festival de "yazz"

Last night I went a show that was a part of the annual international jazz festival in Santo Domingo. The guest musician was French - he later played with some Dominicans - and the music was fantastic. I always find it incredible that musicians can memorize such complex pieces of music. And the talented Frenchman even had carefully practiced notes in Spanish to say to the crowd between songs. Many people in the audience were clearly jazz connoisseurs (connaisseurs? je ne sais pas) and were focused on the music, but I was distracted and entertained by watching the musicians themselves, their facial expressions, their hand movements. And not just because he is French, but when the pianist was really getting into it, he looked like an orgasmic frog. He was joined by two Dominican percussionists who, when really connecting with their music, looked like a monkey on an acid trip and a stoner mouse. I can make these comments without feeling bad because it is well established that I look like a koala.

In addition to playing more traditional pieces, they did mix it up a little. The frog put papers and a book on the piano strings to change the sound, which was really cool. On their first piece together, the mouse was on the conga drums and the monkey sat on what appeared to be a wooden box. (I later asked what this instrument was called, and it is indeed "the box.") The mouse's hands moved so quickly they seemed a blur sometimes and the monkey made the craziest noises come out of la caja. Then it was monkey's turn on the congas while the mouse took up this thing that kind of looks like a large metal beer stein and makes scratchy noises. (Wikipedia is currently failing me on naming the instrument.) Then they improvised - I don't know how all three were just making it up as they went along and it still sounded good. As they say here, fue chulísimo!