_ Tapes roll in Vancouver for B/Cuadro

The large reels on the tape deck turn, and
Latin salsa music fills the dimly lighted stu-
dio.

Inside the sound booth, two horn players

_ are barely visible through the reflecting

window which mirrors a giant, science-
fiction console and the figures hunched over
it. On cue, the musicians punch out two
notes to blend with the pre-recorded sound
track.

“No, that didn’t quite work. Let’s try it
again,” says a determined Julius Fisher, as
he operates the remote control to rewind the
tape in the former garage that houses the
recording studio of Slim Evans Records and
Fapes -A.

With him are Fito Garcia, Lisette Perez
and Ramon Flores, three-fifths of the Nica-
raguan group, B Cuadro. It’s one of the
newest representatives of Nicaragua’s New
Song movement, and the presence of its
members in the studio at the back of
Fisher’s east Vancouver home represents
what is probably a: first in Nicaraguan-
Canadian cultural co-operation.

Sometime this fall, probably in October,
Slim Evans will release its first recording of
Latin American music, backed by a Cana-
dian horn section. It will also mark the first
release by B Cuadro, a group of young
professionals formed a little more than a

SACTU event:
Spanish, French
film fare

The SACTU Support Committee
and Vancouver Co-op Radio co-host
a Benefit for SACTU — the South
African Congress of Trade Unions —
at the Maritime Labour Centre, 111
Victoria Dr. in Vancouver on Satur-
day, Sept. 30. Beginning at 7:30 p.m.,
it features the Ghana Dance Troupe,
Total Experience Gospel Choir, and
Tropical Breeze, along with a brief
address by Bafo Nyanga, SACTU’s
representative in Canada. Tickets are
$12 and $8, phone 421-3795.

* ok *

The Vancouver East-Cinema pres-
ents Spanish director. Francisco
Regueiro’s Padre Nuestro, a satirical
commentary on the aristocracy and
religion, nightly at 7:30 and 9:35 p.m.
through Tuesday, Sept. 26. That’s fol-
lowed by Field of Honour, a socially
conscious drama about the Napoleo-
nic Wars, Sept. 27-Sept. 28, 7:30 p.m.

* * *

Television: KCTS public television
airs the 10-part series, Say Brother,
which ranges from South African
dramas to works by noted Afro-
Americans. Designed by the Cam-
bridge Forum to “promote interracial
understanding in a time of resurging
racism,” the half-hour series begins
Sunday, Oct. 1, 10:30 p.m. with the
South African play, “Woza Albert! An
Anatomy of Apartheid.”

A post-glasnost Soviet release,
“The Theme’”’, is.the first in a series of
films from around the world on
Channel Crossings II on KCTS. It airs
Saturday, Oct. 7, 10 p.m. and is fol-.
lowed by the Hungarian comedy-
drama, “Mr. Universe’, the week
after in the same time slot.

The life of Mexico’s most renowned
author is examined in The Journey of
Carlos Fuentes: Crossing Borders on
KCTS, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 10 p.m. It
runs for one hour and is closed-
captioned.

year ago to play at festivities marking the
ninth anniversary of the Sandinista revolu-
tion on July 19, 1988.

B Cuadro wasn’t around for this year’s
giant 10th anniversary celebrations in
Managua’s Plaza of the Revolution.
Instead, they were thousands of miles to the
north, celebrating the victory over the U.S.
backed dictatorship before enthusiastic
audiences at the Vancouver Folk Music
Festival.

What was unusual about this group was
that they had to borrow instruments for
their performances. They have none of their
own.

“One of the main reasons for this visit is
to get instruments,” explains guitarist and
singer Fito Garcia, who speaks fluent Eng-
lish and has been a frequent visitor to Van-
couver.

Years of economic blockade by the Uni-
ted States and the U.S. backed contra
attacks have sapped Nicaragua’s economy
and have made it difficult to procure con-
sumer goods. B :Cuadro, an all-electric
band, shares instruments and practice space
with another band back home.

That situation isn’t unusual for musical

Ramon Flores (I), Fito Garcia of B/Cuadro lay down tracks in Slim Evans studio.

groups in Nicaragua, Garcia says.

“It’s hard. We like to play as often as we
can, but usually the best we can do is once a
week.” =

That’s where Slim Evans comes in. The
studio which has produced several home-
grown albums of local progressive singers
— including Hold the Fort and Talking
Union — has taken on the ambitious task
of producing B Cuadro’s first release, to
help raise money for instruments.

Entitled Hay: Fiesta en Barrio, after one
of the selections, it will consist of eight long
tracks, four of which are fast-paced dance
tunes.

“Given the joyful nature of the dance
tunes, you’d never know that country is ina
war Situation,” Fisher, Slim Evans record-
ing engineer, remarks.

Those tunes can be problematic, how-
ever. One fast-paced number changes
swiftly from 7/4 to 6/4 to 4/4 time in the

space of a few bars, requiring seemingly ~

endless tries by the Vancouver musicians —
tenor saxophonist Karen Graves and
trumpet player Daniel Lapp (dubbed the
“Salsadarity horns”) — to mesh with the
unfamiliar rhythms.

Fisher estimates he’s put in some 14 days,
running 10-12 hours each, on the project
since recording began mid-August.

The time Slim Evans has devoted to the
project is free, and will be complemented by
other volunteer or at-cost efforts by printers
and typesetters, among others. Stewart
Barnet, president of the Vancouver Local of
the American Federation of Musicians,
plays some horn on the tape. Mike Allan,
guitarist for the Ginger Group, is also fea-
tured on the tape while Al Zisman, who is
involved with a project called Music for
Nicaragua, is in charge of acquiring the
instruments,

Fisher thinks the time and effort is worth
it, given the high professional calibre of the
musicians and the importance of raising
money so the group — which also includes
keyboardist Oscar Hernandez and drummer
Gabriel Fonseca — can realize the goal of
Owning their own instruments.

He hopes to have the tape completed and
ready for marketing by the time B Cuadro,
which has already played several towns in
British Columbia and Alberta, embarks on
a planned tour of western provinces for the
aid group Tools for Peace, before heading
home at the end of October.

While this will be the first recording for B
Cuadro, some members have recorded in
previous groups. Ramon Flores previously
played with Igni Tawanka, which produced
three albums. Garcia was a member of Kin
Lalat, a popular Guatemalan group based
in Nicaragua which has also been playing
B.C. recently.

As part of Nicaragua’s branch of Latin
America’s New Song movement, B Cuadro
also is grouped with other musicians in an
association called “Volcanto” — a play on
words indicating the groundswell nature of
their revolutionary music.

“We always relate our struggles with the
volcanoes. It’s a very natural thing. Volca-
noes explode at some point,’ Garcia
explains.

B Cuadro finds its audiences among
Nicaragua’s young, ranging from the uni-
versity community to the barrios. Until last
year Nicaraguan musicians received govern-
ment grants, but hard economic times have
dried up that source and the group now
plays restaurant sessions to supplement its
income, Garcia relates.

Despite the economic setbacks in Nica-
ragua, “the spirit for the revolution has
always been high. There have been downs,
but there is also a great deal of understand-
ing why these things happen,” he notes.

EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS II. Star-
ring Michael Pare. At local theatres.

The formula for a successful, late Eight-
ies rock band: heavy metal drummer and
bass player, post-punk lead guitarist,
Steinway piano-man from the classical
circuit, too-hot R&B saxophonist, and, of
course, a Sixties rock ‘n’ roller on guitar
and vocals. The latter has been allegedly
dead for the last 20 years.

This “dirty dozen” in a rock setting
makes up the new on-screen band for
Eddie and the Cruiser II, sequel to the
1983 movie about an early Sixties rock
band from the New Jersey shore that
broke up when their leader (Michael Pare)
took a drive over the side of a bridge.

The final concert scene in Eddie II was
shot when the actors were put on stage at
an actual Bon Jovi concert. But don’t get
confused about who is actually doing this
music. The new movie is another show-
case for the talents of the off-screen John
Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band,

Eddie rocks in music biz satire

whose album from the first: movie went
triple platinum.

The plot is a stretched love story full of
agreeable sub-elements. Eddie, two dec-
ades after the spill, is a union hardhat ona
construction site in Montreal. He likes it,

and he likes his’ buddies on the job. The |

young black saxophone player is.a digni-
fied, wise character, respected by the white

‘Einstein’ fun for all

YOUNG EINSTEIN. Written and direc-
ted by, and starring Yahoo Serious. At
local theatres.

On a reality scale of one to 10, Young
Einstein rates about a negative six, but this
in no way detracts from the seriousness
(yahooness?) of its message.

_ Chaplinesque physical comedy and
anti-nuclear sentiment combine to tre-
mendous effect as the Australian Einstein
(Yahoo Serious) sets out from Tasmania;

“ley.

rockers. Proper tributes are given to the
African-American roots of rock music,
including a cameo appearance by Bo Did-

The sleazy record company hype-artists
are good to hate. Overall, decent late
summer entertainment for rock music
fans. :

— Alice Sunshine

complete with cartoonish Tasmanian dev-
ils, to patent his formula for putting bub-
bles in beer (E=mc?). A premise any less
silly would be out of sync.

This movie is rare in that it is enjoyable
to all ages, insults no one’s intelligence,
and is uproariously funny and direct. The
strong anti-nuclear message is clear but is ‘
not wielded like.a blunt instrument. There
is, however, a tendency toward racial
stereotyping.

Miel Bacon

10 ¢ Pacific Tribune, September 25, 1989