Tuesday, July 16, 6pm
Teatro Ángela Peralta, Mesones 82
$250, $350, (Free admission for children and students under 16)

Papacho Sirdey Jazz Quartet - concert

Music lovers, take note! If you’ve been around San Miguel for a while, you’ve probably heard the name Papacho. If you’re new in town, remember it, because where Papacho Sirdey-Desgagnes goes, great music follows.

We were desolate a few years back when he left us to move to Montreal for studies and to grow both his talent and his brand. The great news is – He’s Back! – just for a visit, but with plans for an ambitious series of multi-cultural, multi-genre concerts, each featuring a visiting artist from Montreal and San Miguel musicians with whom he’s worked over the past decade or more. The first of these will take place July 16th at Teatro Angela Peralta, and feature guitarist Paul Couvreur and rhythm section will be Adrian Flores, from Mexico City, and well known local drummer and percussionist Victor Monterrubio,

The program has mixed influences from dixieland to hard bop combining Spanish rhythms and is mainly comprised of original compositions by Papacho and Paul as well as some some “head” arrangements by the band of traditional jazz standards.

Again, that concert will take place on Tuesday, July 16th at 6 p.m. at the Teatro Angela Peralta. Tickets will be available at the theater box office. (Free admission for children and students under 16)

Don’t miss it!
Billie

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By Fredric Dannen

If you happened to be in Greenwich Village, New York City in the 1950s, you didn’t need a map to find the jazz underground. Any fan of the genre could have directed you to the Five Spot, the Village Vanguard, or a host of other places. In the past several decades, however, far more New York jazz clubs have closed than opened.

Nowadays, the club scene fares better in cities such as Montreal, which hosts one of the biggest jazz festivals in the world. Montreal establishments like the Dièse Onze and Café Résonance are thriving. And on the rue Papineau in Montreal, an atelier called the Casa Obscura, founded in 1993, is a magnet for jazz musicians. One former sanmiguelense has become a regular there, and in a concert on August 11 at the Bellas Artes, he will bring a slice of the edgy Montreal jazz scene to San Miguel.

Papacho Sirdey-Degagnés is himself a cultural hybrid. Born in Peru to a French father and French-Canadian mother, he spent part of his childhood in San Miguel, studied jazz and classical piano in Havana, and returned to San Miguel in 2008. (His father, Daniel Sirdey, runs the Cine Bacco movie theater at the Hotel Sautto.) He performed here regularly with some of the best local musicians, such as violinist Pedro Cartas and percussionist Victor Monterrubio. But the Canadian jazz scene beckoned, and a few years ago he settled in Montreal.