Preview
MANJAR
Friday, October 10
Alibi’s
History, with its scattered trail of broken bodies and ideals, is both a dark and delightful thing. In 1973, backed by the CIA, Augusto Pinochet became dictator of Chile after democratically elected President Salvador Allende was assassinated. Amnesty International reports that tens of thousands of Chileans have been tortured, killed, and exiled since the bloody coup.
In the late ’70s and early ’80s, many exiled Chileans came to Canada. Today, Manuel Jara, guitarist, keyboardist and leader of the musical project Manjar, reflects on the robust Latino scene that grew in a little Western cowtown.
"We are here because of really, really dark times," Jara says from his Calgary home. His sister and brother-in-law were sent to Canada, as was the family of his future musical partner and friend Oscar Lopez. Jara was in his early 20s when he moved to Winnipeg and met Lopez, and had only been playing guitar for a year or two at that point. Three years later, they both ended up in Calgary.
"I’ve been playing with Oscar Lopez for 22 years… since 1981 when there was no such thing as Latin music in Calgary. We were the only guys playing Latin music in the quintessential cowboy city," he says laughing.
The duo’s sound was influenced when Jara heard the album Friday Night in San Francisco by Al DiMeola and John McGlaughlin, which he categorizes as more up-tempo flamenco. The pair began playing seven days a week for the next 10 years. They not only seeded the Latino scene in the city, but Lopez signed with EMI Records and toured with Jara constantly – from New York to Miami to Los Angeles and all places in between.
One of Jara’s most vivid memories is of touring in a van from Halifax to Victoria three winters in a row. "We can’t see the road, but we have to get to the gig because the show must go on, you know. ‘Hey Oscar, next time try to get a gig in January somewhere where it is summer!’"
When Lopez decided to take a sabbatical, Jara was able to realize the dream he says all band members have – to make a solo album. At first he was recording guitar tracks and rhythm tracks alone, but when his friends in the musical community found out, the phone didn’t stop ringing with offers to play.
"I said ‘I can’t afford to pay you, I have no money.’ This didn’t matter. We had saxophone, keyboards, trumpet. It was payback from all my friends for hanging out for 20 years, and I felt really good about that."
The collective was named Manjar and the result is an 11-track album entitled Dark & Sexy. The disc, a spicy musical julep of rhythm, melody and spirit, has already given Jara a taste of success. He sent it to a friend in Chile and now the track "Mas De Ti (More of You)" is on the soundtrack for a TV show. But that success does not tempt Jara to return to Chile, although he has visited it several times.
"I think as an artist I couldn’t make a living there. I have friends there who play clubs, they play for no money but all the drinks you can have. You make like $5 and go home drunk at 7 o’clock in the morning. No, I don’t like that," Jara says, adding that, since coming to Canada, he has never had any job other than playing music.
To Jara being successful used to be breaking new ground or express something different, but as he has aged his perspective has changed. "Now being successful means making a living, having a group of musicians to play with me and being busy. That’s success for me, not the flashy things." |
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