Jazz that Riffs off Ravel

(left to right) Marco Mezquida, Martin Melendez and Aleix Tobias

Last night was all about classical music, and tonight it was jazz riffing off of the music of Maurice Ravel.

As part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, I attended a concert by the Marco Mezquida Trio entitled Ravel's Dreams, held at the Drama Theatre in the Hong Kong for Performing Arts in Wan Chai.

Last year when I watched a jazz performance at the nearby Arts Centre, the place was barely filled, but this time it was almost full, with ushers encouraging people to sit closer to the stage.

Mezquida is a very talented Spanish pianist -- he is technically as brilliant as someone like Lang Lang and takes his musicality to another level with improvisation on the spot depending on the venue, the audience and how he feels.



Only 31 years old, he is very comfortable experimenting with all aspects of the piano -- even reaching over and playing with the strings inside the instrument. His fellow musicians are very accomplished as well.

Cellist Martin Melendez who was born in Moscow of Cuban parents and lives in Barcelona, playing jazz, Cuban, funk and flamenco. Melendez was soaking in the music, mostly eyes closed and moving to the music as he played, plucked and even strummed his cello.

Aleix Tobias on drums is very deft on percussion and has a range from adding beats to creating new textures with the music and complementing the two other players very well.

At first the audience was timid and didn't know when to clap -- many were Chinese -- but after a while they got the hang of it and enthusiastically clapped after each piece. 

Towards the end, Mezquida performed the Adagio assai from Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major all on his own and we were all mesmerized watching his fingers literally flying all over the keyboard, doing very fast chords and melody all on his own -- the cellist and percussionist took a break, and it wasn't until the very end did they join him.

The last piece they played was their riff of Ravel's Bolero -- so full of energy and the piano and percussion taking turns keeping the signature beat of the piece. The cellist held his instrument like a giant guitar and was strumming it!



By now the audience was so excited they clapped enthusiastically and got an encore. We don't know what it was, but Tobias held a tambourine, Melendez hit/tapped different parts of the cello and Mezquida strummed or plucked the piano strings -- it was completely unconventional music, and it was fun.

The audience clapped loudly again, but alas, the trio only came out to wave goodbye and that their CDs were available outside the venue!

Marco Mezquida Trio - Ravel's Dreams (arranged by Mezquida)
String Quartet in F major
Pavane pour une infante defunte
Le Tombeau de Couperin
Adagio assai from Piano Concerto in G major
Bolero

Port Visit: Barcelona's La Boqueria

La Boqueria is more of a tourist spot for visitors to have a taste of local food

One last stop on our short one-day visit to Barcelona was to La Boqueria, or the market in La Rambla, a main strip where tourists walk up and down to check out mostly souvenir shops, cafes and restaurants.

There's lots of fresh fruits and vegetables...

Historically, the first mention of La Boqueria dates back to 1217, and it was basically an open market selling meat. Centuries later the authorities decided to construct a separate market for the fishmongers and butchers.

It wasn't until 1826 was the market legally recognized, and construction began in 1840 to build an official structure for the market. While the building has been modified many times, the metal roof that exists today dates back to 1914.

I remember visiting La Boqueria over 20 years ago and was astonished by the amount of produce. The tradition continues today -- there's a lot to choose from, such as stalls selling fruit salads or fruit juices, or vegetables, jamon or cured ham sold by the gram, fresh seafood such as fish, oysters, prawns and even lobsters, or empanadas with different fillings inside.

... as well as cured meats including sausages and Iberico ham

It was difficult to choose what to try, and in the end I sampled a delicious octopus salad that wasn't tough at all, seasoned with olive oil, lemon and chopped parsley, though the fresh figs aren't quite in season so they weren't very ripe.

There were also lots of baked goods from fresh baguettes to cookies and pastries, as well as small bars where you can eat tapas, though with a big group like us it was hard to even get a seat; we just bought food and shared them among ourselves.

Afterwards we continued our way down La Rambla to the Columbus Monument. It's a 60 metre-tall column with explorer Christopher Columbus on top.

It was built in 1888 for the Universal Exposition of Barcelona the same year to mark his first voyage to the Americas. The monument also serves as a reminder that Columbus served Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand V in Barcelona after his first trip to the Americas.

Christopher Columbus atop a column

The statue features Columbus with his right hand supposedly pointing west to the New World, but in reality it's pointing south south-east, which means the city of Constantine in Algeria, and not his hometown of Genoa, Italy. Aside from being trivial, a simpler explanation is that Columbus is pointing to the sea to allude to his naval expeditions.

After taking pictures of Columbus we wandered to our shuttle bus to take us back to the cruise ship; this visit more than the others made me want to go back to Barcelona to explore more of the city. It was also cheaper than Italy -- another reason to make a return visit!

Port Visit: Barcelona's Park Guell

Gaudi's famous salamander made of mosaics at Municipal Garden

Another major landmark that you have to see in Barcelona is Park Guell located on Carmel Hill. A Spanish entrepreneur, Eusebi Guell, who made his money in the industrial revolution in Catalonia, commissioned Antoni Gaudi to design the park, which he did from 1900 to 1914.

Gaudi lived in this house (1906-26) which is now a museum

Parc Guell was officially opened in 1926 and in 1984 was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Originally the park was meant to be a commercial housing project but it was unsuccessful: the land was basically a rocky hill with few trees and vegetation, but the location was away from smoky factories, hence the air was relatively clean.

Guell had hoped to build 60 lots of luxury housing here that were fitted with modern technology, and he tried to initiate buyer interest by moving there himself into an existing country house called Larrard House in 1906.

Entrepreneur Guell lived here in Larrard House

However, in the end only two houses were built -- one as a show house, the other for sale, but no one was interested in buying them. So at Guell's suggestion, Gaudi bought one of the homes and moved in with his family and father in 1906 and lived there until 1926.

The house contains original works by Gaudi and is now a museum called Gaudi House Museum. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go inside.

However, we did wander around the colonnaded footpath under the roadway viaduct and heard some flamenco music being played and saw some musicians along with a flamenco dancer.

Benches are shaped like a sea serpent at Municipal Garden

We also sadly missed the Municipal Garden, made famous by Gaudi's colourful mosaic salamander called "el drac" or "dragon". This part of the park also requires paying an entrance fee. I visited this part of the park over 20 years ago and I was blown away by how creative Gaudi was with the long bench that is shaped like a sea serpent. 

Port Visit: Barcelona's Sagrada Familia

The back of the cathedral has some many decorations

Trying to take in Barcelona in less than 12 hours is impossible. Even trying to do the highlights well is a difficult too.

The front of the church (not my picture!)

We had our best intentions, but literally only had a taste of the Spanish city.

Since we were a group of eight traveling together, my uncle arranged for a van for us, but we actually got a full-on tour bus instead. How that happened is strange, but it was like our very own hop-on, hop-off bus.

Our first destination was Sagrada Familia, the famous cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi that is still being built. Construction started in 1882, but by the time he died in 1926, only one-quarter of the building was completed.

Construction continues...

The project kept going through private donations, but then construction was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War, and building started again in the 1950s. Now with computer technology, construction has speeded up, and the Roman Catholic cathedral is expected to be completed in 2026, the centenary of Gaudi's death.

The original inspiration for the Basilica Sagrada Familia came from Josep Maria Bocabella, founder of the Spiritual Association of Devotees of St Joseph. He visited the Vatican in 1872 and wanted to build a church.

During the Civil War, Gaudi's workshop was destroyed by Catalan anarchists and so the designs now are based on reconstructions of plans that were burned in the fire as well as on modern adaptations.

Admission into the cathedral (15-22 euros for basic tickets, and can go up as much as 40 euros) is what funds construction, which probably explains why there are so many people there and tickets sell out quickly.

The ceiling of the cathedral that I couldn't see unfortunately!

We didn't get a chance to go in, so we could only admire it from the outside. It covers one giant block and there's so much to see from every angle. I tried sketching part of the facade and even then it was had to squeeze in all the detail. The spires had figures on them as well as words, every little bit had some kind of decoration that was not necessarily symmetrical.

The place is still literally a construction site, with cranes moving materials around as the rest of us watch. It's as if they are putting on a show for us, that they are building this thing...

Same with the beautiful colours reflected inside...! Next time!

In any event it's an excuse to come back when it's finally completed... though Wikipedia says while the main construction will be completed in 2026, the decorations may not be completed until 2030 or 2032...