I arranged this with Jessica, one of the two owners of La Lancha, a small bistro-like restaurant on the waterfront in Fronteras, Rio Dulce, Guatemala. The deal was quickly done as we know each others from 3 years ago in the same kind of position, different restaurant and different sax.
I prepared my combo, a collection of "songs-minus-one" in MPEG format on a CD-Rom. Ideal, as I put enough songs on it to keep playing for 12 hours. The hard thing is to find the correct song to play. Most cheap CD-ROM readers don’t have the possibility to go from folder to folder or to show the title of the song.
There was a remote control to step up or down the song list. It works and I was happy to have a remote control for the volume and to skip unwanted songs. I had to bend over the bar where a lot of people were sitting, with my sax around my neck. Potentially dangerous but all went well.
The public was a mixed lot of nationalities. There were some Guatemalan machos with a DVD-player, watching the small LCD-screen, sometimes with sound. Sipping their beers and continuously using their mobile phones. A group of French finding the best restaurant in Fronteras without any problems. Some Americans and even 5 Dutch persons including myself at a certain time. Around 20 people, and the place was nice full, not ‘packed’.
I started at 19.00 sharp. I always try to play for 45 minutes, a break of 15 minutes and then another set. After the second break we see what happens. Sometimes somebody joins, sometimes they start asking for specific songs and sometimes I just play another set.
19.00 hours is dinner-time so I started with some easy background music and partly well known tunes as ‘the girl from Ipanima’ (always a big success), some more Jobim and some known Jazz tunes. Most of the people were eating and enjoying the ambiance and the food.
During the second set most people were ready with the main course. Somebody shouted ‘Rock and Roll’. I don’t do Rock and Roll with sax only. It is too limited and gets quickly boring for me, but I guess also for the public so I put up a danceable song for everybody, Saint Thomas of Sonny Rollins.
It worked. People got of their chairs and started dancing. First a french couple. The french guy started to invite a Dutch girl and after a couple of songs he had almost danced with every girl and lady that was in La Lancha. Much to the amusement of the watchers, like some American, the Guatemalans were concentrated on getting the show on their DVD-recorder and letting to know friends in what a party they were involved. Most of the time they put a mobile phone very close to the sax.
In the break of the second set people were dancing on plastic music. It was clear they didn’t want to stop in a long time. They also asked me to play again. This amazed me. Most of the time the people will forget the musicians if they really start dancing. Not in this case. So I played one Bossa Nova and some Tito Puente music. The last is definitively the better music to get everybody involved.
Finally I packed my sax, somebody else to the responsability to play disk-jockey and I sat down to rest a bit and enjoy the carnavalesque atmosphere.
Jessica came to me, overjoyed of how her restaurant worked out this night. She made one of the nicest compliments of my performance that night. "Paul, you did it again. You give the people the inspiration and courage to dance. And you do that all the time. That is so nice. Thank you for playing."
Another compliment was from the French. Notoriously bad tippers, the french, but not this time. One french lady started to collect money for the music. It was 173 quetzals (23$US) with no more then 20 people, most of them French. Maybe the trick is to give them the responsibility to collect the money. Probably the nice atmosphere in which everybody
contributed was the trigger.
It was a good nice night, hopefully it will stick on ‘La Lancha’ a small bistro on the waterfront in Fronteras, Rio Dulce, Guatemala. If you pass by check it out, it might still be true.
———The prices are very reasonable. For 10 dollars you eat like a king and for 5 dollars you have already a nice meal. A beer is 1.50$US and they have always a special drink. This Saturday night it was a ‘Mochita’ for 1$US.———
Disclaimer: I have no financial relations with ‘La Lancha’. I get free drinks and 2 free dinners for every performance I do there.
