New Mexico Folk Music & Dance Society

FolkMADS Calendar and Notes

March - April 2007 Volume 10, Issue 2

P.O. Box 40421, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87196-0421

The FolkMADS Calendar and Notes are published bimonthly by the
New Mexico Folk Music and Dance Society, a nonprofit organization.

FolkMADS sponsors Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos contra dances, concerts, camps, and other special events. "Contra" dances include contras, squares, mixers, and couple dances. Unless noted on the calendar, admission is $6 for members, $7 for nonmembers. You need not come with a partner. Free instruction for beginners starts at 7:30 p.m. Dances begin at 8 p.m. and are smoke-free and alcohol-free. Children and teens are encouraged to participate if supervised by an adult.

Albuquerque Dances: 1st and 3rd Saturday contra dances, 7:30-10.30 p.m., $6/$7. 2nd Sunday Elegant English and Zesty Contra Dance, 7:00-9:30 p.m., $6/$7. Locations as noted on calendar.

Santa Fe Dances: 2nd and 4th Saturday contra dances and some 5th Saturday English Country dances, 8:00-11:00 p.m. Odd Fellows Hall, 1125 Cerrillos Road (south of Cordova Drive on the western side of Cerrillos).

Taos Dances: 3rd Saturdays, call for details, 776-1580.

ABQ Megaband: Albuquerque Megaband practice is held at the Blue Dragon Coffee House, 1517 Girard NE, Albuquerque, the Tuesday before the 3rd Saturday dance. All acoustic musicians are welcome. Bruce Thomson, 268-6003, or email Jane Phillips for more info or to be added to the listserv.

Santa Fe Jam Sessions: Santa Fe Community Band practice at the ODD Fellows Hall on ODD (1st and 3rd) Wednesdays at 7 p.m. (contact Gary Papenhagen, 242-1104). Slow jam on the 2nd Thursday at 7 p.m. at Katherine Bueler & Gary Schiffmiller's house (995-1125). Beginning and experienced musicians all welcome!

Acoustic Jam: 6:30 p.m. before the Albuquerque dances. All acoustic musicians are welcome and all types of music are played. Call Jay Cutts for more information, 281-0684.

 

2007 Officers/Directors
Ongoing Events


Albuquerque Dance Committee Meets

Mark Your Calendars: The next quarterly meeting of the Albuquerque Dance Committee is Saturday, April 7, 2:30 p.m., at the home of Bob Cornish and Linda Starr, 509 Aliso Dr. NE, 255-6037.  Please come and share your ideas for the Albuquerque dances.  We welcome your contribution.

 

It Takes a Village

Attendance was seriously lacking at the last dance committee meeting, the first quarterly meeting of 2007 last January.  Perhaps it was too early in the new year and folks were still away for the holidays.  There are other possible reasons:  maybe the notice in the newsletter (first page at the bottom of the right-hand column) was missed or not noted on your calendar as a date to remember.  Some people have said, “Well, I don’t actually read the newsletter.”

The four of us that were at the dance committee meeting talked briefly about how to get more folks from our dance community involved in the processes of holding our 1st and 3rd Saturday dances.   Part of the problem is that most of us come to the dances without any idea of what it takes to hold and organize the dances.  We just come to dance without any thought as to how callers and bands are chosen, how we leave the facility after the dance, who puts the newsletter together and mails it, or the attitude we demonstrate to new dancers when we meet them.  Do we treat children as dance equals, look out for them in the dance line, and guide them along to the next couple?  Do we care whether dancers are getting hurt on the dance floor because someone twisted their back out of joint with a twirl, bent their wrist back or squeezed their hand too hard with an allemande?  If you are an experienced dancer, do you invite a new person to dance and usher them through the moves?  Do we have any idea of the trouble the sound people go through to present the music and calling in a finely balanced manner?

Now that we’re back at the Heights Community Center, we are delighted that the Albuquerque dances have had a swelling turnout with plenty of newbies at each event to egg the band on.  However, we must be able to sustain this spirit and engage participation, especially by a younger generation.

Holding successful Albuquerque 1st and 3rd Saturday dances takes a village of energetic NM FolkMADS members (not just the same folks who always volunteer).  If you can contribute in any way: by joining us at a dance committee meeting to help plan our direction, by being a dance angel on the floor, by helping out at the cash box, by joining in environment restoration (cleanup), by packing out the sound equipment, or aiding beginners in the pre-dance training sessions, we can use your support and vigor.
                                    - Albuquerque Dance Committee


 

Sign up now! (prices go up after April 15)

FolkMADness Music and Dance Camp

Memorial Day Weekend, May 25 - 28, 2007
at ‘New Mexico Tech’ in Socorro, New Mexico

Featuring
Music by The Canote Brothers (Greg and Jere)
The Elftones (Mara Shea and Roger Gold)
Callers Laura Me’ Smith and Tom Hinds
Singing Leaders Suzannah Park and Nathan Morrison

Flyers with complete information are available at the dances and here.

Registration information: Deb Brunt, (505) 256-5381, debbrunt@comcast.net
General information: Lisa Bertelli, Camp Chair, (505) 983-1321, lisabertelli@aol.com


Camp Benefit Dances

April 21 in Albuquerque — Merri Rudd with Albuquerque Megaband
April 28 in Santa Fe — Will McDonald with Santa Fe Community Band

$7 members/$8 nonmembers
Proceeds help provide funds for camp scholarships.

Have you moved?
Changed phone numbers? Changed your e-mail address?
Keep FolkMADS up to date so you'll continue to receive the newsletter and we can contact you.
Contact Ken Shaw with your current info.

 


MegaBand Tune of the Month:  Quince Dillon's High-D Tune, by way of Alan Jabbour
Bruce Thomson

 

Back when dinosaurs roamed the face of the earth and I was just learning about old-time music, I picked up an album titled “The Hollow Rock String Band” (Rounder Records 0024) that featured the playing of Alan Jabbour on fiddle with Tom Thompson (banjo) and Jim Watson (guitar) who later were founding members of the Red Clay Ramblers.  For many years this LP formed the nucleus of my old-time music collection, and I learned to play every tune on it.

The principal instigator of this LP was Alan.  He (www.alanjabbour.com) started his musical life as a classical violinist but became attracted to old time music as a graduate student at Duke University in North Carolina.  He did a short stint in academia, then moved to Washington D.C. in 1969 and spent over 30 years working at the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Arts.  He was Director of the American Folklife Center for over 20 years.  Alan has collected, recorded, transcribed, and written extensively on American traditional fiddle music and the fiddlers themselves.

As a fiddler, his interest has focused on southern fiddle styles, especially the Hammons family of West Virginia and Henry Reed of Virginia.  And while he draws on their material and style, Alan’s fiddling is clear, fluid, and smooth.  His recordings are sweet to listen to and easy to learn from.  In recent years he has toured extensively with Ken Perlman, a great banjo player (the only banjo player I know who can frail jigs note for note), a noted ethnomusicologist, and author of a good banjo instructional book.

In 2003 Alan, Bertram Levy, and James Reed (Henry’s son) released a CD titled “A Henry Reed Reunion” containing 21 tunes played by Henry.  New Mexico folks have been playing Quince Dillon’s High-D Tune for years as a two part dance tune, but this recording has two additional short parts remembered by James from his dad’s playing.  Quince Dillon was Henry’s musical mentor and a fifer in the Mexican War and the Civil War.  Based on this tune, he must have been a fun guy to play music with.

ABC Notation
X:68
T:Quince Dillon's High-D Tune
M:C
L:1/8
N:From A Henry Reed Reunion, Jabbour, Levy & Reed
N:Transcribed by Bruce Thomson
K:D
z6ag|:"D"fd2d3Ac|defg abaf|"C"e=c2c3AB|=cdef =geag|
"D"fd2d3Ac|defg a2cB|"A"ABcd egfe|[1"D"d3dd2ag:|[2" D"d3dd4||
|:"D"D2D2F2A2|dcde fed2|"A"A2ABc2(3efg|a2a2"D"d'2z2|
"D"D2D2F2A2|dcde fedB|"A"ABAG FDEC|"D"D3DD4:|
||"D"D2F2A2dc|"G"BG3G4|"A"ABcd e2ag|"D"fd3d4|
"D"DEFG A2dc|"G"BG3G4|"A"ABcde2ag|"D"fd3d4||
|:"D"A2d2f2ab|"G"ag3g4|"A"ABcd e2ag|"D"fd3d4:|


Archive of featured ABC tunes can be found here.

FolkMADS thanks The Blue Dragon Coffeehouse, 1517 Girard NE, Albuquerque, for generously hosting the Albuquerque Megaband practices (on the Tuesday before the 3rd Saturday dances).

For more information about Megaband, contact Bruce Thomson: 277-4729, or Jane Phillips: 898-2565.
Email Jane to be added to the Megaband listserv (automatic e-mail reminders).

The Albuquerque Megaband plays for free each month at the 3rd Saturday dances in ABQ, helping to keep FolkMADS going.

A big thank you to all the Megaband musicians!!

Other Events

 

Cajun/ O'Odham Fiddle Styles Workshop with Bayou Seco
Saturday, April 14, IOOF Hall  3:00-5:30 p.m., $25.
 The workshop includes a packet of some tune transcriptions, and a CD of the music as played by Ken and Jeanie and their mentors. Limit 12 persons. For reservations write Ken and Jeanie at bayouseco@aol.com, or call 505-534-0298 (we will be gone from Feb. 26- Mar. 28 in England on tour, so e-mail contact is best).

Fiddle workshop on the Double fiddle styles of Louisiana (mostly Dennis McGee and Canray Fontenot), and the Tohono O'Odham (Elliott Johnson) of Arizona. These two fiddle styles are unique to the areas from which they came. The older Cajun style on two violins hearkens back to the 19th century and involves a melody part as well as a rhythmic bassing part, reflecting French, British Isles, and African roots. The O'Odham style includes the chotis, mazurkas, polkas, two-steps, and waltzes. There is a melody part and two harmony parts. It is wonderful dance music reflecting European roots mixed with New World ideas. We can also cover some New Mexican tunes if people want that.

 

 

 

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