Almita's quinciniero portrait...isn't she beautiful?•••
Much of our new material will be in Spanish, which was on my wish list of things to bring into my life.
• I found a violinist! Almita is only here for a couple of weeks, visiting her tia Alma in the Ranchitos, but we plan to make the most of it. She has been playing with a band at home in Guasave (pronounced Wasabi, like the sauce for sushi), and she sings, too, with a sweet voice and a big range! She's 17 (I first met her when she was 15), studies hard and has made it to the top of her class. A computer whiz, so we can share songs when she goes home. Yesterday we located one of her favorite songs on iTunes and sang it together, and it was still running through my head when I woke this morning. It's called "Vivo Por Ella," the version we bought is by Andrea Bocelli and Marta Sanchez and it's stupendously popular here in Mexico. The "Ella" of the title is not a woman, but music.
"Ella se llama Música" (Her name is Music)When I took the lyrics to my singing teacher Lolita yesterday, she became very excited, said it was one of her favorites too, and translated it for me word for word.
• I'm still hoping that Tia Alma will be enticed into singing with us, too. She used to be in a band in college.
• Our landlord, Daniel, is interested in working with a violinist, and wants to come this weekend to meet Almita and maybe work on some songs.
• The skipper of "Vivid" is back from Utah and will be doing her songs at the Captain's Club Sunday, so I'll harmonize with her on a few of them. Her collection leans toward contemporary folk, songs like "Fisherman's Daughter," by the Waifs, an Australian duo. Good tunes for two-part harmony.
• Daniel told me there's a singer in his group, Juanito, who'd like to do some songs with me. I met Juanito once: an older man who has sung professionally all his life, his voice is opera-quality and muy fuerte. Guess I'll have to turn up my mike.
• On Friday we had my birthday dinner at JJ's, a popular taco place, and there was a fellow I had sung with at the Captain's Club a few weeks ago. We really had fun with "Hit the Road Jack." He said he'd been back to the Club looking for us, and I promised we'd return soon. He's about 25, the size of a football lineman. African American, black or whatever the current politically-correct term is. But the important thing is he loves to sing. Hmmm, maybe he'd like to meet "Mustang Sally"...