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“I’m
probably the only guy in Mexico doing something like this,” Jock Budelman
surmises, “Just a guy standing up in a club playing solo horns.” And he’s
probably right. Of course, Mexico isn’t exactly a country synonymous with
jazz—but fortunately the one guy that is doing it in Mazatlan, and by doing
it adds something subtly fine and gracious to the town. Being able to go
listen to jazz is not an amenity many smaller cities offer, especially not
cities surrounded by rural Mexico. When Jock stands up and plays his saxophones,
clarinets and flutes, the notes floating out onto the Plazuela Machado where
bench loungers can enjoy them, he adds something special to Mazatlan. It’s
not just another entertainment, it’s something rare and delicate when world-class
musicians are attracted to such a place, and can translate their years of
expertise into something that can hold a stage here. When you tell your
friends that Mazatlan has great beaches and warm climate and cheap prices...but
is also a place where you can hear jazz in a sidewalk cafe...you are, in
a way, congratulating yourself for living in a place where such is possible.
Jock has spent a lifetime acquiring and polishing his art...and it’s been
quite a lifetime. His professional experience goes back fifty years—to a
sixteen year old version of Jock swinging his three axes on stage with the
likes of Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughn, and the legendary Billy Eckstein. He went
on to play and record with Harry Belafonte, Vicky Carr, Andy Williams, Tony
Bennet, The Mills Brothers, and Henry Mancini. You’ve certainly heard “Cherry
Pink and Apple Blossom White” by Perez Prado, one of those rare jazz cuts
that crossed over to the pop charts, and the tenor sax you were hearing
was played by Jock. He was there in the orchestra pit for musicals like
“Evita”, “Mame”, “Music Man”, and “Annie”. He’s performed in Seville with
flamenco orchestras, in jazz clubs in France…the man has been around, and
he’s stayed around. In addition to performance, Jock spent twenty five very
rewarding years teaching music in Seattle, primarily directing choirs…he
tends to see the human voice an instrument, and treats it as such. He has
also played in Las Vegas, and even in circus bands. Playing hellzapoppin
for Moscow, Japanese, or Barnum&Bailey circuses seems to sum up a part of
the music world that is less enriching. “Playing a hundred miles an hour
to accompany people leaping through flames and scantily-clad women riding
raging lions gets old fast,” he grins, “But playing orchestras and musical
comedy can also make you feel like an automaton. Art in music is in the
ear of the beholder, but the “showbiz” part of it is obvious...and a lot
less gratifying.” Moving to Mazatlan changed all that: “Playing here has
been very refreshing for me, opening up some new avenues later in my life.
You know, I never played solo before I came here. Forty eight years playing
professionally, and the first time I ever played solo was here in Mexico.
Now it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.” Jock first came to Mexico in 1980
from having sailed down the coast from Seattle, where he spent summers,
living on the boat, before making the big jump to Mazatlan in 1992, playing
with a local band called “Survival” in the Los Sabalos Hotel. He lived on
his sailboat, “Chansong” at the Club Nautica, off the Lighthouse Hill causeway,
where he still sacks out occasionally, with a varyingnumber of adopted and
always interesting dogs and Dawn, his better (and lovelier) half for the
last ten years. This year, |
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however, the couple have been finishing up the rebuild of an old house on
Icebox Hill, Dawn’s decorating talents shining. For the last five years
has been spending summers in Patzquaro, playing at several clubs on the
main square. At the age of 71, Jock doesn’t fit the standard image of a
gringo retiree, in fact he leads a life more like a character in a spy romance:
living on a sailboat, driving to work at Mexican cabarets in his yellow
sports car or sleek motorcycle, surfing and kayaking, hand-building bows
in order to hunt wild boars. Off-handed and egoless (for a musician, anyway)
and possessed of an old-fashioned courtliness, Jock can seem quite mild—an
old trouper peering over his glasses—but in his very real life he’s somehow,
rather casually, larger than life. Between Los Sabalos and his current four
year stand in the Machado, Jock initiated his solo act with a three year
gig at the Shrimp Bucket, where he had a local career highlight, when he
met Cruz Lizarraga, founder of the premier banda “El Recodo” and considered
the father of that form of music and a legendary name synonymous with Mazatlan
music. “Don Cruz brought his clarinet section in to hear me play,” Jock
recalls, “I was immensely flattered that he liked my work, then he presented
me with a bottle of tequila wrapped in leather and embossed with “El Recodo”.
I didn’t know it at the time, but it turned out that he had less than a
year to live at that point, though his bands carry on.” Jock is impressed
by what he calls the “vast reservoir” of native music talent in Mazatlan.
“The sheer number of small bands playing for tips in the city, everything
from little norteño conjuntos to banda outfits to elegant trios. I don’t
always like that amplified, distorted volume that Mexican musicians seem
to like, and I’m not crazy about banda although I admire their musicianship.
I’d especially like to mention Mario Rosas, who plays on weekends in the
Cafe Machado. Most people think of him as a showman, the way he gets people
to play along with him and pleases crowds, but I admire his sheer instrumental
skill and voice. Especially considering he’s a lawyer.” He’s had quite a
past, but Jock prefers to dwell on the future and completing projects. After
spending Carnaval in Guadalajara completing production of a new CD of Christmas
songs (presumably as highly sought by his fans as his current three CD’s),
he will go to France to play and live for a few months this summer , then
return here for a project very dear to his heart (and exciting to music
lovers from both sides of the border): a collection of the songs of Agostin
Lara, composer of “Solamente Una Vez”, often called the “Stardust of Mexico.”
Above all, Jock plans on continuing to play here in Mazatlan, and has a
message for people who come here, and drop by to hear him play. “I just
want to congratulate people for visiting or living in Mazatlan, which is
really a unique and special place. And to compliment people who leave their
hotels and have enough spirit of adventure to come down and visit the historical
district. You take the Teatro Angela Peralta alone...it puts Mazatlan on
the cultural map. In the whole 5000 miles of Mexican coastline, there is
no other city with a treasure like that, nineteenth century, European-style
theater. So, yes, come on down to Plazuela Machado and see some of the reasons
they call this town the “Pearl of the Pacific.” |
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