I was a rumbero for ten minutes last Saturday. :-) May 12, 2007
José, Miguelito and Cesar at Las Tapas. May 12, 2007 11:51pm
Last Saturday after my gig at Tapeo, one of my dancers, Shahram, invited me to come along with him to Las Tapas to checkout our rumbero friends Duende Camarón. Couldn't say no. It's always a blast, but I usually end up staying until closing time and have to make sure I have a ride home--although occasionally I have the option of crashing at a friend's house, but I had to get up early Sunday to meet my mom for Mothers' Day so that wasn't going to happen.
When we arrived sometime after 11:00pm, the place was packed. I squeezed my way through the crowd, nodded a hello in the band's direction and made it to the bar to order a couple of Coronas. I joined the flamencos in the back corner to do some palmas to José and Cesar's music. As usual, guitarist Armand joined them plus they had this dude Fabio on the electric bass.
During the break between sets, I took a few minutes to talk to Josefina, the new hostess at Las Tapas--what's really cool is that she knows a thing or two about flamenco since she took classes for a short while. Anywayz, Cesar came up to say hello to me and asked if I brought my guitar microphone. "Yeah, of course, it's in my case."
The last time I spoke to Cesar was at Ozio the previous Monday when we discussed advantages and disadvantages of certain sound systems in relation to guitars and the way they're amplified. So I assumed he wanted to pick up where we left off and talk to me about microphones. Little did I know he was about to invite yours truly to join the band for a couple of songs which of course would be an honor for me. So I couldn't say no, but honestly I didn't really think I knew their repertoire well enough to contribute musically other than adding yet another layer of rhythm guitar. So I got up onstage and Cesar setup my microphone, introduced me to the crowd and went straight into the first song.
It was expected of me to just look at Cesar's hands and figure out the chords on-the-spot. Fair enough. I could a play a basic rumba strum pattern but I never really mastered the Camargue style where you do thumb golpes on beats 1, the and of 2, and 3. Got through the first song. Did another one. Cool, now I'm just starting to get into the groove.
Next thing I know, Cesar asks his brother José if he wants to sing a tangos. And I thought, "Cool, finally something I can play comfortably!"
May 12, 2007 11:54pm
So Cesar gives me his guitar and cranks up the volume so I can take the lead. What I didn't realize was that essentially I was the only one playing guitar--well, Cesar played along too but he had the volume turned down a bit on his channel. Basically, it was just me and José which was totally cool 'cept I didn't want to kill the dance party by going from a full band of four guitars, electric bass and drum machine to just one guitar (me) and vocals (José).
But the crowd was very supportive and provided palmas and jaleo and towards the end of the tangos José kicked up the tempo a bit to turn it into a rumba and end it with more energy. Did one more song--something called "Volare," heard of it? 
Cesar once again introduced me to the crowd. I gestured a thank you to my fellow musicians, got off the stage and the band finished up the final set for the night.
Around 12:30am, Shahram offered to give me a ride to the metro. We said our goodbyes and when we got outside I was very pleasantly surprised to discover how beautiful the weather was--despite the pouring rain earlier. I was hungry, so I decided to get off at the Dupont Circle station and walk down Connecticut Ave for a late night snack at Julia's Empanadas--they're open until 3:00am on the weekends. I ran into a number of friends along the way including a flamenco dancer friend that I hadn't seen in awhile. I went into Julia's and got myself a Chilean empanada and was about to head towards Citron and stop in for awhile since I have the privilege to bypass the line on account of my VIP status there. Hehe. 
Miguelito, Nancy Medina and Maynol Moreno in front of Julia's Empanadas. May 13, 2007 1:49am (photo by bouncer dude from Play Lounge)
But as soon as I headed out, I heard someone shout, "Hey Miguelito!" I turned around and was very surprised to see my friends Nancy and Maynol. I've known them both for at least the past three years. I first met Nancy when she was bartending at Citron in 2004 (I think) and nowadays she's one of the managers there. Her boyfriend Maynol is a songwriter/musician who worked for awhile at Guitar Center and took advantage of the employee discount to outfit his home with a state-of-the-art digital recording studio. I actually recorded the first track of my CD at Maynol's studio (although I have yet to finish it).
So we hung out for awhile, but I didn't stay too late since I had to be up early Sunday for Mothers' Day. Well OK, the weather was so gorgeous it would've been a waste to go home right away. Finally I caught the last train around 3:00am and called it a night.
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