Arts & Entertainment

As past controversies at the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra [OFJ] play second fiddle to the group’s high-profile foreign trips, its newest season of 2017 has gotten under way in Guadalajara and environs.

Five new programs, ending July 7, have been sandwiched between the orchestra’s spring appearance in Europe and its midsummer appearances in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The trips abroad, under director Marco Parisotto, are the first the orchestra has ever taken, OFJ spokesperson Julia González notes, and are thus indisputable feathers in its cap.

The stylistic breadth in evidence at last Sunday’s Fiesta de la Musica, an annual multi-stage affair in Guadalajara, seemed to warrant optimism regarding the state of the city’s music scene, specifically as it concerns its eclecticism and heterogeneity.  That vigor was exemplified by two bands, each teasing Parque Agua Azul’s sultry air with two very disparate sonorities: electro cumbia and shoe gaze/noise rock. 

Linaje Escencia Llanera wowed the audience at the June 7 Encuentro de Arpas with a rousing set of country music from the grasslands region set between Colombia and Venezuela.  The Llanero genre is distinguished by its lively beats and the combined sounds of the folk harp, a small four-string guitar known as the cuatro and capachos (maracas) . Rounding out the Linaje ensemble is an electric bass player and vocalist with amazing pipes who doubles as a dancer. The group is lined up for a full performance Saturday, June 10, 8 p.m., during the opening of  Isidro Xilonzóchitl´s art exhibit at the Centro Cultural Antigua Presidencia, Avenida Madero at Hidalgo.

Monday music

Classical concerts are held each Monday at this classy and relatively new cultural complex to the north of the city.  June 12: Klaus Meyer Big Band performs their “Big Band Rocks” program, consisting of songs by the likes of Nirvana, R.E.M. and Van Halen, arranged for the Guadalajara-based jazz orchestra.  June 19: Interpreting selections from the classical canon (exact program TBD) are violinist Alvaro Larez and pianist Manuel Delaflor.  June 26: Two giants of jazz guitar present an homage to the past greats of their instrument whose pioneering efforts inspired them as young musicians. Larry Carlton and John Scofield, both in their late-sixties, are among the most revered guiterists in the field of jazz today.  

Palcco, Monday, 8 p.m. 100 pesos.

Earlier this week, a recording made in 2015 by the Jalisco Philharmonic Orcestra (Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco) was released internationally.