Gala Concert
Joropo Jam (Manuel Rangel, Edwin Arellano, Leonidas Rondón & Fernando Alvarez)
The Joropo or Música llanera is a musical style that has African, Native South American and European influences and originated in the plains called "Los Llanos" of what is now Venezuela. It is a genre of música criolla (creole music). Formerly, the Spanish word Joropo meant “the party” but nowadays it defines a type of music (and dance) that identifies Venezuelans. Joropo is differentiated by the region where it is originated: central (Aragua, Miranda, Carabobo and Guarico), East Joropo (Sucre, Monagas, Anzoategui), Guayanes (south of Venezuela), tuyero, larense and much more.
Born in 2010, Joropo Jam (Rangel - maracas, Arellano - bass, Rondón - cuatro & Alvarez - oboe) is a sample of the large quota of young musicians creating the urban musical district currently in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. The musicians gathered just asking where the "thing" is, started to play this wonderful collective experience.
The only rule of Joropo Jam is to play joropo without intentions to set patterns, impose tendencies, tastes or refer to innovation or modernization. Joropo Jam is not a group per se, it resembles a sonorous portrait of what could be any meeting and jam between our musicians, where they lose track of time playing and improvising their favorite music. Joropo Jam is a celebration where we are invited to. And we invite those who listen to them to let themselves go without pre conceived ideas, judgements and taste one by one the musical surprises from each song. At this stage surely it's more about sharing our conviction that Caracas’ joropo is probably the marvelous sum of all the joropos that live in our country. Adapted from Alejandro Calzadilla and Wikipedia
Date: Saturday, Oct 20th
Venue: Performance Hall • National Music Centre • 851 4 Street SE, Calgary AB, T2G 1P2
Time: 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 7:00 p.m.)