“We’ve been meeting almost every week for the last two years to learn the poetic verse forms, and Patricio is amazing,” Gonzalez said. The Monday workshops provided Hidalgo with a source of income and an avenue to share his songwriting prowess. She got involved when longtime Bay Area arts activist Maria de la Rosa, who spearheaded the Brava Son Jarocho Festival that last brought Quetzal to the Bay Area, reached out about supporting Hidalgo who, like so many musicians, had lost all of his work. It’s a welcome return to a process that depends upon in-person interaction, though Gonzalez said that the pandemic came with a bright silver lining.Ī weekly live-streamed song session featuring Veracruz master Patricio Hidalgo kept Gonzalez connected to the art form’s source. They’re all devoted to fostering son jarocho away from the bandstand and, while Quetzal is in town, it’s also offering a collective songwriting workshop at Brava on May 15, a practice that’s as much about building a communal response to community challenges as developing tunes for performance. Quetzal Flores is the program manager for the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, and other Quetzales teach in prisons, work in recording studios and as community activists. Fortunately, the musicians don’t depend on touring for their livelihood. This is one reason why the pandemic hit Quetzal so hard. “Songs from Puentes Sonoros” came out in January, 2021, when performances and gatherings weren’t possible. “Out of everything, I think the community-building practice has been most influential for us.” “All these different facets of the tradition speak to us as Chicanos, as humans who are also struggling in our own identity,” she said. The concert revolves around material from the band’s latest album for Smithsonian/Folkways, “ Songs from Puentes Sonoros,” and the production is set to a backdrop of photos and film footage shot during the band’s 2017 Veracruz sojourn that led to “Puentes Sonoros.” While spending time in the villages with the master musicians, “we recorded a lot of soundscapes, folks speaking with each other and jamming, and just natural sounds of birds and wind,” Gonzalez said. The next generation will also be present, as the teenage duo of Sandino Gonzalez Flores (Martha Gonzalez’s son) and Lucia Gutierrez Rebolloso (Ramon Gutierrez’s daughter) play an opening set and then join Quetzal. They’ll be joined by longtime collaborator Ramon Gutierrez, the founder and leader of the great Veracruz son jarocho band Son de Madera. The group also features co-founder and namesake Quetzal Flores on jarana jarocha, requinto jarocho, bajo sexto and guitar Tylana Enomoto on violin and backing vocals Juan Perez on electric and acoustic bass drummer Evan Greer and percussionist Alberto Lopez. Quetzal returns to the Brava Theatre on May 14 for the first time since the start of the pandemic, and it’s bringing the community along with it.
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