Characters: TATEWARI

Characters: Esau, Mimi and Daniel = TATEWARI banda

Anyone who’s spent any time at all in La Cruz will have had their senses delighted by band, Tatewari! I adore their music and moreso enjoy the interaction between them. Mimi (who’s real name is Al) is the funny one, I giggle as he tries to get Daniel and Esau to smile throughout the performance. Those of us who’ve seen them grow up playing music and have cheered them on have seen them evolve into not only great musicians but phenomenal young men!

Living a few doors from each other the three friends grew up playing basketball, watching movies, fishing and hanging out at the beach Their musical story began when youth in La Cruz were invited to learn to play guitar with expat ‘Guitar Russell’. Around 2003, Philo offered his bar and Russell provided the lessons… all for free for those who wanted to learn. There were 20 students in that first class. Russell told me that Esau and Mimi took to the guitar immeditaly but it wasn’t natural to Daniel. One night it ocurred to Russell that Daniel might be a bass player, introduced it to him the next day and the rest is history.

Esau, a phenomenal flamenco musician, studied under a ‘maestro’ in Spain a few years back becoming even more amazing than he was before. Music is his full time gig and you can see him play in various forms; alone, as a duo with Mimi, with the Tatewari group and he also performs on stage in Vallarta theatre groups. He and Leticia now have a son who we all adore and who emulates his Papa picking strings on his kiddie guitar.

Mimi, one year younger than Esau, recently graduated as a civil engineer working nights playing with Tatewari, practicing between… that’s commitment! He’s so busy with Tatewari and his duo performances with Esau, that for now he’s made a career with his music rather than engineering. Time will tell which he chooses or if he’ll do both but I hope he keeps playing music as watching/listening as Mimi riffs on his guitar is a religious experience! So much talent so little time! Speaking of talent, over the last few years, he’s also learned the flamenco guitar, oh my, this music, his talent takes my breath away. Recently Mimi has entered a relationship with Perla, the amazing voice that often accompanies Tatewari, lovin’ the love!

Daniel, one year younger than Mimi, with his solid guitar work, provides a firm “bass” upon which Tatewari builds the mood. His are the strings that hold Esau and Mimi on course during their not-to-be-missed live performances. What most don’t know about him is that he’s ALSO an amazing chef! Studying at the Universidad tecnología de bahía de banderas, he must have been one of their star students as I’ve had many meals prepared by Daniel and everything is divine! His style is what I call fusion but he also creates meals in the traditional way too and he’s amazingly professional, running his team like an orchestra. Always appearing calm there are many times he does his duties and then goes to a gig with the guys! As with the others, Daniel too has met his match with the beautiful Karina.

This is what Guitar Russel has to say about Tatewari today “My “nietos”, (grandsons) as I call the three of them, always stood out and we even raised funds to send Esau to Spain to study a few years ago.  After awhile it was like throwing gasoline on a fire. They are my most rewarding planted seeds.  I love them and what great men and musicians they have grown into. Danny was always a bass player at heart and it just took me awhile to recognize and nourish that desire and talent.”

I was talking to Andrea and she said that everyone was so supportive in those early days… in fact she said she and Latcho gave the young lads their used guitar string to practice.

Aruna of Jardin del Pulpo or Octopus’s garden said she remembers the guys starting to play as a group in 2006 or 2007. “We asked if they would like to play at the Octopus´s Garden to get some stage practice. At that time they didn´t have a name, together with Esau, Danny and Mimi was also Pilas on Drums. Wendy suggested they take the name “Tatewari”, the God of Fire, from one of our famous T-shirts, and this stuck!”

Mimi remembers theirs first time on stage was at Ana Bananas at an open mic night. La Cruz is definitely the town to commence a band with so much opportunity to play and such great support from the community.

Tatewari means ‘Grandfather or God of fire’ in the Huichol. The trio play the genre of Flamenco and its variants; composing their own material and production at their concerts. They are exemplary artists with vision. They donate their time and music to many causes, which the public adores! Their motto and goal: “to convey the feeling and passion of flamenco represented through practice, study and sacrifice of traditional musical instruments”.

Their CD recordings to date include:

1. ‘Son Caliente’ – 2006
2. ‘El Segundo Aire’ – 2013
3. In Adriana Quinto’s contemporary dance theatre FRIDA KAHLO which was put on stage with great success at the Teatro Vallarta from February to May 2012. The singer Perla Alarcón, Esau from Tatewari and La Boquita (World Music) were integral, performing the live music. A CD was made of the whole sound track of Adriana Quinto’s artistic creation of FRIDA KAHLO, a mix of traditional Mexican and flamenco music.
4. ¿PORQUÉ NO? ” 2015 Enjoy original music, the genre of Jazz and traditional Mexican music all fused with some flamenco flavor.

TATEWARI has collaborated with many other musicians such as Sonny Davis, Eusebio Palacios and the musical influences of Lobo, Latcho and Andrea and more.