El Negro

Last Saturday I had a wonderful time performing with "Fiatti Scorrevole" at Casa Simurgh up in Valenciana. It was standing room only in the little theater and everyone seemed to enjoy the show. The show began with me performing, for the 2nd time ever, my Rubber Garden Hose Trumpet Silly Clown routine. It went OK. The crowd loves the fanfare at the end. After watching the video of my performance, I realized how much work I need. It was the worst clown performance I have seen. Of course, there is comedy even in a bad clown routine. Oh well, I'm not afraid of a little work. The next time I perform as a clown I will be better.

Now, back to the real part of the show.

After the Clown Fanfare, the MC for the concert, Kasper, introduced himself, talked a little about music, and gave a brief description of the first piece. Next he introduced the members of "Fiatti Scorrevole", Cuauhtemoc Trejo-flute, Hector Fernandez-oboe, and Hugo Manzanilla-clarinet. Kasper then asked who I was, and told me that there was no part for me on the first piece and if I would go wait off stage.

My character, El Negro, was played by myself and a black puppet holding a trumpet. El Negro could only wait through the first 3 movements of the first piece before he had to break out in a New Orleans 2nd Line style trumpet solo over the classical music of the woodwind trio. After a few confrontations Kasper finally puts El Negro in his place and I have to go wait, this time in the audience.

I had a front row seat for some great music accompanied by really beautiful puppet work. The trio played Beethoven's Variations on Mozart's Don Giovanni while Heie Boles, Andres Arellano, and Danae Trejo entertained the crowd with a wide variety of puppets.

After that was over, El Negro again interrupts with a fanfare. I get back on stage, join the other musicians, and after a little more waiting, during the final Gigue, El Negro begins to battle with Hugo on the clarinet. We were pushing and shoving each other trying to be the only one playing the part.

Kasper finally realizes that he knows El Negro, lets him in the group, and we all played "When the Saints Go Marching In" as a group, to end the show.

I was a great show. Much better than this trumpet player could ever hope to describe with words. I hope we perform this one again. It was so much fun. Many thanks to Heie, Andres, Danae, Cuauhtemoc, Hector, Hugo....