Bob's Blog

This Blog will follow my adventures - well holidays really. Hopefully you will want to tell me what you enjoyed in the countries I have visited and maybe recommend places to go.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

I have met Carlos.......

........but he did not remember me!
To put you all in the picture, Carlos gave us some lessons a year ago.  He is Confeteria personified.  Always with collar, tie and jacket and perfect manners.
I saw him dancing and proudly said to Pauline and Geoff (who run Tango Stafford) that I knew him.  At the end of the tanda I went over to him amd there was not a hint of recognition!  Maybe the ladies will have better success.

I have had a hard day with making arrangements for the rest of the trip, a little dancing at Confiteria and a lesson at the Hotel Caseron Porteno which is part of what they offer.  Excellent lesson with only two of us so just about a private lesson.
Finally a steak at Don Julio`s in the company of two new friends from Philadelphia, Ashley and Kirk.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Nigel Kennedy in Nottingham, 16 January 2012

Nigel Kennedy took the Royal Convert Hall by storm. He was very informal, told a joke in Polish, wore his Aston Villa shirt and talked a lot. But he loves to play and we got encore after encore and I got home an hour later than normal from a concert! He seemed to love us as an audience and certainly we took to his music. I have not kept up with Nigel Kennedy's musical development so was surprised to see the instrumentation for the first half of the concert, which was three of the Four Elements (Earth, Air, Water, Fire). Four violins, viola, two cellos two basses (one electric at times), jazz drummer, electronic drummer, piano/keyboard, lead guitar, trumpet and marimba with four singers. So this was jazz to my ears. Nice sounds, interesting use of the singers and Nigel, playing acoustic and electronic violin with a barrage of foot switches for different effects. After the interval I was more surprised that the instrumentation had not changed as Vivaldi's Four Seasons was on the bill. The beautiful tunes in that music was evident but most definitely it had Nigel's stamp on it. There seemed to be a break for a couple of beautiful violin/cello duets of Bach. Then back to Vivaldi and on to many extras, some lovely violin, piano, drums jazz pieces. An enthralling evening, so much more than I had imagined we would get.