Thursday, June 5, 2014

Latin Rhythms at the Luxembourg Garden

Last Saturday was unexpectedly and delightfully musical!

Tom made arrangements for us to meet colleagues on Saturday, May 31st at the snack bar near the Sénat kiosk in the Luxembourg Garden.

The weather was perfect as we set out for a leisurely stroll to the garden. When we arrived, we found a full-fledged concert of Latin American music underway at the kiosk!

We didn't want to be late for our rendezvous, so we didn't pay much attention to the trio that was playing mellow music when we arrived. But as our meeting broke up, we heard strains of "Oye Como Va" as played by Santana coming from the kiosk and decided that we should go over and investigate.

Carlos de Nicaragua y Familia was the band performing this Latin rock classic. Their repertoire is a mix of salsa and reggae music.

Carlos was intent on getting the crowd up on its feet (French audiences can be very quiet even when they are thoroughly enjoying themselves) and he left the bandstand several times to get "up close and personal" to attendees.

Carlos de Nicaragua y Familia
© Discover Paris!

Carlos de Nicaragua
© Discover Paris!

He was especially attentive to two children who planted themselves at the edge of the stage to get a closer look at the band.

Children watching the performance
© Discover Paris!

Carlos and the kids
© Discover Paris!

I later learned that Carlos' full name is Carlos Wiltshire. He was born in Nicaragua, lives in the Le Havre area of France, and studied at the Université de Paris X in Nanterre. He fought in the Nicaraguan Revolution.

As Carlos and his band vacated the stage after their performance, we began looking for a poster or some other kind of information about the event. We walked over to the mixing table and saw a list of eight performers for the day:

Argentina - Cuarteto Cedron
Venezuela - José Alejandro Delgado
Ecuador - Trío Diamante Latino
Nicaragua - Carlos de Nicaragua y Familia
Colombia - Nancy Murillo
Bolivia - sextet (name not listed)
Chile - Kerube (folklore group)
Dominican Republic - violinist (name not listed)

We surmised that we missed the first two groups and that the group that was playing when we arrived at the garden was Trío Diamante Latino.

Tom spotted a colorfully dressed woman nearby and guessed that she might be one of the performers. He approached her, engaged her in conversation, and found that he was right.

The woman was Nancy Murillo. She lives in Paris and speaks fluent French. She was kind enough to give me a copy of her latest CD - Tia Yova - and pose for a photo with me.

Monique and Nancy Murillo
© Discover Paris!

We stayed to listen for the first couple of numbers that Nancy sang and were happy that we did! The crowd was warmed up after Carlos's performance and it took little effort on Nancy's part to get people up and dancing.

Nancy Murillo
© Discover Paris!

Two young women joined her on the stage to perform a routine...

Nancy Murillo and company
© Discover Paris!

...and then Nancy descended the stairs to engage the audience.

Several people hopped up and began salsa dancing. The couple pictured below was especially good!

Dancing to the sounds of Nancy Murillo 1
© Discover Paris!

Dancing to the sounds of Nancy Murillo 2
© Discover Paris!

Dancing to the sounds of Nancy Murillo 3
© Discover Paris!

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and regretted that we could not stay until the end of the concert.

Click here to learn more about Carlos de Nicaragua (information in English).

Click here to learn more about Nancy Murillo (information in French).




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1 comment:

Adrienne said...

What a wonderful way to enjoy the afternoon in a beautiful setting. I enjoy Latin Music.