Sara Jerez and Miguelito at Cafe Citron. June 30, 2008 8:51pm (photo by Jani)
It's almost 4:00am on Tuesday as I type these words. Believe it or not, I left Citron at midnight (early by my standards), took the metro and walked in the door around 12:30am. Just one of those of nights when I felt like going home early to work on personal stuff instead of partying late as usual. Since I'm wide awake, I might as well publish some pics from last night's show.
Singer/guitarist Gerard Moreno, who normally performs with us on Monday nights at Citron, was out of town doing a lecture tour--in case you didn't already know, he was recently awarded a doctorate in ethnomusicology. Anywayz, the substitute singer couldn't make it to Citron (due to a scheduling mixup--these things happen sometimes), so I decided to book a second dancer instead. The evening's lineup consisted of myself on guitar with dancers Sara Jerez and Shahram.
As usual, my friend Jani volunteered to be our photographer for the evening. Enjoy!
Sara dancing soleá. June 30, 2008 8:52pm (photo by Jani)
As you probably know, in the DC area, the majority of the tablao shows don't include a singer on a regular basis. So of course, I'm pretty proud of the fact that Citron has always had a flamenco singer since we first started here in September 2001---that's almost seven years!
But since we didn't have a singer this particular evening, the pressure was upon dancers Sara Jerez and Shahram to really put on a show so good that the audience wouldn't miss the flamenco singing that much. Occasionally I looked out in the audience and noticed the fact that just about everyone in the first four or five booths closest to the stage was watching the stage, their eyes intently glued to the performance...a good sign! After each number, us artists received the kind of feedback we were hoping for: plenty of applause. We pulled it off!
As an added bonus, I noticed that one of my singer friends, Naíto, was standing by the bar, so I invited him to come onstage and sing a letra or two for the fin de fiesta bulerías to close the show. OK, so even if was just for a few verses, we can say that we did have some cante in our show--thanks Naíto!
Sara. June 30, 2008 8:53pm (photo by Jani)
Miguelito and "Johnny" Marlow. June 30, 2008 8:54pm (photo by Jani)
Take a look again at the above pic: that cute little boy you see sitting next to me may someday become my competition. He's the son of Sara and Richard Marlow which means he's exposed to flamenco on a daily basis. He's already learning to play the guitar!
Local flamenco dance student Karine Megerdoomian and Miguelito. June 30, 2008 9:26pm (photo by Jani)
Miguelito warming-up just before the second set. June 30, 2008 9:31pm (photo by Jani)
Sara. June 30, 2008 9:33pm (photo by Jani)
Sara dancing Sevillanas with Jason Vera y Aragón. June 30, 2008 9:37pm (photo by Jani)
Sara and Jason. June 30, 2008 9:38pm (photo by Jani)
From the right: fellow musician Maynol Moreno, Cafe Citron manager Nancy Medina and friend. June 30, 2008 9:39pm (photo by Jani)
Sara dancing guajiras. June 30, 2008 9:42pm (photo by Jani)
Sara. June 30, 2008 9:44pm (photo by Jani)
Margaret (from Brazil) and Laura (from Colombia). June 30, 2008 10:16pm (photo by Jani)
FLASHBACK: Did you know that singer Carlton Ashton used to come to Citron every week, that dancer Edwin Aparicio performed here a few times and that yours truly used to wear flamenco boots to this gig? Check out the pics from Cafe Citron exactly four years ago from this date.
It's almost 5:00am now, time for bed. Goodnight!
Yesterday (Saturday), I met up with a student flamenco singer and jammed for a while. During a break, she played a track from a CD by ladino singer Yasmin Levy, Nací en Alamo, a ladino/flamenco interpretation of the song playing during the closing credits of the movie 
