the latest email
hello again, massive list of friends and family!
i'm back in santiago again after my second big unpredictable adventure of my stay in sudamerica: a weeklong tour with the Los Andes Big Band (www.losandesbigband.cl) to La Paz, Bolivia for the fifth annual La Paz Festijazz. I got a call two Saturdays ago from one of the trombonists in the area explaining that he had to bail at the last minute and wondered if I could fill in for him for this weeklong tour in La Paz. The catch was I had to be ready to get on the plane at 6 am monday morning! I told him that I would love to go and next thing I knew I was on a plane with a bunch of jazz musicians to Arica, Chile. From Arica, we took a (painfully long) 8 hour bus ride into La Paz. At first, I had a miserable headache from the altitude change (La Paz sits at about 3,500 meters, I believe -- a serious climb from sea level.) But I got acclimatized pretty quickly and didn't miss a beat of my all expenses paid weeklong visit to La Paz.
La Paz is an incredibly beautiful city. It's built in this sort of bowl surrounded by hills, so in the center of the city at night you are surrounded by lights all around. It's also a very poor city: even the tourists (us) aren't shielded from the large numbers of homeless people scrounging through trash cans or eating cold rice on the sidewalks. But the place was absolutely alive with an energy distinct from that of Santiago. In the words of the Chilean Consulate who was charged with keeping track of us, paying for our taxis, etc., "Bolivia isn't somewhere you find the culture in museums. The culture is in the streets, happening right now." I thought that was a pretty accurate description of what I saw there.
The music for the band (which I had to sight-read at the first rehearsal on Tuesday) wasn't too hard but was definitely challenging. But Santiago (also the name of the band leader, confusing I know) had lots of faith in me and even featured me on a number of songs (most notably on his arrangement of Duke Ellington's "Caravan"). We played every single night (except Saturday) from Wednesday until Sunday, sometimes even playing twice. Friday night was the most exhausting: we played an entire set at the Teatro Municipal de La Paz from 9 until 11 pm, then had an hour to get to a bar on the other side of town for another two-hour set from midnight until 2 am. By the end of the week, people started recognizing us in La Paz, and even asked for autographs. On Sunday, at an open-air performance in the main plaza, two giggling teenage girls came running up to me demanding autographs and a picture. I felt like such a celebrity.
We closed things out with another concert at the jazz bar on sunday night, our best of them all I think, and most of us didn't sleep that night because we had to be at the bus terminal at 6 am Monday morning. The bus ride back was a lot easier, and I made it back to Santiago after a full day of traveling Monday night. I'm ready to get back into somewhat of a routine here, catching up with my classes, and hoepfully playing some more with the new musician friends that i met in the band. I hope that all is well in all your various worlds, that the transition back to school has been relatively, that Amherst is having a characteristically beautiful fall, and that all of you are happy. As always, write back and tell me about all of the fascinating things that I'm missing out on while I'm here bouncing around South America with my trombone.
All the best,
Alex
i'm back in santiago again after my second big unpredictable adventure of my stay in sudamerica: a weeklong tour with the Los Andes Big Band (www.losandesbigband.cl) to La Paz, Bolivia for the fifth annual La Paz Festijazz. I got a call two Saturdays ago from one of the trombonists in the area explaining that he had to bail at the last minute and wondered if I could fill in for him for this weeklong tour in La Paz. The catch was I had to be ready to get on the plane at 6 am monday morning! I told him that I would love to go and next thing I knew I was on a plane with a bunch of jazz musicians to Arica, Chile. From Arica, we took a (painfully long) 8 hour bus ride into La Paz. At first, I had a miserable headache from the altitude change (La Paz sits at about 3,500 meters, I believe -- a serious climb from sea level.) But I got acclimatized pretty quickly and didn't miss a beat of my all expenses paid weeklong visit to La Paz.
La Paz is an incredibly beautiful city. It's built in this sort of bowl surrounded by hills, so in the center of the city at night you are surrounded by lights all around. It's also a very poor city: even the tourists (us) aren't shielded from the large numbers of homeless people scrounging through trash cans or eating cold rice on the sidewalks. But the place was absolutely alive with an energy distinct from that of Santiago. In the words of the Chilean Consulate who was charged with keeping track of us, paying for our taxis, etc., "Bolivia isn't somewhere you find the culture in museums. The culture is in the streets, happening right now." I thought that was a pretty accurate description of what I saw there.
The music for the band (which I had to sight-read at the first rehearsal on Tuesday) wasn't too hard but was definitely challenging. But Santiago (also the name of the band leader, confusing I know) had lots of faith in me and even featured me on a number of songs (most notably on his arrangement of Duke Ellington's "Caravan"). We played every single night (except Saturday) from Wednesday until Sunday, sometimes even playing twice. Friday night was the most exhausting: we played an entire set at the Teatro Municipal de La Paz from 9 until 11 pm, then had an hour to get to a bar on the other side of town for another two-hour set from midnight until 2 am. By the end of the week, people started recognizing us in La Paz, and even asked for autographs. On Sunday, at an open-air performance in the main plaza, two giggling teenage girls came running up to me demanding autographs and a picture. I felt like such a celebrity.
We closed things out with another concert at the jazz bar on sunday night, our best of them all I think, and most of us didn't sleep that night because we had to be at the bus terminal at 6 am Monday morning. The bus ride back was a lot easier, and I made it back to Santiago after a full day of traveling Monday night. I'm ready to get back into somewhat of a routine here, catching up with my classes, and hoepfully playing some more with the new musician friends that i met in the band. I hope that all is well in all your various worlds, that the transition back to school has been relatively, that Amherst is having a characteristically beautiful fall, and that all of you are happy. As always, write back and tell me about all of the fascinating things that I'm missing out on while I'm here bouncing around South America with my trombone.
All the best,
Alex