HOLIDAY SMALL WORKS SHOW
Featuring works by: John Moyers, Jerry Jordan, Ron Rencher, Aaron Garlick, Spike Ress,
Roseta Santiago, Richard Alan Nichols, Mary Dolph Wood, Dean Portner, Melwell Romancito, Jim Keffer, & Don Ward.
IN 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed bipartisan legislation to create a national cultural center. President and Jackie Kennedy took up the cause and started a campaign to fund the construction of the center. Two months after President Kennedy was assassinated, the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts was dedicated as a living memorial to the late president by an Act of Congress signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on Jan. 23, 1964. According to its website, kennedy-center.org, “the work of the Kennedy Center has been built upon three pillars: presenting, producing and curating world-class art; offering powerful education to people of all ages, everywhere; and fulfilling our mandate as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy.” I mention this to emphasize the distinct honor that has been given to New Mexico musician Lara Manzanares who was invited to perform with special guests Felix “Gato” Peralta and Jordan Wax for the Kennedy Center’s “Arts Across America” program. Their performance is presented by AMP Concerts and the Kennedy Center and while it was first aired on Dec. 2, it is viewable online at kennedy-center.org/digitalstage/artsacross-america. The project was also supported by The New Mexico State Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Lara Manzanares grew up on a sheep ranch in Tierra Amarilla. A self-described “land baby,” grounded in her high desert mountain roots, she sings and writes songs that carry the rhythms and melodies of hard-working, freedomloving truths. Her debut CD, “Land Baby” won two awards and two additional nominations at the 2018 New Mexico Music Awards. Felix “Gato” Peralta is the frontman for Felix y Los Gatos, a national touring band that blends Zydeco and Tejano styles. Originally from Missouri, Jordan Wax has extensively studied the music of Mexico and Northern New Mexico and is a member of the New Mexican string band Lone Piñon.
I caught up with Manzanares, Peralta and Wax via email over the Thanksgiving holiday. What follows is an excerpt of our exchanges.
How did this concert come about?
Manzanares: In normal times, the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts presents daily concerts once a day on their Millennium Stage. This year, they created a Digital Stage with the same function: to present a free concert every day, five days a week. The current series on the Digital Stage is called “Arts Across America,” and features artists from around the country. I was invited to perform for New Mexico, and Jordan and Felix are joining me.
Will the concert be a live-streamed show, or was it prerecorded? Peralta: The show was prerecorded in Corrales at the “Casa San Ysidro” with safe COVID-19 practices; only a few people were there to record.
What do you have planned for the concert? Manzanares: It will be an afternoon of songs and stories rooted in and inspired by the cultures, traditions and landscapes of New Mexico. We will perform both traditional songs and original music in English and Spanish.
Tell me a little bit about the musicians who will be playing with you. What is your history?
Manzanares: Jordan Wax is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and traditional musician. For the past 20 years he has studied non-classical musical traditions with elders from a variety of cultural lineages in New Mexico, Mexico and the Midwest. He performs regularly as a member of Lone Piñon (regional roots music from New Mexico) and Duke City Hora (klezmer dance music and Yiddish song). I was introduced to Jordan by Tres Piedras-based musician J. Michael Combs and heard Jordan at a Lone Piñon house concert in 2016. He was playing music from my childhood and songs from my culture that I hadn’t ever heard, which fascinated me. I kept showing up at Lone Piñon events because I loved the music, and eventually we started jamming together. Jordan’s violin work appears on the song “Writing Letters,” track 4 of my album “Land Baby.”
I met Felix “Gato” Peralta in 2016 as well. I was in the midst of a lengthy period of illness and wasn’t playing much music. I worked up the energy to attend an open mic for the first time in several months, and Felix was the host. He sat in on one of my songs and improvised a beautiful guitar part. Since then, we’ve crossed paths several times and eventually began collaborating on music projects. He plays the guitar on the song “Lobito,” track 3 of my “Land Baby” album. Felix is known around New Mexico as the frontman for Albuquerque’s Felix y Los Gatos. He spent his childhood watching his family play traditional New Mexico music in Albuquerque’s South Valley, and those experiences come through his music and songwriting. Earlier this year Felix and I co-wrote a song called “Dos Corazones” and released it along with a music video. The song has appeared on countdown lists at a few local radio stations like KDCE in Española and KNMX up in Las Vegas, [New Mexico]. It feels really nice to know that listeners are enjoying the song enough to call in and request it. Wax: Lara plays a lot of traditional music, but also is a great songwriter, and this program will focus on her original material, though we’ll play some traditional dance tunes and tunes
that we’ve collaborated on in the past. Lara’s songwriting reflects a deep familiarity with the timeless New Mexican musical landscape, but navigates it in a unique way, incorporating different influences and fusing them all together through her own voice and experience. As a songwriter she incorporates danceable elements and traditional motifs, but also a lot of intimacy and introspection.
What has it been like for you to work on this show?
Peralta: It’s been an amazing process and I’m thankful to be part of it. Lara Manzanares and I recently wrote a Spanish song together called “Dos Corazones”, which currently is #3 in New Mexico Music charts. I had written a song in English and wanted to translate it to Spanish so I reached out to Lara to recreate the song as a duo. The original song was morphed through the process and became our “own.”
What have you been doing since your release of ‘Land Baby’? Manzanares:
Well, many things! But mainly, learning. I’ve been working on my performance skills and learning the nuts and bolts of the profession. Before the pandemic, that meant things like getting my feet wet playing new venues and festivals, growing a musical community and fan base, learning how to lead a band, etc. Back in March I did a show where I incorporated my skills as a Río Grande-style weaver into a concert, working on a loom and Río Grande spinning wheel as part of the performance with the band. That has probably been my most ambitious endeavor so far. In addition, I’ve continued to write new songs, learn more traditional music and work on collaborative projects with other musicians.
How has the pandemic affected you and your music?
Manzanares: The opportunities for live performance — and the ticket sales, merch sales and lovely fan interactions that go with them — have been almost completely wiped out. I have an illness that puts me in the high-risk category, so finding other sources of income has been tricky. I’ve been able to use the internet some to reach my audience virtually. This has required me to put on many hats at once. I’m not a professional videographer, sound designer, video editor, etc.— but I’ve had to figure out at least some of the basics and do my best with what I have. Operating in this virtual world has opened up some other unforeseen opportunities — like this virtual performance for the Kennedy Center—and there seems to be more visibility in general because more people have been online. But the opportunities to play paid gigs are few and far between and, probably like most performers, I do really miss my audience.
Wax: I’ve done some music work remotely and through video. Lone Piñon recorded a virtual concert for the “Our Fair New Mexico” series, which is available through our YouTube channel. Throughout the summer I was able to continue some work I do with bilingual kids’ music through the Santa Fe Public Library’s “Bilingual Books and Babies” program, making video programs based on the same content that now are available through the library’s YouTube page.
Do you have any other upcoming shows or CDs or musical projects?
Wax: I’m continuing to work on videos which will be released through Facebook and YouTube. In May, we recorded a dance tutorial video for a traditional Northern New Mexican dance, “La Varsoviana,” with
dance instruction by Lucy Salazar and music by Lone Piñon. This winter we’re working to follow that up with a second tutorial for another traditional New Mexico dance, “La Camila,” to keep people dancing at home until we can get together in person.
Peralta: I have been working on many projects. I’ve been recording new singersongwriter tunes which I’ve been putting out as singles throughout 2020. One of my most recent releases is called “Comanche Highway.” It’s about my ancestral roots and ties to the genizaro community. If you’re not familiar with the term genizaro, it refers to a cultural group which is a mix of Spanish and Native American. The song is about the struggles that the genizaros have had throughout history. As for live gigs there’s nothing happening. December 2, I’ll be recording a virtual show at Tumbleroot in Santa Fe to help promote local businesses. On Dec. 3, I’ll be releasing on all platforms another new song called “See what I See.” Please check out “Felix Gato Peralta” on any platform and add me to your playlist. Manzanares: Yes! I’m starting work on a new album. I have a batch of new songs to work with and more are being formed. I’ve started a Patreon page where fans can go to become involved in the creative process and help things along with donations if they’d like. You can check it out at patreon.com/laramanzanares. There’s not much on my official calendar right now beyond things that I create myself. I’ll be scheduling concerts that will be accessible through my Patreon page, but the details of that are still in development as I’m new to Patreon. As far as public performances, I’ll be doing a Zoom performance for the Corrales Library on Jan. 8, and another show for New Mexico Tech Performing Arts Series in March of 2021. I participated in a collaborative video project created by an organization called Vital Spaces ( vitalspaces.org). We filmed the piece inside of SITE Santa Fe, in their exhibit about the global refugee crisis at the beginning of November, and that will be coming out sometime soon.
Anything else you’d like to share?
Manzanares: El que canta, sus males espanta. ( The one who sings scares his/her problems away.) Keep singing Taos!