Contemporary Mexican Percussion

Lluvia de Palos
Contemporary Mexican Percussion
With Precolumbian Instruments
ENTER
Lluvia de Palos is a group of
contemporary music whose conceptual
axis turns around the sound of preColumbian percussion instruments,
mainly huehetls and teponaztlis.
The group’s aim is to make contemporary
music out of these ancestral instruments
and their sounds. An attempt to make
a kind of music whose composition,
execution and teaching are part
of the knowledge created by the
Mesoamerican world view.
Director
José Navarro
Number of Members
10 (depending on the program of your choice)
Scale of Venue
Open-air or indoor theaters, museums, forums, and
alternative spaces. Minimum stage area: 8 x 5 mts. (26 1/2 x 16 1/2 ft)
Technical Requirements
24 channel console, 4 monitors, amplification,
microphones and bases (see Input List). All requirements depend on the available space, its dimensions, and acoustic conditions, and if it is an
open or a closed space.
Tour requirements
Transportation for the musicians and for their musical instruments (a cargo van would do); board and
lodging for 10 people.
PROGRAM
DE MAR A VIENTO 1997
José Navarro
For 4 percussionist’s
COMALACOTZIN 2010
José Navarro
For 4 percussionist’s
XOCHIYOAUH 1994
José Navarro
For 4 percussionist’s
DANZA DE LLUVIA EN EL CREPÚSCULO 1992
Raúl Tudón (1961)
For 4 percussionist’s
Tlalolini 2010
de José Navarro
For 5 percussionist’s
musicians
Percussionist: José Navarro, Luis Miguel Costero, Ismael Palomares, Manuel Andrade, Samir Pascual, Santiago Mora
PROGRAM
TECCIZAPAN 1996
José Navarro (1961)
For 5 percussionist’s & flute
Tlalolini 2010
José Navarro
For 5 percussionist’s
INAMIC 1996
José Navarro, Guillermo González (1960)
For 3 percussionist’s & guitar
NEPANOLLI 1994
José Navarro
For 3 percussionist’s, electric guitar & bass
XOCHIYOAUH 1994
José Navarro
For 4 percussionist’s
TZINACANOZTOC 1994
José Navarro
For 2 percussionist’s, electric guitar
bass & sax
ESPEJISMO 1991
José Navarro
For 3 percussionist’s, electric guitar & bass
musicians
Percussionist: José Navarro, Luis Miguel Costero,
Ismael Palomares, Manuel Andrade.
Guitar: Guillermo González
Flute, Piccolo: Guillermo Portillo
Contrabass: Sósimo Hernández
PROGRAM
TRES PIEZAS IN MEMORIAM L. J. 2000
Hilda Paredes (1957)
For instrumental ensemble
XOCHIPILLI 1940
Carlos Chávez (1899-1978)
For 6 percussionist’s, flute,
piccolo, clarinet, piccolo and snail
TITOCOTICO 1971
Blas Galindo (1910-1993)
For 9 percussionist’s
DANZA DE LLUVIA EN EL CREPÚSCULO 1994
Raúl Tudón (1961)
For 4 percussionist’s
INAMIC 1996
José Navarro
For 3 percussionist’s & guitar
TLALOLINI 2010
José Navarro
For 5 percussionist’s
XOCHIYOAUH 1994
José Navarro
For 4 percussionist’s
Tocata para instrumentos precolombinos 1972
Jorge Dájer
For 6 percussionist’s
musicians
Percussionist: José Navarro, Luis Miguel Costero, Ismael Palomares, Manuel Andrade, Samir Pascual Vázquez, Santiago Mora, Dante González, Fabiola Sosa y Marco Antonio Peralta
Snail: Rosaura Grados Flute, piccolo: Guillermo González Guitar: Guillermo Portillo
Clarinet: Luis Mora Saxophone: Natalia Espinosa Flute: Darío Portillo Contrabass: Sósimo Hernández
Jose Navarro was born in Mexico City. He made his musical debut as a
drummer, and then got a degree in percussion in the Vida y Movimiento Music School of the Ollin Yoliztli Cultural Centre (OYCC, also in Mexico City). He has
taken courses and participated in seminaries on musical analysis, contemporary music, film music, theatrical music, electro-acoustic music, and Butoh dance. He is black ribbon (first dan) in aikido from the Aikido Foundation
(Tokyo, Japan).
He received a Jóvenes Creadores (Young Artists) grant from the Fondo Nacional
para la Cultura y las Artes (Mexico´s National Fund for Culture and the Arts) to
make five pieces for pre-Columbian percussion, and other, instruments.
He teaches percussion, film music, and dance music, in (respectively) the Escuela de Iniciación de Música y Danza (Music and Dance School for Beginners)
of the OYCC, the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos (University
Centre of Cinematographic Studies) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de
México (National Autonomous University of Mexico), the Centro de Investigación Coreográfica (Centre for Choreographic Research) and in the Licenciatura
en Coreografía (Choreography Course of Study), both of the Instituto Nacional
de Bellas Artes (National Institute of Fine Arts).
He has been a guest artist in concerts and recording sessions of a number of
groups, ensembles and orchestras in Mexico, the United States and several
countries of Latin America and Europe.
As of 2003 he is part of a Butoh dance project, and has made the music score
for several dance, and film productions, including four feature films.
He is a founding member of Banda Elástica, a group that, created 25 years ago,
has recorded six albums so far and has made concert tours in the main cities,
and the best theatres, of Mexico, as well as of Norway, Peru, Spain and the United States.
Lluvia de Palos
Contemporary Mexican Percussion With Precolumbian Instruments
The conceptual axis turns around the sound of pre-Columbian percussion instruments, mainly huehetls and teponaztlis, but including
also scrapers, turtle rattles, baked clay pots, stones, sartales (sea
shell strings, fruit seed strings, and other kind of strings), and some
kinds of baked clay flutes and ocarinas. The group’s aim is to make
contemporary music out of these ancestral instruments and their
sounds. An attempt to make a kind of music whose composition,
execution and teaching are part of the knowledge created by the
Mesoamerican world view.
The group thinks of the utmost importance to approach the rites, as
well as the rhythmic, numerical and cyclical universe of the Mesoamerican world, not just as a way to understand a little better the
pre-Columbian musical thought, but to put into context the use of
those musical instruments and of the music itself.
The music of the group is created out of these principles, and any
creative decision within the group is made having in mind those
numbers, cycles and gears, as well as the use of themes such as
duality, the water of shells, the Flowery War, a whirlwind or a bat
cave.
An essential part of the musical concept that resulted in these pieces
is the active participation of every member of the group, not only
in the composition, but mostly in the execution of the music. So
every member must have the utmost creative freedom, and the improvisation born out of this freedom is a paramount musical value.
Improvisation is to create from a deep and personal singularity, but
always having in sight the lineaments of the musical proposal, since
only these can give conceptual unity and coherence.
Contact
lorena@mundialstage.com www.mundialstage.com
lluviadepalos@gmail.com
www.lluviadepalos.mx
tel (5255) 55.68.55.70
Ocotepec Lote 10 Manzana 74, Col. San Jerónimo Aculco, C.P. 10400, México D.F.
Xochiyoauh Fragmento
(fragmento)
Danza de Lluvia en el Crepúsculo
(fragmento)
Comalacotzin
(fragmento)