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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."