Macedonia, Music, and Mezcal in Mexico

Before Mezcal ignited a spark in her imagination, Eléctrico Mezcal founder Kathleen Blackwell had fallen for Oaxaca. At the recommendation of her sound engineer, Diego López, she and her producer, Ronan Chris Murphy, booked one of Oaxaca City’s greatest auditoriums as a recording venue. There, they set out to capture the remarkable playing of local musicians for her multi-cultural Project Eléctrico.

The Teatro Macedononio Alcalá is a glorious Art Deco edifice built as a casino theatre in 1909, which is the heart of the old city. Initially, it was named after the heroic soldier Luis Mier y Terán, then after the less-than-memorable General Jesús Carranza during the revolution years. Finally, after being used for stage plays and boxing matches, it was named after Macedonio Alcalá Prieto, the composer of ‘Dios Nunca Die’ (God Never Dies), Oaxaca’s unofficial anthem.

Alcalá was a multi-instrumentalist who played in national orchestras and directed the Oaxaca Music Band. He was a great talent, but he was always poor and sank into depression. After a bout of tuberculosis, the people of Tlacolula de Matamoros, the hometown of Eléctrico Mezcal’s standard bearer, Isabel, visited Alcalá and asked him to write a waltz for them. He wrote ‘Dios Nunca Die’.

Sadly, he died before the music became famous, and the citizens of Tlacolula fought a legal battle to prevent his brother from claiming the composition. But he is remembered through his work and the theater named after him.

As Kathleen discovered, the Teatro Macedonio Alcalá's interior is opulent and stunning. The 1999 earthquake caused structural damage, spurring the city to renovate it to a high standard. The acoustics are also very special, and Diego, who had studied music in the city, was delighted to bring his US colleagues to his hometown.

‘It thrilled Diego to no end that he got to show off his American friends, recording friends to the Maestro of the Oaxacan State Band because Diego used to play in that band,’ says Kathleen. ‘They even took me to the school where Diego studied, and I got to play some piano there, which reminded me of my classical upbringing.’

‘The maestro gave Diego information on musicians such as the Bajo Quinto player, Rubén Luengas, and we were like, absolutely! How about the TA throw? Masa dolla? I'm not sure if I'm saying the name right. So it'll go up. Go ahead, and you can have half a day in there. And I'll provide you with a tuba player, a snare drum player, and a sexy-as-heck baritone saxophone player, Carlos César Hernández.’

It was a long but harmonious day of recording in the Teatro that led to Kathleen’s discovery of mezcal and, thanks to Diego's inspiration, her partnership with the Maestro Mezcalero Manuel Antonio Cirino to create the equally exquisite Eléctrico Mezcal.

You can find them here to learn more about the recordings.

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