After the Gipsy Kings Washington DC Area Concert
Tuesday September 5, 2000 by Miguelito
Nicolas Reyes, Tonino Baliardo and the rest of the musicians performed at Wolf Trap's Filene Center September 4th and 5th, 2000 in Vienna, Virginia.
On the second night, my friends and I headed to their hotel, The Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner, after the concert to catch the party.
While we were waiting in the lobby, I was talking to Canut Amador and Titi, sons of Paul Reyes and Patchai respectively. (Thanks to Rachel Hernandez from Texas for the genealogical info.) My friend Juan Martín mentioned to them that I am a guitarist. So naturally, they asked me to play. When the guitars came out of the cases, the party began...
We passed the instruments around and when young Canut and Titi played they turned the guitars the other way and played them left-handed. It was something that I had never seen, at least not up close.
Apparently, some members of the band heard the music in the lobby and they started to wander in one by one. Nicolas was the only one who was willing to take my guitar and play a little.
In the picture above, Nicolas Reyes sings and plays while Canut Amador and local singer-guitarist Kivanc look on.(Be sure to read Kivanc's account of the concert)
Now Kivanc sings while Nicolas and Canut Amador accompany on guitar.
I'll tell you, although I enjoyed the Gipsy Kings' concert at Wolf Trap earlier that evening, hearing them in an intimate atmospere with just guitars, voice and palmas was the highlight!
At one point their general manager, Pascal Imbert, had to cut the party short making sure that the band members were well-rested for the performance the following day in Toronto. Smart guy. A gentleman. Of course Pascal joined our own little party after he put them to bed. :)
Here DC area guitarists Richard Marlow and Kivanc Oner continue the momentum with a few rumbas.
We moved our party to a more secluded area where we could play guitar, sing and dance without bothering the guests. It must've been about 1:00am at this point.
DC area flamenco dancer Sara Jerez gets in the mood while Richard plays guitar.
Here she is dancing a little bulerías.
At the bottom right corner is New York-based musician Jean Baptiste who's currently on tour with his own band, stopping by to party with the Gipsy Kings.
Caught you! :) That's the Gipsy King's general manager, Pascal Imbert, in the brown jacket relaxing at our little party while Kivanc sings a rumba.
Next to him is guitarist Canut Amador, son of Paul Reyes, and Marcello a New York-based musician touring with Jean-Baptiste mentioned above. According to Bob Bish, webmaster for the gipsykings.net website, Jean Baptiste and Marcello are in the Gipsy Kings' backup band.
Pascal is the guy that comes out at the beginning of the concert and pumps the crowd up by asking "Are you ready for the Gipsy Kings?"
The next time they're in town, I will be ready and hopefully I can make it again to the hotel party aftewards. It was fun and inspiring.
Thanks to my friends for getting me a ticket to the concert at the last minute, getting me backstage and finding out where the party was. It pays to have good connections! :)
The above photos were taken by yours truly Miguelito using the Olympus D460Z 1.3 megapixel digital camera set at HQ with a original resolution of 1024x768
