Weekly wrap – Thursday 16 December 2021

***for full gig listings jump to the bottom***

Greetings,

Well, well, well, ho ho ho, things are exploding in live music, particularly in Phnom Penh.

This weekend Phnom Penh has a Siem Reap Latin touring band, Son Sabor Trio at Bouchon (Thursday), Azure (Friday) and Exchange Square (Saturday evening), and a Kampot Brazilian trio La Pequeña Anarquía at PREI (Thursday) and Duplex (Saturday) and Mexicano Restaurant in Tuol Tom Pong (Tuesday).

There’s a hello/goodbye event at Oscar’s on the Corner tonight (Thursday), as The Schkoots welcome back Bob Passion and we all say goodbye to Adrien Gayraud.  Adrien has been a significant figure on the Cambodian music scene as a performer, sound engineer, producer and bon vivant – we wish him well and ask France to take care of him.  The Schkoots will be joined by Ozymandias & the Phnom Penh Pythons and who knows what else.

Friday night highlights in Phnom Penh include the return of Geography of the Moon at The Vine, Japan Guitar Shop at Sam’s, Swing Time at Au Marche, and The Sock Essentials and The Brexiteers at Cloud.

In Siem Reap this weekend catch Lucky, Rod & Chris at The Harbour and Giuliano Turelli & Paul Mackie at AMBAR, then on Saturday a Siem Reap Pagoda Cats fundraiser at Star Bar features live music and much more, while later on Guiliano & Paul are at Arin’s.

In Phnom Penh on Saturday night a new music venue, The Lighthouse, kicks off their programme with Lewis McTie & Robin Sixstrings together on the bill, Kristen Rasmussen returns to the stage with Pavel Ramirez as Soul Stirrers at Botanico, and Milonga Latina (Poca, Gonzalo and Sharon) team up at Seekers Spirits.

Sunday sees Joe Wrigley at the Bar Oz Sunday sesh, the long-running Sundowners open mic at Tacos Kokopelli, zargz at Little Susie, and Joe & the Jumping Jacks at Oscar’s on the Corner.

As you can see in the full gig guide below Christmas and International New Year gigs are starting to be listed at long last – get the news out for your gig at gigs@lengpleng.com.

**For the rest of the gigs check out the listings at the bottom of the page**

The annual Radio Oun (formerly Kampot Radio) Top 100 Songs Of All Time nominations period has now closed.  Voting will commence shortly.  Leng Pleng is mounting a campaign (see this article at KhmerNights.com) to make sure local recordings and releases take centre stage, so be sure to make your vote count.  Get to the Facebook page or send an email to studio@radiooun.com.

Through the next week LengPleng will be starting to pester folk for their reminiscences about live music in Cambodia for 2021 – a lean year to be sure, but there was some activity, particularly in recordings.  Your comments will be compiled into an article for the last LengPleng of the year, the 31 December edition.  To get in ahead of the pestering, send us an email:  gigs@lengpleng.com.

Note:  LengPleng.com has returned to its weekly email service.   If you wish to receive LengPleng in your inbox every Thursday please send an email saying Subscribe to gigs@lengpleng.com.   And tell your friends.

The Leng Pleng Weekly Feature

In Wonderland: Cecile Hinas

Last February I had the opportunity to be the guest host of the famous open mic at The Harbour in Siem Reap, a night with many highlights.  At a certain point of the night the stage was somewhat taken over by an astonishing singer who improvised a couple of songs with the band.  This was my introduction to Cecile Hinas.  Last weekend I was in Siem Reap again, and met up with her to discuss music, DJing and Cambodia.

“Coming here was a childhood dream come true,” she explains.  “When I was young I had books with pictures of Cambodia – the forests, the temples, the monks.  Then I discovered such beautiful people – it’s really a pleasure to live here.  We are lucky, the people are amazing.”

Read the whole article here.

Passing Chords:  a few things you might not know about… Chema Rodriguez

 

Mexican drummer Chema Rodriguez is currently playing primarily with Son Sabor Latin Trio and the rock’n’roll outfit Jam-Cha in Siem Reap.  Son Sabor make a return visit to Phnom Penh this weekend, with gigs at Yiqi, Bouchon, Azure and Exchange Square.

Do you have a pet musical hate?

Being a traveller and a musician, I hate being the drummer, having to carry all the gear.  Having to buy the cases, the bags, and then there’s 12, 15 kilos just in stands.  Sometimes I really wish I was a singer.

A private musical indulgence:

I’m very fond of a Canadian pop-punk band called Simple Plan.  I grew up with them, and I know all their songs.  I’ve followed them since I was 14, 15.

The year you first came to Cambodia ?

February 2020.  I came for my birthday, as a tourist, right before COVID hit.  It was a fun birthday for the following four weeks.  I remember opening my first beer and winning a free can.  Best birthday ever!  I spent $2 and was pretty drunk – all of the cans were winners.  I thought: I like this country!

An early music memory:

I was about five, six years old, and I went to one of the main concert halls in Mexico to see the resident audience, who are very famous in the whole country, and they were playing a tune called Huapango by Jose Pablo Moncayo.  It’s a beautiful, beautiful tune, it just hit me so much.  It’s up and down, and it’s like travel around Mexico.  Non-stop emotions.  And I thought I want to do something like that.  I want to feel this more.  My brothers were already doing music, but it was not the same feeling as listening to the orchestra.

The last thing you had to eat:

A shwarma.

A country you want to visit:

Iceland.  I’ve seen a lot of movies and music videos – like Sigur Ros – the locations look so cool.

A book or movie you keep going back to:

The works of Jules Verne.  In the first one I read was Journey to the Centre of the Earth – the journey begins in Reykjavik.

What languages can you speak?

I speak Espanol, Mexicano – which is a bit different – English and a bit of French.

Your primary instrument, and when you started playing it:

I never took drumkit lessons.  My background is in orchestral percussion – multi-percussion sets like timpani, glockenspiel, tubular bells.  My first music lesson was when I was six years old.  My school had a beautiful music programme following the Suzuki method; the director of the school was the first to bring that to Latin America.  It was fantastic to have this experience at such a young age.  I was gigging with the orchestra by the time I was 13, and I did more than 300 concerts in Mexico, North America, Europe, South America – and stayed with them for 20 years.  Started as a student, ended up a teacher.

Something people might be surprised to know about you:

I took a break in my musical career and decided to explore the world; for five years I was travelling with my girlfriend, backpacking everywhere.  I went back to zero, cleaning Canada, bartending on the beach, managing hostels and restaurants, even building adobe houses.  Of course music was always there but I wasn’t performing, just jamming in the hostels and such.  Now I’m back to music.

You have a time machine and a magic ticket to one gig or festival in the past.  What do you choose?

I would love to see The Doors at their peak.  Or the Buddy Rich Big Band Orchestra, that must have been very cool.

A question from the last participant: Whatever happened to Saturday night?

Somebody let the dogs out.

Steve Porte Photo of the Week

Antonio, Ariane and Bjorn at the inaugural Angkor Writers and Readers Festival in Siem Reap, 12 December, 2021

 

If there are things that you know that LengPleng should know, please tell us and we’ll do our best to tell the world.

See you around the traps.

your correspondent,

 

Guillermo Wheremount

LengPleng.com

gigs@lengpleng.com (mailto:gigs@lengpleng.com)

 

 

Weekly Gig Guide – week commencing Thursday 16 December 2021

** residency/weekly

 For DJs and clubs, we recommend Phnom Penh Underground

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Coming soon:

  • Geography of the Moon at Little Susie
  • White Christmas with Kiss Bang Bong, Lantern
  • Christmas jazz with Phil, Gerard & Danielle at Green Pepper
  • Jingle Bell Rock with Hyperion Band, Rokku
  • Merry Christmas with Chor Yee, Ros Chanvinith and Summer Lee Carlson, Le Moon Rooftop
  • The Extraordinary Chambers for Christmas Eve at Oscar’s on the Corner

Coming later:

International New Year:

By Weekly Wrap