Ernesto Anaya: Hat(')s on and definitely Hat(')s off

 

According to the date of my previous blog post about Ernesto, it had been exactly a year since he came to perform at Sing Jazz club. 

Memories of that performance, partially assisted by rereading the post, made me want to go again. Though I wrote that time about loneliness and missing my companion, this time she could join to enjoy the music with me. 

 

On top of that, like last year, my dear friend Alina promoted the series of concerts very well, I could not say no. We took the first opportunity which was at Sing Jazz club

For this years occasion Ernesto came with two Mexican musicians, to complement his guitar/violin and vocals.

Jorge Morenos on guitar and voice

 

Daniel Soberanes Lasses on bass and voice

 

It may have been my mood or the fact that I was with the love of my life that the song style appeared different from last time. It may also have been the composition of the band that in fact did trigger them to play a different style, either way the tunes appeared more upbeat, several Mariachi songs were played accompanied with the usual “laughter”. 

Daniel but especially Jorge played a big roll in making things lively and fun for me. I asked Jorge later why he is so seemingly deliberate in taking his hat of and putting it back on. 

Apparently it has to do with style and lyrics of the song. I think a nice attention to detail in a live performance.

Ernesto of course also paid attention to some of the old Mexican folk songs he sang last year, beautiful songs with, by the sound of it, lots of emotions and mystery, 

sung by a person that has the appearance and a voice of a famous tenor. 

You cannot help that melancholic sentiment to come back, not even with the most favorite person in your life next to you.

 

 

Little Giant and other confusions

As we had rushed over to Artistry because the performances would start at 7, we arrived to see that the band was still setting up. More relaxed we took a seat outside to have a bite to eat.  We put in our order and started, as so many people do nowadays, checking our phones.

Out of curiosity, and maybe my sense that something else was a little off triggered me to check last evening's event.

It turned out I had the venues confused…again! The Little Giant EP launch was at Blu Jaz. Luckily it is around the corner and when we arrived it turned out that there were three sets with different bands. We did not miss Little Giant. 

The third floor at Blu Jaz was pretty much packed. I had no idea who or what Little Giant is but since I had decided to expose us to the world beyond the local jazz scene, we thought this sounded like fun.

Of course due to our mistake the first act was already in motion, though I don’t think for that long. I managed to snap a couple of shots of the drummer and the singer who both were quite animated and interesting to follow. 

 The lead singer I believe was also responsible for a lot of the lyrics, that came across to me like they were conversations with himself more than imaginary stories. 

Second act would have been much better at Artistry, where there is a better listeners atmosphere. Sound difficulties were challenging partially due to volume of the otherwise nice voice of the singer.

Little Giant made its appearance at about 9 PM. A five piece band 3 women 2 guys playing seemingly quite upbeat songs. 

That was until I started to hear what the lyrics were about. It may have been because my focus had been on the nice voice of that spirited back up singer, 

but I started to listen to lyrics only because of the titles of the last three. Words like die and kill tend to perk up one's ears. 

 

This led to the situation where we had a crowd of over 80 people cheering the band after the final words “everybody has to die”. This should be read in the right context. It was not meant in an aggressive way but stating the inevitable. 

Of course this may not come across as harsh when you are not even thirty, probably the age group present, but it made me scratch the back of my head a little and it would have been really sensitive for people over 80.