Monday, February 23, 2015

Hope everyone has begun a HOLY LENTEN SEASON thus far. Salutations from our blessed home to you & yours. Yep, it certainly has been awhile since our last blogging, we'd say around Advent of 2014 right? Nonetheless, we're back to continue this ongoing pursuit of venting our frustrations, concerns & hopes of all musicians caught up in the realm we like to call: Providing Music for the Mass(es)!
But before we get into our latest topic/adventure, we'd like to take a little time to reflect on this time of year we as Catholics call Lent. 40 days to look back & repeat the words of St. John the Baptist cried out in the desert: "REPENT! REPENT! FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND!" We understand that it's hard to sometimes walk the straight & narrow, but with God, nothing is impossible. He always with us, as we in turn should always be with Him. Even if it means being falsely accused, incarcerated, beaten 'til bloody, forced to carry a heavy cross, nailed to a cross, only to suffer & die. If you think we are overstating ourselves, just take a look around you & see all the persecution against Christians starting from the most innocents of all by means of abortion. With that said, let us not take for granted that we live in a society that is safe because we're not. Only through the intercession of all the angels & saints, prayers to our holy Mother of God & to God Himself can evil be defeated as death was conquered over 2000 years ago.
Now our topic simply entitled: "DON'T SHOW UP" Judy Rocha (singer/keyboardist/arranger for the contemporary music group caeli) engages primarily in providing music for weddings, XVneras, funerals & on occasion, rosary/vigils. Recently she received a phone call from one of a plethora of mortuaries she is contracted by to provide the music during the recitation of the rosary plus the funeral Mass the following morning. Turns out the funeral was for the mother of (church musician) friend of ours from many years ago. *NOTE: Judy unknowingly at the time had just played the funeral Mass for the father of, let's see we'll just call him Demasiado (translation: too much, in excess). Eventually it was Demasiado's sister who paid & made all the arrangements for both rosary/wake & Mass. She also was the person who spoke with Judy for song choice & order.
On the day of the the wake, mere hours prior to the "gig" Judy receives a voice mail from Demasiado insisting that she call him back immediately. Unaware to him, he didn't hang up so Judy heard his voice along with other family members in the background raising hell because Demasiado was not going to be allowed to sing but maybe 1 or 2 songs. He wouldn't have it. Then she gets a call from his sister (the POA, Power of Attorney person) saying not to listen to what anybody else says & for Judy just to "do her job". 2 minutes after that, Demasiado calls & speaks with Judy & says: "don't show up". After a lengthy conversation (all the while Judy politely asking him to please understand the position she is in) explaining she was hired by the mortuary so her being the professional she is could, without the proper authority just not show up. She told him that he needed to have the mortuary counselor or his sister call her to cancel the music, to which there was a dead silence (no pun intended) & he finally mumbled, not okay but instead said: "we'll see".
We arrived early as was suggested by the counselor (who of course left early to avoid any confrontation) & there was Demasiado in all of his glory performing with a huge sound system, electric guitar with amp & a rhythm box cranking out praise & worship songs to please his following that were in attendance. *NOTE: You know from our previous blogs how we feel about tuning & sing off key, well here was no exception. The rosary was scheduled for 7pm, it was approximately 6:50pm & per the funeral director request asked Demasiado to please stop playing to allow us to move in & set up to which his answer was simply "No I'm not moving. I'm going to play everything tonight. All night."
Finally, after the director (who has known Demasiado for quite some time as well) told him as a "friend" could you please let Mrs. Judy play, my job is on the line. So he finally gave in & as we were setting up, he walked over to try to explain why he did what he did, we simply said we're just here to do what we're here to do, our job,  to be professional about it & certainly try to be humble & Christian-like. We don't think he quite got the subtle advice. Until next time, God bless.