Tag: Cuba

Buckets of FUN!

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Bucket Drum

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The Shoreline Jam

Remember that old song, I don’t Want to Work? Well,  last week,  I got paid to bang on the drum all day!  Among my music offerings including performances and private lessons, I work in communities near and far as a teaching artist. This means I utilize my skills and knowledge as a music educator and performer to tailor music experiences for a variety of audiences. For example, I’ve crafted tambourines and danced the Tarantella with elementary students, I’ve taught singalongs at retirement homes, and I’ve taught teenage Spanish classes the  Salsa!

This past week, I taught classes in bucket drumming as part of an arts camp offered to elementary aged kids and teens through the  Shoreline Lake Forest Park Arts Council.  I was one of several teaching artists offering unique arts experiences including, movie making/editing, theater  improv, print making, fiber arts, cartooning, silhouette creation, and cooking, to name a few. The goal of the camp, according to Kelly Lie, Shoreline Lake Forest Park Arts Education manager?   The Three E’s: Expose, Experience, Experiment!  I’ll say, the campers  experienced the three E’s in a big way!

My class, Rhythm Explosion, included Latin American percussion, bucket drums,  body percussion, and repurposing recycled materials into percussion instruments.  I met with two groups of students each day for a week.  The overall experience culminated in an Arts Showcase where all participants  presented their work to family and friends. Our final performance included both improvisation and composed pieces.

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The great thing about bucket drumming?  It only requires a five gallon bucket, a pair of drum sticks, and imagination.  (Ear plugs don’t hurt either!) There’s something cathartic about banging out rhythms in a group, or solo experience.

The work the students (with the help of some outstanding teachers) completed during the week was impressive.  The showcase included a professional looking gallery of  visual art  along with  a variety of  live performances.  Upon exiting the showcase, audience members were offered an icy cold fruit pop made by the culinary arts class.

Lorie Hoffman, executive director of the Shoreline arts council gave a presentation during the week about being an artist.  She told us, “Making art makes my heart sing.”   This week made my heart sing.  I can’t help but think experiences like this have ripple effects and  improve the world little by little, poco a poco.

“It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.”
–Steve Jobs, in introducing the iPad 2 in 2011

 

For more on bucket drumming, I encourage you to check out this clip:

Here are two websites offering tips on getting started with bucket drumming:http://www.bucketdrumming101.com

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Connection and Compassion Through the Arts

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One of the highlights of my week  was teaching a the salsa in an elementary school  next to a 4th grade Muslim girl who had a huge grin on her face the entire time.  Her eyes were beaming  as she gave me a big bear hug at the end of the class before heading out the door.  In that moment of humanity, we were saying to each other, “I get you, and you get me.”  I’ll never forget it.

I just spent one week in an elementary school in Shoreline- teaching a Cuban cultural/dance/and song workshop to 45 classes and 600 kids in all. This residency was made possible by a grant from a local arts organization,  The Shoreline Arts Council.  To say the least, it was rewarding,  to take kids on a “classroom trip to Cuba.” I showed photos and videos of my trip, taught a tradition Yeruban song, a Spanish song, and taught the basic steps of two Cuban dance forms: Rumba, and Salsa.  The previous week,  I spent a day in a high school Spanish classroom  giving the same workshop to 5 groups  of  high school seniors (150 students in all),  yet another arts experience made possible with an arts grant.

You’ve heard it before, the arts transcends borders. When kids are exposed to the arts and culture through the arts, it broadens their world view, takes them outside of themselves, and makes them more compassionate human beings.

After one class, a second grader commented, “I see that even though a leader of a country can be thought of as not a nice person, that doesn’t mean the people that live there are bad.” Too true, my friend!

Here are some comments from the high school seniors:

M.K.  I appreciated the opportunity to express myself through artistic movement

L.E.  It was the most fun thing I’ve done in Spanish all year.

E.Z.  It was cool to learn a tradition of another culture.

L.E.  I’m glad I put myself out there to try it, it allowed me to be exposed to others.

Arts funding is currently under attack under our current administration. Please take a moment to  read this article in the New York Times  about the importance of arts and arts funding to our society.

March Music Madness

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“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
Oscar Wilde

Piano Phasing, a concert featuring more than 25  pianists (playing at the same time)  was one of the highlights from this month. Four of my students and I participated in the event, playing a composition by a Dutch Composer, Kristoffer Zeegers.  For a taste of what piano phasing is all about. Thanks to Seattle teacher GraceAnn Cummings for making this possible and for Classic Pianos in Bellevue for hosting the event.

The experience was meditative, loud, and cathartic.  I can see the attraction of making a lot of noise. What a treat to participate right along with my students in a performance.  I adore my students xoxoxoxo!!!!!

In addition, there were adjudications sponsored by the Seattle Music Teachers Association. Nine of my students played two memorized pieces and received written and verbal feedback on their performances from a wonderful adjudicator from Spokane.  Three students participated in the Young Artists Festival at the University of Washington- which is adjudications…. amped up  a few notches with very  high level playing, expectations,  and world class adjudicators.

I adjudicated for a local festival myself,  spent a Saturday from 8-5 listening to about 50 young pianists play two pieces each while I worked with another adjudicator to give feedback on their performances.  Some of their performance attire could melt a heart!  A  six year old in a pouffy white dress with black polka dots comes to mind.

Oh March, never a dull moment.  I  started a music residency at Ridgecrest Elementary  featuring Cuban music and dance.  I’m  presenting  music and dance of Cuba in narrative, photos, and videos,  and then we salsa, rumba, and sing our hearts out!  It’s great to spend a day dancing.  (or a week! ) I’ll see every student in school for two classes when all is said and done, by the end of next week.

There’s a new project in the works  for the fall, and probably for  the next several years. The new project consuming my creative energy is  Heart and Place: Music of the Westward Expansion.   I’m reading a wide array of  history of the West in the 1800’s, including the Lewis and Clark Expedition, diaries of pioneers and settlers of the Western frontier, and anything I can get my hands on.  The story of Westward Expansion is complicated,  compelling, heart-breaking, inspiring, and massive! I’m  spending a good amount of time talking to historians and people who have personal stories (for example,  this wonderful story,  featuring Al Wiseman and the Métis fiddle tradition).   What a delight to  work on this project which is quickly becoming an obsession.  In a way it feels like coming home to my roots.

I’m determined to add  traditional music that would have been played on the trail by he early pioneers to my performance repertoire for this project.  In pursuit of that goal, I’ve started taking fiddle lessons.  A humbling experience, to say the least, but I’m highly motivated and so I  spend an hour every day  sawing on  my new instrument, the fiddle!   Rosin up that bow!

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Florida

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Contigo En La Distancia by César Portillo De La Luz, Recorded 1/5/17 in Yellow House Studio by Laura.

Central and Southern Florida!  Joe and I spent a week over the holidays in the Orlando area, Miami, and Key Largo.

We kicked off the trip with a visit to  Joe’s family in Titusville where we spent a beautiful day at the beach and another day meandering through the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge amongst  alligators, Great Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, and Green Herons.

In Miami, we side strolled down the stylish art deco styled South Beach. Wall to wall  activity includes bustling  sidewalk cafés, posh shops, sandy beaches, and Cuban music blasting in the background. We also visited little Havana and enjoyed a traditional  Cuban meal near our hotel.

My favorite outing was to the Viscaya Museum and Gardens, built in 1914-1916 by the wealthy James Deering. The mansion and gardens, situated on a 180 acre estate, resemble the  Italian Renaissance and Baroque villas Deering visited in his travels.  I was fascinated by the ornate details of the huge mansion including a massive open indoor/outdoor courtyard and the sprawling gardens.  On the day we visited, teenage beauties posed for quinceañera photos. Each girl had an entourage in tow including photographers, assistants, make up artists, mothers, aunts, friends, and sisters  juggling water, granola bars, curling irons, dresses, shoes, and cell phones.

Our final adventure (not including driving on Florida’s fast moving highways) was a day trip to Key Largo for an afternoon  of snorkeling in the Atlantic.  We took a  boat 45 minutes out to sea to Grecian Reef where we enjoyed an hour and a half of snorkeling with a huge variety of tropical fish  in blues, greens, yellows, and pinks, including several large and teethy barracuda!

 

Quinceañera photo shoot in the garden of Vizcaya
QuinceañeraBeauty at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
My best quinceañera pose
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Swimming pool and grotto and Vizcaya
Joe ready to get on the snorkel boat Key Largo
Key Largo
Iguana at Green Cay Wetlands
Green Heron at Green Cay Wetlands
Anhinga at Green Cay Wetlands
Turtles at Green Kay
Great Egret at Merritt Island
Gator at Merritt Island
Roseate Spoonbill, Merritt Island

Memories of Cuba

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You’re invited to Memories of Cuba: Laura Dean presents piano music, songs, travel photos and videos from her recent music adventure! 

Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016, 2:00 PM

Music Center of the Northwest, 901 North 96th Street, Seattle, WA

Admission is free, made possible by grants from ArtsWA and MTNA

 

Lágrimas Negras, Yellow House Salon #12

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Still dreaming of adventures in Cuba.  Today, a post featuring Lágrimas Negras (black tears), a traditional Cuban Bolero written by Miguel Matamoros. My group learned this piece under the instruction of a wonderful voice teacher at the havana music school.

The bolero, in two parts, opens with a slow lament. The singer has been abandoned and suffers immense pain. She sobs black tears over her lover’s  transgressions. The second half picks up as she decides to suffer no more.  Above, my recording, a piano arrangement of Lágrimas Negras.

 

Don’t miss these three different takes on Lágrima Negras:

Cuban Singer/Guitarist with Cuban footage

American Cuban Songstress, Celia Cruz

Cuban piano master Bebo Valdés and  flamenco cantador, Dieguito El Cigala

Please visit Weeks 9, 10, and 11  for more on my Cuban adventures.

Obini Bata, (Yellow House Salon #11)

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IMG_0573Obini Bata is a government sponsored bata drumming and performance group. In fact, this is the first group of women in Cuba to play Yoruba drums professionally, a role typically reserved for men. Bata drums are hourglass-shaped drums played in a group of three.

Yoruban music has African origins, Nigerian, to be exact.  This music and dance were originally used in religious ceremonies. The leader of Obini Bata, a former principal ballarina, tells us the group strives to portray Yoruban music and dance as a cultural art without religious implications.

The group has performed all over Cuba and Nigeria. The performers rehearse 4-8  hours every day in their bare bones studio in a crumbling building in the Central District of Havana. Our visit includes a powerful private performance of singing, drumming, and dancing. The women also conduct a workshop for my  group where we try our hand at Yoruba drumming (much harder than it looks), sing a  Yoruban song, and dance in long white skirts.

For more about my adventures in Cuba, please visit week #9 and week#10 of the Yellow House Salon.

 performance and documentary  footage of Obini Bata  (en español)

Rumba! (Yellow House Salon #10)

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Today’s recording is a video of Rumba dancers and musicians taken at El Gran Palenque. (Havana, Cuba)

 

Rumba! Locals are packed in at El Gran Palenque in the Vedado district of Havana, Cuba.  It’s a rumba fiesta and all generations are represented in this lively party under the hot Havana sun.

Rumba is a Cuban dance accompanied by a live band. The musicians (rumberos), include a lead  singer and percussion. There are three sizes of drums (trumbadoras) and smaller percussion instruments including claves (two hollow sticks struck together),  a  catá (a small hollow trunk mounted on a stand and struck with two sticks), and sometimes a type of gourd shaker (a gourd covered with a netting of beads).

There are different styles of Rumba including  the guaguancó, the columbia, and the yambú.  The guanguancó is danced by couples and has a courting element where the man pretends to kick the woman between the legs and the woman quickly covers herself to avoid  his advances. The  Columbia is a solo dance for males while the  yambú is for older people, often accompanied by a cajón, or box drum.

Yellow House Salon #9, Rhythms of Cuba

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Rumba, almendrones (vintage cars from the 50’s now used as colectivos and taxis), salsa, cajons(a type of drum used in Cuban music), congas, magnificent restored mansions, crumbling  estates, high rise government housing, sidewalk cafes, vegetable venders, bicycles, car honks, clave rhythms, dancers, drummers, bungavilla, more car honks,  Santeria (an Afro Caribbean religion) , arroz y frijoles (rice and beans), strong  coffee, Cuban ballads, tobacco fields, bananas, pineapple, pigs, oxen, chickens, and stray dogs, and many, many, many gracious and beautiful people. My group of 11 intreped travelers settled into this beautiful and complicated tangle for 12  packed days on a recent trip to Cuba!  I joined Andre Mallinger and Laura Tyson of True Nature Journeys for a transformational, small group adventure trip  focusing on the music, dance, and culture.

On the first part of our trip, we stay in the cultural heart of Havana, the Vedado district, known for its hotels, theaters, and music venues. Here colonial mansions mingle with high rise 50’s style buildings. Our hosts for this portion of the trip are Cuban families who operate casa particulars, private rooms in large apartments.

While in Havana, we attend music classes with both highly trained professional musicians and dancers and excellent street style players. Local scholars enlighten us with discussions about music, culture, and Cuban history. Stand out experiences include neighborhood gatherings such as El Gran Palenque, a Rumba fiesta where multi generations mingle together for music and dancing  in a lively party scene.

In addition to our time in the city, we travel out of Havana for a look at rural life in Valle Viñales, where we stay in lovely, family-owned casitas. Here, life moves at a slower pace. We stroll through fields and tobacco farms, and enjoy beautiful rock formations (migotes) which rise like giants (as high as 1,000 feet), out of the floor of the green valley.

This weeks recording is a video of a group heard on our first night in Havana, the group was playing at UNEAC (a beautiful courtyard  venue  dedicated to writers, artists, and musicians in the Vendado district.)

The next few posts will go into deep depth about Rumba, Cuban Canciones, and Cuban culture.