Jazz caliente en un domingo frio

For a small island in between a big island and the mainland, we don’t half punch above our weight sometimes when it comes to attracting musicians. Take yesterday.

Yes, Cuban jazz on a wet winter’s day!

Of course this is island living, so there’s always a chance a tree will fall over a power line. But the show must go on.

A hastily set up generator was enough to run amps and one spotlight. Battery operated candles made it pretty damn cozy.

Born in Quebec, Rachel’s heart and soul (and husband), she explained, have long been in Cuba. When she’s not touring that’s where she lives. And where she is accustomed power outages. There was, she said, something quite apt that the last stop on her current tour before she heads home should involve a generator.

The show was fantastic!

Oh, let’s zoom in on something. If it had ever occurred to me that such a thing as an electronic bass existed, I would never have guessed it would look like this.

Seriously? Well, it sounded wonderful. I wish I’d caught the name of the bass player (who’s known her so long he was apparently the person who got her interested in jazz in the first place). He was great. They all were.

But it seems the “Latin Jazz Project” part of the show is a movable feast involving the best musicians she can pull together for a particular tour. A fairly lengthy comb through YouTube did not result in any footage of her performing with these particular musicians. Here’s a sample with others.

Oh, and…Remembering yesterday on the anniversary of stopping smoking that the booklet that came with the patches recommended treating yourself with the money saved, I took us out to dinner after the concert.

Like I said, we punch above our weight.