The Marimba Quest

When I return home from a trip, I always upload my pictures to the computer and, using a program that I have, create a slide and video show of my best pictures on a DVD.  Before burning the disc, I add appropriate tunes as background music.  For example, my latest trip to Spain includes portions of Bizet's "Carmen Suite", numerous pieces of classical Spanish guitar music, and a bit of modern flamenco.   For my trip to England, I wasn't quite sure of what would be considered "typical English music", so I put in some pieces by the British composers Holst and Elgar.  I always use instrumental music... vocal music is distracting if I am narrating the show.

Since the largest portion of my travel is to Mexico, I am always on the lookout for Mexican instrumental music to use on my discs.  In Oaxaca, where I just spent two weeks, the marimba is a traditional part of their music.  Every evening on the main plaza, you will hear at least one marimba band playing for the patrons of the sidewalk cafés.  It was natural that I wanted some marimba music to put on my DVD of the trip.  Many of the tourist-oriented shops sell compact discs of Oaxacan music.  It was easy to find discs of well-known Oaxacan vocalist Lila Downs... and I did buy one of her albums for my own enjoyment.  But do you think I could find a single album of marimba music?  No!!!

My quest continued here in Mexico City.  The largest music and video store here is a chain called "Mixup".  There is a small store in a shopping mall just a few blocks from my apartment. But instead of going there, yesterday I walked about a mile up Insurgentes Avenue to the "Zona Rosa" neighborhood where one of the larger "Mixup" stores is located.

I went in, and after searching fruitlessly in the instrumental section, I finally asked one of the employees if they had any marimba music.  He went to search, and a couple minutes later came back with a half dozen discs.  He told me that I could listen to them first.  I picked out a couple that looked good, and took them to a special service counter where I was able to listen to them.  They were just what I was looking for!  My quest was over!