DJANGO LIVES IN LA, TRIPOLAR DISORDER IN TJ

Where else could you go and hear Django Rheinhardt music live? KJAZZ kicked off their ‘Wine and Jazz’ Tuesday night music series at Hollywood and Highland Center last week with Gonzalo Bergara, the Argentine jazz guitar whiz. Of course by ‘Django Rheinhardt music’ I mean that style, the old swing-style acoustic jazz guitar that Django perfected before electric blues and rock opened up a whole new dimension in guitar playing, before Pat Metheny and others ‘redefined jazz guitar’ to mesh with different expectations. If it seems odd for an Argentine to be carrying on the old tradition, it shouldn’t, given their still-current attachment to tango, their huge population of Italian immigrants, and their strong ties to the European old world (probably more than Europe itself). Then there’s the tradition left by their own Oscar Aleman, a son of natives in the Argentine Chaco region. Little known by most Americans (his skin was a bit dark for most American tastes in the thirties, so he spent little time there), Aleman was Josephine Baker’s guitarist in Paris for many years and a friend of Rheinhardt’s before WWII came along and forced him to return to Argentina, where he lived many years in obscurity before finally being ‘rediscovered’.

In many ways Gonzalo Bergara one-ups both of them, having seen what electric blues and then rock were able to do with the solo guitar style that Rheinhardt largely invented. That influence is incorporated into his more modern style, which sometimes ebbs and flows in a style more akin to ‘Chuchito’ Valdes’ sonic keyboard washes than typical guit-picking. Rob Hardt’s clarinet serves as a perfect counterpoint and twin lead, picking up wherever Bergara leaves off and doing some woodwind acrobatics before taking it right back to him, enriched and enhanced. Jeffrey Radaich and David Tranchina round out the band, on rhythm guitar and upright bass, respectively, keeping rhythm the good old-fashioned ‘swing’ way, drumless and tight. Hollywood and Highland keeps up the good vibes all summer, all for free (no, not the wine, silly), with such luminaries as Carl Saunders, Bobby Matos, Ernie Watts and many more all lined up and ready to go. Check it out; the red line goes right there.

There’s another California just across ‘la linea’ of course, lying there like a sixth dimension that most US Californians only access occasionally for cheap drugs, carnival ambience, and underage drinking. I’m talking about Baja, of course, and specifically Tijuana, which is its cultural capital. Don’t laugh. Manu Chao plays there every chance he gets, as does Lila Downs, and there are scores of local groups trying to emulate the recent success of locals Julieta Venegas and Nortech Collective. The more the tourist strip dries up and literally goes south with the triple-whammy of narco violence, pig flu and economic collapse (guns, germs, and deals?), the more that Tijuana becomes a center for local and regional culture and entertainment. Let the tourists have their safe haven down in Rosarito; Tijuana is blossoming in the ashes. So what if some parts of the city look like 90’s-era Phnom Penh? It keeps rents reasonable and beer costs low, like $2-$3. Try to find that in LA. Planeta Tijuana (ex-MultiKulti) is one of the best examples of this, occupying an old abandoned movie theater and booking acts like Manu Chao, Maldita Vecindad and Sigur Ros. Even EZLN spokesman Subcomandante Marcos showed up at one point, so how’s that for variety? The Chilean reggae act Gondwana played there last night, but I didn’t make it. They’re good though, as good as any reggae I’ve heard in a long time, with a creation myth on ‘Kln’ (?) to rival Sam Sparro’s on ‘Black and Gold’ any day. Who said ‘reggae en espanol’ doesn’t cut it? I didn’t.

Others are getting in on the act. ‘Le Drugstore’ is an actual drugstore that occupies only a corner of a large split-level facility which yesterday hosted a ‘Metal Battle’, TJ’s best heavy-metal bands vying for top prize right on Avenida Revolucion. But the new plum venue is the beautiful old jai alai fronton’, now converted into El Foro and open for business. Friday they hosted a punk-rock festival which didn’t seem very well attended. The musica ranchera place across the street was hopping, though. I guess you can take the Mexican out of el rancho, but you can’t take el rancho out of the Mexican. There are things going on all summer, but no big names yet, being hard to compete with the big bucks on the Gringo side of town. While the gueros blow off their fireworks and celebrate their freedoms, Mexicans go through another important vote, the first in which the congressional majority will be of a different party than the president. They’re in a process as painful as that of Moscow, and now with the world’s 12^th largest economy, just as important.

The Freak Film Festival starts Monday, an ongoing event (which originated last year in Spain) in which short films and videos are submitted by Internet link. Winning entries will be shown simultaneously in Spain, Berlin, London, New York, and… LA maybe? Tokyo? Beijing? Guess again. How about TJ? Hopelessly small time, you say? Who knows? That’s what they said about You Tube. Maybe these videos will have more than dogs that surf. There’s more to TJ than border-blasting discos and cheap Viagra. Check it out sometime. Or don’t. They say it’s dangerous. Of course the conspiratorial ‘they’ say a lot of things. The editorial ‘we’ take it with a grain of salt. Now THAT is what is dangerous, that and sugar. You gotta’ wear protection. That’s what Uncle says.