an initiate steeped in tradition. He’s a History teacher, Daniel, from Chicago. He knew hundreds of songs and could play his parts while coaxing people to play their parts correctly, all while teaching us songs. We started with LaTopa and moved into a bata rumba, first Llongo, then Chacha. We got schooled big-time and played harder than ever! Our arms were sore and we had to rotate parts just to keep up. We did Bembes, Rumbas, an Iyesa, and a Guiro. Later in the evening we were playing a Palo with Daniel on caja and leading some Palo songs, when some guys hanging outside the window and smoking a cigar walked around, waiting for us to end. They knocked on the door, and this really deeply rooted Palo elder stepped into the room smoking his cigar, waving his arms around, and led us in a long guttural and aggressive benediction. It was really deep and full of vigor as he was super inspired by what we had been doing, and maybe by the fact that anyone in this area would be playing his kind of music. So we launched into another Palo and did a bunch more songs, with his two initiates filling a bunch of coro! Whoof! When those guys left, we just looked at each other like “What just happened?” OMG What a night!!