subscribe via: Feedburner to receive the latest crazy + exotic entries delivered to your Atom/RSS/XML readerMonday 07 July 2008
I'm Still with the Band
For the past 6 months, a major source of sanity, craziness and major happiness has been La Boquita, the world music group I formed with Silvia, Paolo and Mauricio. I met Paolo & Mauricio through Daniel, the man who briefly invoked Fever but ultimately proved to be just a little too sick in the head himself. Despite our disastrous ending, I'm forever thankful to him, though, for getting me back on the stage, getting me back in the saddle of love, and getting me to be more open to all sorts of possibilities, musical and otherwise. When Daniel and I fell apart, Maurico & Paolo were literally right there, sitting just a few feet away in the audience, ready to scoop up the pieces. A week later, Silvia (who is Paolo's girlfriend) moved from Queretaro to Zihuatanejo. One day after that, the four of us performed together for the first time. Silvia playing el cajon, the box drum, and singing backup. Paolo on lead guitar, sitar, and flute. Mauricio on solo guitar. And me, out in front, singing away, wearing crazy dresses and high heels, pink hair and all. It was a damn good time.
And somehow, my little singing hobby has turned into a full fledged career, complete with a CD release, paying gigs 4-6 nights a week (and sometimes more than one a night), invitations to perform throughout Mexico, and an upcoming show with a band from San Francisco that will be passing through Zihua in early August. Our sound is definitively "world" as we perform in 4 languages (soon to be 5), mixing jazz with flamenco, folk with hindustani, opera with bossa nova, and 80's pop with Afrikaana beats. Although I'm not dancing around on stage these days, it is still the place I feel the most healthy and the most alive. Sure, as my operation wounds heal I'm not sustaining notes quite as long, but the exhilaration of performing is the best therapy I can do to get my stomach muscles back in shape and to define myself as someone other than Walker Girl. In fact, as soon as I situate myself on my bar stool at the mic, I pass the walker off to be tucked away out sight.
We've been performing reinvented covers for the past 6 months, everything from Nina Simone to Frank Sinatra to Cyndi Lauper to Bob Marley to Liuba María Hevia to Buena Vista Social Club to Andrea Bocelli to Enrique Caruso to Coldplay. This past weekend marked the premiere of my first composition for La Boquita -- a love song entitled "To Speak of Her" -- and we will continue premiering songs (written in English, Spanish & Hebrew) throughout the summer, working them out on stage while recording them for our sophomore CD release in the fall. And just as the vocalizations have been the best exercise for my recuperating body, writing music has been the best way for me to clear out my head following a difficult few months... and by "months" I mean "decades"...
And all of this is why, even though my earnings with La Boquita only make up for a small percentage of my income as I continue to design, write & consult to cover my medical expenses, when someone asks me what I "do" I simply reply "I'm a singer. I've got a band."
