The bell ringing in the 500-year-old cathedral. The strain of a mariachi band playing till the wee hours of the night. The panga boats afloat on Lake Chapala.
The memories from childhood still linger in Diego Kohl’s mind.
Born in the small Mexican fishing village of Ajijic in the state of Jalisco just south of Guadalajara, Kohl still lives and breathes Mexican culture, although he now lives in the colder, wetter and more mountainous confines of Vancouver.
But despite his current location, he still places a sombrero on his head and guitarrón in hand to play in one of Canada’s best known mariachi bands, Los Dorados.
A guitarist of renown, who also leads a salsa band and instructs students on various Latin guitar styles, Kohl pays ode to his hometown in his new song, Ajijic Huapango, which Los Dorados will perform when they return to the Okanagan for their third annual spring tour.
“It is about the old Mexico, and gives off the ambience of what it used to be like,” said Kohl, adding the song is currently being mastered and is planned for Los Dorados’ sophomore album, expected to be released in the near future.
“It’s in the Spanish style, and is guitar oriented with a little Mexican gypsy thrown in. It has a cool ring to it and is my way of adding something positive and new to the mariachi repertoire.”
The son of actress Dorianne Kohl and George Ryga Centre manager Ken Smedley, Kohl moved to Armstrong with his family after they left Mexico when he was a young boy. Now the father of two girls, Diego has returned to his birthplace with Los Dorados three times when they performed at the International Mariachi Festival of Guadalajara.
Although the group did not attend the festival this past year, Los Dorados has been busy performing, including at Vancouver’s fourth annual Canada International Mariachi Festival, which is organized by the band’s founder Alex Alegria.
A champion of mariachi music, Alegria not only bends towards the traditional music of the genre, but, like Kohl, he writes and arranges new repertoire for the band to perform.
“Most mariachi repertoire was written before the Mexican Revolution of the ‘50s,” said Kohl. “We like to arrange popular songs, which the Mexicans tend to like, whereas the Canadian audience tends to like and appreciate the original compositions. Mexicans also like to sing along.”
This was apparent last summer when the group played the Calgary Stampede, and met numerous charros (Mexican cowboys).
“We fit right in there,” said Kohl, adding the group participated in the parade and also played a few concerts. “There is a strong mariachi connection to the traditional Mexican cowboy. We even used to dress like them, but now our outfits are a little more elaborate.”
Los Dorados’ black and gold lamé costumes were no more apparent than when the group appeared in a TV commercial for A&W’s Fiesta Mama Burger, where they performed live in the background while actor Ryan Bell, who plays the “clued out” A&W trainee, sang along.
“It was great working with the guys. The phone was ringing off the hook after that one,” laughed Kohl, who can be seen clearly in the commercial playing his guitarrón (the large guitar-like instrument that actually acts as the bass in mariachi.)
The commercial is just one of the ways the band has been breaking boundaries and bringing mariachi more into the limelight in Canada, even performing with reggae-rock band Big Sugar at the Commodore Ballroom.
“We met Gordie Johnson of Big Sugar and he invited us to play with him in Vancouver and also do an arrangement for one of his songs, Turn Your Lights On. Our violinist did the arrangement with this Latin flavour,” said Kohl, adding in Mexico, mariachi members are often regarded as rock stars.
“In Mexico, and what you don’t have here, are lots of kids interested in mariachi. There’s a genuine interest of passing down the artform through the generations. I’d love to see that up here,” he said.
Those families spending spring break at home can get a taste of mariachi when Los Dorados’ third annual tour comes through the North Okanagan this week. Organized by Summerland’s George Ryga Centre, the tour will also introduce Cuban singer Yamila Gonzales.
The band stops at the Zion United Church Hall in Armstrong Thursday at 8 p.m. (contact Chocoliro in Armstrong, 250-546-2886 for tickets), and also performs at Okanagan College’s Kalamalka campus theatre in Vernon, Friday at 8 p.m. Tickets are at The BookNook, downtown Vernon. Phone 250-558-0668.
