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Cuban Band, 19 May 1999

19 May 2009

In story telling, this is called foreshadowing, as I was in Cuba the next year.

Cuban Band, 19 May 1999

On Wednesday, the 19th of May a bunch of us went to a theatre on the outskirts of Oaxaca to see “Los Jubilados”, or “The Retireds”, a band from Cuba that had come to Oaxaca to do a show.  They consisited of two guitar players, two percussionists, an upright bass player, a trumpet player, and three additional percussionists who were also singers.  With the exception of the trumpet player, who is in his early thirties at the latest, the band consisted of, well, old retired Cuban guys. 
 
They played a pretty good set, about an hour and a half or two hours long, consisting of their own material and a few covers, but I just went to dance.  The trumpet player used his youthfulness to draw a much younger demographic, pulling young women on the stage to dance with him during the show, much to the delight of his dancing partners and the dismay of the others.
 
However, no matter how suave and smooth he was, the loudest cheers came from watching the older men dance on stage.  It was a simple, funny dance, a man who is probably about 106 shaking maracas and turning in a circle.  And not falling down.  The music seemed simple, but fun.  The crowd was older, well dressed, and polite.  The show was general admission, so we got the privelege of sitting together, and then getting up to dance whenever we wanted to, without disrupting anyone’s view of the show.

The band was playing the next day at Santo Domingo (I think) right in Oaxaca, and we were going to see them, but instead we had other, more important plans, like going to Monte Alban.

 

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