Canciones de amor
This guy at the amphitheater last night. Ladies & gentlemen, caballeros y mujeres, Sr Ruben Blades…BLADES!
As you might expect, this one was all rhythm, brass & volume, not a string instrument to be found anywhere on the stage, unless you counted the four on the electric bass guitar; otherwise, no violins, no acoustic or electric six-string guitars, none of it! However, there was a harp plucked on one of the slower numbers. No, that’s not true. Just seeing if you were reading and paying attention. Psych! Psych ward!
Instead of the strings, then, you had two riser-tiers of the big horns, trombones, giant tenor sax, flashy trumpets, and in front of them, all the percussion contraptions you could possibly imagine: cowbell, of course, the fish, the block, and congas, congas & more congas, congas as far as the eye could see; for good measure, there was a small pair of bongos, plus standing stainless-steel snares, crash- and ride-cymbals attached to those, with the singer himself shaking a pair of maracas custom-painted with the colors and design of the flag of his native Panama. Yes, obviously, there was a standard drum-kit among the musicians. And any musician that did not have an instrument in his mouth was obliged to sing or maybe more accurately shout out the backing vocals.
The keyboards were the familiar Latinoamericano kind: twitchy, jumpy, vibe-y, the sound of the tropics hopping-in. The between-song banter from the singer himself was good. He touched on some diverse topics, name-checking Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, the great Latin musicians like Celia Cruz & Tito Puente, but even going so far as recalling a collab he did with none other than Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Indeed, he even threw-in the great writer’s nickname: GABO. GABO!
Blades also mentioned that he and his assembled group, the Salswing Big Band, had won a Grammy for their work. He mused that this was a complete surprise, given that salsa records sell only a handful of copies while the much more commercial reggaeton moves maybe 9 billion albums; he said the reggaeton execs must have been shaking their heads that they did not win the Grammy: a handful of records sold for salsa, but 9 billion sold for reggaeton. Yeah.
Blades is a singer, a musician, and an entertainer. Yes, he mentioned that he played some role on the television programme called ‘Walking Dead’ or somesuch, but we don’t watch any of those Peak TV shows. Most important, you saw, felt & heard the enjoyment, passion and soul permeating his voice, his moves, his whole performance, which covered the range of his career. Ruben Blades still has it, still loves what he does, now aged 75.
BestLine Racing Society Recap:
Earlier from Canterbury, Colonial, Chas. Town (early card), Del Mar, Monmouth, Saratoga & Thistle.
At Del Mar, Calif., #6 Fast Draw Munnings (.203 Win Prob / 3.93-1 Fair Odds / 4.91-1 Premium Odds) ran to that billing in a $19-even win in Race 4. Next race there, #6 Talent for Gold (.136 / 6.35 / 9.29) struck same at $28-even, with your winning daily double on Races 4 & 5 returning $185.60 off a premium price of $121.62.
Race 5 at Oceanport, N.J., went to #3 Ballindine (.215 / 3.65 / 4.58) at $11.20.
Over to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., for Race 4; in it, #7 Ten Cent Town (.210 / 3.76 / 5.67) did not stop on a dime in an $18.20 win. Then in Race 7, #7 L J’s Emma (.125 / 7.00 / 10.20) got the W at $36.20.
In the opener at No. Randall, Ohio, #3 Deacon Dougie (.509 / 0.96 / 1.36) scored as a low-priced overlay at $5.20.
BestLine Racing Society Nightcap:
Chas. Town this evening.
Strongshots
Race 5
#4 Hidden Identity (.350 / 1.86 / 2.43)
Race 7
#2 Juba’s Parade (.342 / 1.92 / 2.51)
Longshots
Race 4
#1 Chromatic Lass (.312 / 2.21 / 2.85)
#2 Music Lass (.296 / 2.38 / 3.05)
#4 Hessica (.260 / 2.85 / 3.62)
Race 8
#9 Tiz Michelle’s Way (.197 / 4.08 / 5.09)
#11 Flat Discount (.168 / 4.95 / 6.14)
#2 Emma and I (.151 / 5.62 / 8.27)
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