Film footage from the October 4 concert at the National Heritage Museum is now posted on MCC’s very own channel on You Tube. You can watch a Scottish bagpiper, Puerto Rican family band, Cambodian dance troupe, Fado singer, auctioneer, and Franco-American fiddle and stepdance. Thanks to Mathew Ferrel for filming and editing the segments. We hope to add footage from our June 7 concert in the near future.
For those who attended our October 4 concert at the National Heritage Museum, a highlight of the evening was Donna Hébert’s rendering of “The Raven’s Wing” on fiddle. The story behind this composition of Donna’s is as moving as the soaring, sorrowful melody. To hear more about it, go to Donna’s fiddleblog post.
Ever since hearing Grupo Canela at the National Heritage Museum on October 4th and learning that they perform each weekend at their family restaurant in Westfield, I wanted to go. This past Friday, four of us drove out from Boston. We arrived around 5:30 and decided to walk around downtown before going into the restaurant. With its wide streets and empty storefronts scattered in amongst the businesses, Westfield has the feel of a town that has seen some hard economic times.
Upon entering the restaurant, I introduce myself to a young woman behind the counter who turns out to be Alexa Santiago, the oldest daughter of the Santiago family. Welcoming and astonishingly cheery, she ends up doing the lion’s share of waiting tables and serving on this evening. She takes peoples orders like she is hosting a family meal. If someone asks for the restroom, she tells them, “You have to go through the kitchen, just like you’re at home.” Alexa introduces me to Carmen Santiago, Ismael’s wife.
Born and raised in Corozal, Puerto Rico, Carmen and Ismael grew up and went to school together. Soon after graduating high school in 1967, they left Puerto Rico for Hartford, Connecticut in order to find work. After a few years, the Santiagos moved to Holyoke and eventually settled in Westfield. They have been running the restaurant in its current location since 1999. Like many immigrants, they had every intention of going home but with six children and seven grandchildren, they have built a life here. “We thought we’d go back home,” Carmen says, “but the family grows.”
The restaurant’s décor is festive and full of intriguing artifacts - like a Puerto Rican version of Cracker Barrel. Colored glass lanterns and hanging coconuts, guitars, congas, and cuatros, maps of Puerto Rico, vintage beer signs, knick-knacks and figurines, and framed photos of Puerto Rican baseball players. Like many of the storefronts along Elm Street, this one has a pressed tin ceiling. There are only ten tables. A few diners appear to be regulars. Some sit, others do take-out, including a local policeman on his beat.
The kitchen is visible from the dining room and the sounds and smells of cooking are enticing. Ismael has just taken a pork roast out of the oven, its fatty skin crisped to a golden brown. He lifts lids on giant skillets to reveal yellow rice and chicken fricassee. Ismael nods toward the later and inhales, “Ahh . . .that’s like dying and going to Heaven.”
By 6:45pm, Ismael is anxious to start playing. Beatriz grabs a microphone. Josúe is out back somewhere, so a customer from the audience steps up to play bongos. By the next number, Josúe arrives and takes up the congas. They play from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and then take a break. Listen to a live recording here.
This is the place to see this music. The food and music are inextricably linked. Everyone has a role - singing, playing percussion, taking orders, singing, preparing and serving food. The youngest of six, Marcos, is in his early twenties. He sings close harmony with his sister Beatriz, lovingly throws his arms around his mother’s neck, and helps out in the kitchen. Here you see him using a mortar and pestle to crush garlic, lime, and cooked plantain, which is served with a cold seafood salad. I ask Carmen about recipes - Beatriz answers, “They are more of our country, than just our family.”
Santiago’s Family Restaurant is located at 34 Franklin Street in Westfield, Massachusetts. The live music is only on Friday and Saturday evenings. Phone: 413.562.0210
Photographs by Maggie Holtzberg
A native of Puerto Rico, Ismael Santiago has been living in western Massachusetts for nearly 30 years. For the past 12 of them, he has led Grupo Canela, a family band which plays jibaro music. This style of folk music — a blend of Spanish, West African, and Taino influences, first developed in the rural, mountainous interior of Puerto Rico. Grupo Canela also plays salsa. Ismael and his family run Santiago’s Family Restaurant in Westfield, Massachusetts, which offers authentic Puerto Rican food. On Friday and Saturday evenings, members of the nine-piece group come out of the kitchen, play a couple of pieces, and then go back in to continue cooking and serving. After a certain point, they all come out to play again, until late into the night.
We coaxed members of Grupo Canela to not only come out of the kitchen, but onto the stage at the National Heritage Museum earlier last month. Their set was a big hit at the concert we held in conjunction with our ongoing exhibition, Keepers of Tradition: Art and Folk Heritage in Massachusetts. Listen to a taste of Grupo Canela here (5MB) playing “Son de la Loma.”
Next on the docket is a trip out to Santiago’s Family Restaurant to hear and taste this cultural experience in its locale.
Have a comment? Send me an email maggie.holtzberg@state.ma.us
Tara Bangalore, a Carnatic violinist who served as a master artist in our Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program last year, is part of an upcoming concert of Carnatic, Hindustani, and a fusion of these with western styles of music. The program has been created as a good will gesture by the music teachers in the Boston area and is a fundraising effort for an ambitious Temple Expansion Project for the Sri Lakshmi Temple of Ashland. Music will be on violin, veena, vocals, mridangam, dolak, sitar, harmonium, keyboard, flute, table, saxophone, and slide guitar.
Date: Sunday November 9 from 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm, followed by a complimentary dinner. Venue: Ashland High School, 65 East Union Street, Ashland, MA 01721. For more details contact JV Krishna at jvkishna@hotmail.com or Raj Raghavan at rajhema.raghavan@gmail.com.
Have you mastered a traditional art? Do you want to ensure it is passed on by teaching the next generation? Or do you want to increase your skills, technique, and artistry by studying with a master traditional artist? If so, take a look at our Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. New guidelines and application forms have just been posted.
You may know of a traditional craftsman, musician, or dancer with which you’d like to apprentice. If you live in Massachusetts, you can apply for an MCC Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant. But what if the master artist lives in the neighboring states of Connecticut or Rhode Island? You are in luck. The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program offers a unique program that supports the learning of traditional (folk) artistic skills called the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. The beauty of this program is that it’s specifically designed to foster learning across state lines. For example, an apprentice in Rhode island, can study with a master artist living in Massachusetts, and vice versa. The deadline is fast approaching so check out their guidelines by contacting Lynne Williamson, director of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.
Folk musicians — how often have you wondered how to get a little help with producing a recording, marketing yourself, or repairing a musical instrument? Our friends at Club Passim have just announced project grants for musicians called the Iguana Fund. It looks like a nifty opportunity for artistic and or professional growth. Applications are accepted through mid-November. Check it out!
Fall (and shorter days, cool weather, and school) may be just around the corner, but festival season is still going strong in Massachusetts. Two in particular are well worth attending.
On Sept 12-14, the Irish Culture Centre of New England hosts Icons: Irish Music and Arts Festival. Luminaries in the Irish music world will be there, including Solas, John Whelan, Chulrua, and many more. Plus Irish wolfhounds, soda bread, and stepdancing. It’s like the Washington area Irish festival has been reborn.
The last weekend in September, I suggest heading to New Bedford for the Working Waterfront Festival which is the flagship event celebrating the region’s commercial fishing industry. Fishermen’s contests, fresh seafood, boat tours, live music – and it’s free. The festival brings together a cross-section of the commercial fishing community — both those who are currently working in the industry as well as old-timers who haven’t been down in to the docks in years. Don’t miss it.
Photos courtesy of Working Waterfront Festival.
To find out more about great festivals taking place around Massachusetts, visit Worldfest.
Folklorist Millie Rahn knows the history of folk music in Massachusetts - and serves as the archivist for Club Passim. Catch this recent story on NPR celebrating the legendary folk music venue.
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