PLENAZO!

The Latin Project gave us a solid evening of dance music (more on that later), but as sometimes happens, the really interesting stuff happens when you least expect it. As the musicians were killing time in the parking lot between their second and third sets, Lucas Torres (a powerful percussionist and former WBAI reporter from New York) brought out his panderetas, and a spontaneous plena session broke out. You can see a bystander running for his video camera; maybe he got some better footage than I did, but despite the low light, this was a rare treat to witness, let alone record!

If memory serves, the lead voices in order are: Lucas Torres (several verses, ending with "hasta Carolina vine a vacilar, desde Puerto Rico vine yo a cantar"), Jaime Ramon ("...dejalo nadar en las aguas puras de aquel manantial"), Juan "Cuto" Lanzot (regular verse), and Jaime again ("en las Carolinas yo vengo a cantar, la plena de Puerto Rico y esto es de amistad"). Jaime speaks at the end.


Los Pleneros de Factory Shops Road (y una amiga):

Juan "Cuto" Lanzot, Lucas Torres, Jaime Roman, Jose Sanchez. Center: Jessi Mock

This morning as we loll in our beds, The Latin Project is up bright and early, recording a demo at Pete Kimosh's home studio. Members of the band travel from Winston-Salem, Charlotte and Columbia, SC so they rarely get a chance to rehearse, let alone record.

The dubbing will break up around noon so Alberto Carrasquillo (trumpet), Serena Wiley (sax) and Phil Merritt (piano) can make it to their Earth Day gig with Carnavalito (1:25 pm, CCB Plaza, downtown Durham). FREE EVENT (Saturday, Noon - 5 pm, various music, see calendar).