Why Mexicans don’t admit to playing the slide trombone

Trevor @ Thursday August 10th 2006 01:39

I went into the excellent and apparently men-only Cantina La Fuente in Guadalajara, Jalisco this morning and ordered a beer. An aggressive-looking youngish guy further down the bar started mouthing off loudly about gringos, so I went over to see what his problem was, and it turned out he was a frustrated sysadmin looking for his next drink rather than for a fight.

So what do you do, he asked. Various shit, I said, including music. In fact, I said, I play the trombone, toco el trombĂłn. And the whole bar straight away started screaming with laughter. Eh, I said, so the paralytically drunken doctor leant against the wall on the other side of Mr Windows 2003 came round and showed me on his cellular a fascinating clip from the title of which I inferred that tocar el trombĂłn (or la trompeta) is a Mexicanism for giving a blowjob–try miming if you don’t get it.

The strange thing is that I haven’t seen slide trombones in action anywhere in Mexico; maybe valves make sense in a country without many pavements for a push-me-off-the-pavement specialist.

(Mainly thanks to MP3 goddess, Madu D, I’ve listened to a whole lot of music here. I already knew a bit of banda stuff–banda is souped-up norteña with New Orleans/Dirty Dozen-type instrumentation–and I love some of the new things, but the most interesting tracks I’ve heard have been from a wild bunch called Nor-Tec aka Nortec, who mix new norteña in general and banda sousaphone licks in particular with kind-of screwed up techno.)


Categories: Les bourgeois, Music

« · »

RSS: post comments, blog comments, blog posts

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  1. Yotro
    August 12th 2006 08:50

    I have fond and fuzzy memories of La Fuente. Negro Modelo beer straight off slabs of ice. The band sawing away on its island-balcony.

    Have you visited the Octavio Paz library at the University of Guadalajara? Well worth it. Beautiful proportions. Also murals which I remember as more elegant than Orozco´s … elegant execution, at least, the ideas being crude commie.

    Avenida ColĂłn, Colonia Centro.

    http://servicios.cencar.udg.mx/iberoamericana/inicio.php

  2. Yotro
    August 12th 2006 08:55

    I have fond, fuzzy memories of La Fuente. Negro Modelo beer straight off great slabs of ice. The musicians scraping away on their little island-balcony.

    Visited the Octavio Paz library? Beautiful proportions. Also murals, which I remember as more elegant than Orozco’s … elegant execution, at least, the ideas being propagandistic.

    Avenida ColĂłn, Colonia Centro

    http://servicios.cencar.udg.mx/iberoamericana/recinto.php

  3. Dredger
    September 30th 2006 15:44

    Never heard of Toni Tromboni?

  4. Trevor ap Simon
    September 30th 2006 17:07

    I guess you’re not talking about Werner Puntigam.

Share this post
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Ma.gnolia
  • Meneame
  • MySpace
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
See also
    • This feature doesn't work without post tags, and there don't seem to be any for this post.
    • This feature doesn't work without post tags, and there don't seem to be any for this post.
Música en vivo para fiestas infantiles y geriatricas en Barcelona

Canciones, bailes, juegos y cuentos por cantante y pianista en inglés y castellano. Modus operandi: sublime y ridiculisimo. Repertorio: Cri-Cri, Ivor Cutler, extravagancias latinoamericanas de los 40, anuncios oeste-africanos de los 50, Tom Lehrer, Kurt Schwitters, bordados avanzados, etcétera. Precios a partir de 300€. Contacto aquí.

Original scores and arrangements

Check out the musical services I provide over at Oreneta.com, as well as my barrel organ project.

Google Reader

I share other stuff over here.

Pordiosería

If you're feeling generous, check out my Amazon wishlists for Deutschland, France , and the UK, or use PayPal to

My 5% bookstore - new stuff



Spanish history

Modern Spanish fiction

Spanish classics

On this day

Barcelona

  • March 22 1460 El prĂ­ncipe de Viana alcanza por primera vez el perdon de su padre, y se viene de Mallorca á Barcelona.
  • March 22 1848 

    En obsequio del beato José Oriol, cuyo fiesta se celebra mañana en la parroquia de Ntra. Sra. del Pino, se cantan en la misma iglesia solemnes maitines á las 4 y media de la tarde de hoy.

Josep Pla, Palafrugell (1918-9)

  • 22 de març de 1919 Alta cultura. Les coses, Ă©s clar, haurien pogut Ă©sser diferents… En acabar el batxillerat, la meva intenciĂł no fou pas d’estudiar per advocat. M’hauria agradat mĂ©s d’estudiar quĂ­mica, i per tal de servir el que jo creia que era la meva vocaciĂł, vaig matricular-me al preparatori de Ciències. Matricular-se! Prenguin nota de la parauleta! El [...]

The peepul's choice

Back to top