Today, members of "caeli" performed at a wedding reception, those being Jorge Fajardo and us, Roger & Judy Rocha. Earlier, Judy provided the liturgical music appropriate for the Mass and was also asked to perform a couple of Spanish songs at the reception for the Bride & Groom's 1st dance, eventually she agreed. The 2 songs we did were a cover by IL DIVO entitled "Hasta Mi Final" (Until the End) and also another tune which Judy in the "early years" had recorded with her band "Judy and her Latin Souls", that song is called "Pasaran los Anos" (As the Years Pass). The stage was pretty crowded with a DJ and all of his equipment, a 6 piece Mariachi band,...with all of their equipment, us,....with all of our modified equipment (scheduled to play the 2 songs at precisely 7PM) and...a 15 piece "banda", yep you guessed it,....with all of their equipment. All in all, a little mayhem-ish, but went rather smoothly if we do say so ourselves. Our performance consisted of Judy: Lead Vocal/Keyboard, Roger: Acoustic/Electric Classical Guitar and Jorge: Conga and light percussion. When we were finished, the Bride, the Groom and the peeps attending,...all happy campers.
Later that evening, our percussionist Jorge lent us a CD of a young singer/songwriter from up north who for privacy purposes will be referred to as WB. Mind you, Jorge forewarned us that the lyric content, music and arranging were not bad, but WB's singing ability was. So during the ride home we popped the CD in the the car player and yep, there were a total of 13 songs and every single one, WB's lead vocal, was just wrong. The music, arrangements, even the back up vocals were done quite well. A side bar on back up vocals: We've come across, especially in Spanish church choirs and praise bands, that they tend to have anywhere from 4 to 14 girl back up singers, all of them singing in unison either too sharp or too flat. No harmonies whatsoever. It's kinda like that "running your nails across a chalkboard" feeling, you know. C'mon you lazy choir directors, take some time to teach them to reach them notes! Or at least bring in a qualified volunteer vocal coach!
Getting back to WB, we can't for the life in us, believe that no one caught the bad, NO, horrendous singing enough to say: "Hey! There's definitely something rotten in Denmark!" The producer (which probably wouldn't work seeing how it was most likely WB himself), the engineer, (was he running late for another gig?), nor fellow band mates and or back up singers (who probably were paid to perform and stay silent). Oh, and did we mention?, "this is recorded material! Etched in stone! On sale! In public! Forever!" Okay, we get it, you have some original songs with great spiritual messages, rhythms, etc., but p-l-e-a-s-e, let someone else do the honors of taking your composition to a higher level of productivity, especially if you lack strength in that field. According to our pal Jorge, who has actually played as back up for WB, says: "he's a real nice person, you know, down to earth". For as down to earth and nice WB might seem, he really needs to open his mind to other possibilities. Open his eyes to see what is wrong with the picture he is painting. Open his ears and really listen to the mistake he himself is producing, whether or not he accepts the fact that he cannot carry a tune. But mainly, open his heart as we're sure he has when he writes these song of praise and adoration for God and say to God, "Lord, I always want to do my best for You and if it means sharing the microphone, NO, completely giving up the microphone to someone who can interpret my gift to You with so much more beauty, grace and know how, then let it be."

Look, at first glance, this blogger space might seem mean spirited, harsh, or simply put, a way to get back at all of the ways people have used or should we say , misused music in the realm of "religious" or "sacred" music. caeli has been performing religious music since 1998 after a dear and loving priest friend (Fr. G. Peter Irving III) approached us to see if we'd be interested in playing and singing at Mass after discovering that we were long time musicians playing in a "secular" mode. For us, being musicians obviously the music ( arranging, chord progression, beat, etc.) is key however; the real power is in the "message". We can't begin to tell you how many people have come to us after hearing us perform and said: "that song, the one you guys sang during communion or meditation, it really touched my heart". Whoop, there it is! It's kinda like when Jesus cured the 10 lepers, and only the one came back to acknowledge what had just happened and to thank Him. No, we're not Jesus and don't pretend to play Him on TV either, but for us, that one person who's life we've touched simply by playing a song truly means a lot to us. Who knows, that individual just might have been drawn even that much closer to our Lord through those same lyrics we belted out as a tune. Who'd a thunk, that a song, performed well, with a little class or arranging could do so much good and still be considered a work of mercy.
Which brings us to the point of starting this blog. How many times have you heard a church choir and/or several quote unquote musicians totally butcher a song that leaves that sour taste on your tongue while screaming (to yourself, quietly) "what part of music 101 did you not get?!!" Unfortunately, for us, too many times. People, it all can be fixed! Well, maybe, as a very good music producer/engineer/friend once said: " I can fix a lot of things, but I can't fix suck". C'mon, tune the guitars. Change the keys. Stay in time. Lose your hard headed director for one who actually knows what he or she is doing. True, the majority of choirs are volunteers, but still, try your best to seek out what sounds best for the choir, whether it be musicianship or vocals. Allow criticism and use it as a positive tool and not a let down. Reason being, there are so many stubborn choir directors as well as members that simply won't take no for an answer. They think they know what they're doing when they can't even follow the original melody of the song. Even if they are flat out told! Once we put together a big project for a Guadalupana celebration which entailed a huge 80 piece volunteer choir to perform on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, starting in the wee hours of the morning, later afternoon and then that evening, all with songs of praise and for the Masses. We had given a special invitation to the existing Spanish singing choir the opportunity to join us, their reply was pretty bold when they said (noses slightly turned up) "Nope, we're fine just the way we are. After all, we don't consider ourselves 'professionals', what we do, we do from the heart". Oh, excuse us, and we don't do it from the heart? We then turned around and said "We're not trying to out do anyone here, we're all in the same boat, working under the same God and seriously, we are not auto mechanics, but let us work on changing the brakes of your car. We promise, even though we don't know what we're doing, we will do it with all of our hearts" Accept that answer from your auto repair guy and see how well that goes. Needless to say, the project was a great success. The choir we conducted dwindled down from almost 90 people to about 60. They sounded great. Musicianship was limited to volunteer professionals (meaning every other Tom, Dick or Harry who thought they could play a guitar or tambourine was not allowed to join the choir band). The Pastor and the peeps were happy. (Thanks to all of those who gave up time for the intense rehearsals, yous guys were fantastic!)
So you see, we're not trying to be mean nor mightier than thou, 'cos the reality is folks, "there's always somebody better" and you always, always want to sound the very best you can to first and foremost: please our Lord and secondly, make it a nice, pleasurable sounding choir that in turn, guides the rest of the congregation to sing along or simply head out to tackle the rest of the week with a song of encouragement, hope or simply God's love in their hearts.