Tico tico: time to dance!
In this big choregraphy of life, my version of "Tico tico" is nothing more than "one more step", but this step is stamped with salsa rythm.
The salsa on the piano, I stumbled upon its base rythm when I was a student in musicology school.
My classmate back then, Julien Veslin, wanted to play that piece to the class, a piece that he found in a
"salsa initiation book" for the piano; and as he knew that I had some experience with the piano, he asked me
if I could sight-read it for him.
Interestingly, I couldn't help him as I would have wish: that particular rythm was too different from what
I used to play.
I took a good note from that.
From my personal piano experience, I only know three different rythm streams:
- - classical
- - jazz
- - salsa
Salsa brings this "sway your hips" thing that doesn't exist in other rythms; I always found that very cool.
For "Tico tico", at the piano level, I made a few finds:
- - the arms to the sky gesture (stagecraft)
- - a ballroom dance passage
- - a wink to "L'auvergnat" (Georges Brassens)
- - a theme superposition: "L'auvergnat" and "Tico tico"
- - a fast stride passage at the ending
I do not have the technical level required to play all those finds, yet. And at the moment of writing this text, I don't remember having played the piece without a false note. So, I must consider myself more as a composer than a performer.
This piece is dedicated to Christel Bruyquières, a dancing girl that I met, and loved . . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . .