Friday evening live performance in Chapala and a mysterious singer
Friday nights on the Centro Cultural Gonzales Gallo in Chapala have gotten a go-to jewel of music and tradition. I’ve attend among the Sunday morning occasions, however only a few as a result of they battle with different issues on my schedule, so I made a decision to attend the El Canto de Agua live performance final Friday (March 21) as a result of I knew a lot of the members of the band. However I didn’t know the singer. Extra about that later.
The Gonzales Gallo Heart has an attention-grabbing historical past. Situated within the Previous Chapala Railroad Station opened in 1920, it fronts on Lake Chapala, Mexico’s largest lake. It closed 5 years later resulting from flooding and ultimately ended up being owned by the native González Gallo household who left it untouched for over 10 years. A group petition prodded native, state and Federal governments to reopen it. They did and the “Lic. J. Jesús González Gallo” Cultural Heart was created on March 28, 2006, administered by the Ministry of Tradition of the State of Jalisco. It even has a out of doors mannequin practice. Its concert events are usually free to the general public and the artists receives a commission.
The music there may be usually among the finest within the state, so I used to be trying ahead to El Canto del Agua. I wasn’t dissatisfied.
The night started with a conventional blessing dance (which I used to be not allowed to video – sorry) by which a shaman, backed by hand drums and a small costumed dance group together with youngsters, , danced by the stage after which by the viewers holding a sacred feather fan, bestowing blessings on the band and each member of the viewers.
He sat down and Tohtli took middle stage. Tall, bright-eyed, beautiful and undoubtedly in cost, she continued the ceremony with a hand drum and an lovely chant (additionally not for video, I used to be chastised) . Then the group launched right into a medley of indigenous, Mexican, and American commonplace songs, all performed completely with Tohtli’s voice hovering by the 2 story atrium corridor.
The band was Jose Antonio “El Chrris”, on guitarrón. Christian Cuevas on guitar, Chuny Medeles on guitar, and Raul Ortega on percussion (bongos, congas, cowbells, and so on), most of whom performed collectively in a mariachi and different native bands.
As I stated above, I didn’t know Tohtli, who I discovered later is Brenda Flores G., and was tremendously impressed. Not solely was she a superb presence who did she take cost and information the live performance and the opposite musicians, however she sang with the a voice a younger Joan Baez.
I waited after the live performance whereas her many admirers talked along with her to introduce myself and see I may get extra info. The dialog relied on our minimal abilities in one another’s language, however she gave me a card with simply her stage identify (or nickname or indigenous identify, I’m not certain which) and a Whatsapp quantity.
A WhatsApp message to her resulted in a voice reply in Spanish too quick for me to translate, which disappeared after one play.
I discovered her on YouTube and a song-free web page on Spotify website and a personal Instagram web page which referred me to her YouTube web page, so I can’t let you know a lot about her besides that she is an excellent, lovely, angelic singer.
So, Tohtli is a thriller which I hope will get unraveled as a result of her singing is world class and I want to hear extra of it, Within the meantime take a look at her YouTube web page https://www.youtube.com/@brendafloresgmusica or my YouTube web page for video of the live performance.
Patrick O’Heffernan
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