On October 14, CDMX: Now! will present a snapshot of Mexico City’s colorfully vibrant music community with established and emerging acts of the scene featuring performances from La Sonora Santanera, Mexrrissey, Little Jesus, N.A.A.F.I and Ampersan.
The fully immersive event will also include complimentary Paloma (grapefruit soda and tequila) cocktails available all night; complimentary CDMX Festival posters, created by Mexico City-based art collective TodoBien Studio and available to the first 200 guests; and organilleros in the lobby spaces.
For this special evening, Walt Disney Concert Hall’s BP Hall space will be transformed into a version of Mexico City’s most famous and oldest surviving dance hall, Salón Los Ángeles. Starting at 6:15 PM, free dance lessons will be provided by The Floor Productions, host of L.A.’s The Floor Improv Nights.
Guests are invited to dance, especially while music from La Sonora Santanera’s set is piped in. Established in 1937,Salón Los Ángeles became the meeting place for bohemians and movie stars, and over the years saw the likes of Frida Kahlo, Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes, and many more mix in with bands from all over Latin America. Also on view in BP Hall will be Mexico City-inspired art installations, including custom papel picado projections created by Daniel Gonzales.
Meanwhile, Walt Disney Concert Hall’s Founders Room will host the sounds of the DJ collective N.A.A.F.I all night. N.A.A.F.I is a community-cultivating group of artists on the edge of Mexico City’s DJ culture who push the peripheral rhythms of techno, hip hop and pop to their musical and cultural breaking points. DJs will include Fausto Bahía, Mexican Jihad and Lao.
Performances in Walt Disney Concert Hall’s main auditorium will include La Sonora Santanera, an orchestra playing tropical music from Mexico with over 60 years of history; Mexrrissey, a group composed of a Who’s Who of Mexico’s rock and pop world, performing brass and string-led reinventions of Morrissey’s and The Smiths’ songs;Little Jesus, performing melodic indie rock with danceable rhythms dubbed “tropipop”; and Ampersan, who present an audiovisual journey which mixes traditional instruments with modern genres such as rock, jazz and electronic.
CDMX: Now! is part of the LA Phil’s CDMX Festival, which will explore Mexico City’s vibrant contemporary music communities and rich, centuries-old musical traditions. Spanning six concerts between October 9 to 17, 2017, CDMX will include a diverse selection of music with orchestral, rock, alternative, electronic, film score and more.
A portion of CDMX Festival ticket sales will be donated to UNICEF relief efforts in Mexico.