Day 36: My organs of love

It is safe to say that Day 2 of filming Rigas Ritmi Festival in Riga was successful and to top it off, the weather was so hot to the point where even the shade was hot.

My schedules for each of the three days are very similar, always beginning the day with filming workshops and rehearsals of the performances due to take place later in the evening. The genre of the music slightly switched in the morning, moving from jazz to tango produced by the Argentinian band "Astirello". But it wasn't just any old traditional tango, oh no no no. It was neo-urban tango. Just from hearing the name I knew it was going to sound amazing.

Tangoing up the place with Miguel Suarez 

The way the different instruments (double bass, cello, violin, accordian and piano) combined together to create such a lively rhythm was brilliant to hear. But what's make every performance even better is the faces of the artists when in full swing of playing their instruments. You can see every emotion oozing out of them as they pluck their string or press that key, genuine feeling flowing freely with the melody. I was too much in awe to take a photo...

A 1940's accordian - I've always wanted to see one of them
but hearing it was even better!

The next rehearsal was a unique group made up of German trombonist Nils Wogram and his workshop students (also trombone players) playing together with a Latvian pianist and bass player.

The big man himself: Nils Wogram

Seeing the brass instruments took me back to the days when I learned how to play 3 brass instruments: the euphonium, baritone and tenor horn. Why is Latvia making me so nostalgic all the time? First athletics, then modern dance and now this! I think the universe is trying to tell me something: I should become an all-in-one sprinting, body popping jazz musician. Hmm, if all else fails then I have decided that this is my destined mission in life.

All of jazz music makes me so hungry during the day (must be all the body popping in the audience) so me and the other intern went down to the cafeteria to grab a bite to eat. And when I say bite, I mean a three course meal. As we are staff members, we have been given vouchers worth 2 lats to be spend on two courses of soup and then meat with potatoes. Yesterday, I only had the meat (out of politeness I suppose) but today I couldn't resist. I had chicken soup, potatoes with mince beef, salad and a free biscuit for being such a good customer... and eating all the food. They know me so well already!

The performances would soon start so me and my filming partner headed over to our filming location in Old Riga. We were just setting up the equipment and discussing different shots we could do when I looked over and saw this:

Not something you see everyday - only in Riga!

You know how I said yesterday that the smallest things can make you happy? Well this was definitely one of them. Nothing beats a sumo suit on a stag night with international jazz music in the background. Well I presume and hope it was a stag night and not just his usual jazz festival attire.