Another visit to Goa and another interesting experience. In my endeavour to peel away the touristy layers of Goa, I struck oil last week – if you pardon the ungainly mixing of metaphors. And ended up at the courtyard of an old Goan house (read Portuguese, since I haven’t been able to see much of Goa’s pre-european heritage). Armando Gonsalves has converted his old house into a venue for regular jazz and fusion music concerts.
There were a bunch of Spanish musicians that evening. It started with Basque twins, Sara and Maika beating out some nifty rhythms using the Txalaparta (closest pronunciation being tchalaparta), which is basically an ensemble of unlikely everyday stuff, including pieces of wood and stone. Followed by The Toumie Vila Seseca Trio on more traditional instruments.
I went with Savio & Pirkko and Pirkko’s visiting folks from Finland. The crowd was mostly Goa’s India refugees and booze flowed bringing forth its unique brand of mellow cheer. Everyone, as you can imagine was in a good mood, in which alchemy, Spanish music added the final dash. It was a lovely evening.
And as often happens, it is in such unlikely circumstances that you get these blinding flashes of insight that change your life for ever. It happened to me too.
I learned that starting the evening with a large whiskey is probably not a good way to start any evening. Especially if you plan to go a long way.
