ChamberLab sets sights on mariachi in Tucson performance

Rockers writing classical music was a bit of a stretch.

But now that group of Tucson musicians has gone even further: Rockers writing classical music for mariachi.

“Not a single person in this show is in their comfort zone, I can tell you,” said Chris Black, the head of that crazy experiment called ChamberLab.

Seven years into the boundary-breaking composing experiment, the group is setting its sights southward. A trio of composers — ChamberLab regular Marco Rosano of Y la Orkesta, newcomer John Contreras of Mariachi Luz de Luna and director at Pueblo High School’s Mariachi Aztlán, and Mariachi Luz de Luna director Ruben Moreno — have turned to traditional Mexican folk tales for inspiration.

And they are teaming up with a puppet master to bring those tales to life in the latest ChamberLab installment “Leyendas y Sombras” (Legends and Shadows) featuring Mariachi Luz de Luna and Puppets Amongus on Saturday, March 4, at downtown’s Scottish Rite Temple.

The Latin theme was something Black, a longtime musician who launched ChamberLab three years after moving to Tucson from Austin, Texas, in 2007, had been thinking about for a year. He and the composers started working on it in earnest last November, using Mexican folk tales as inspiration.

Matt Cotten of Puppets Amongus sketched the storyboards outlining the tales and characters. He also built the puppets.

The composers then wrote the music to match Cotten’s story. Moreno’s mariachi band will perform the new works at Saturday’s concert.

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“These are folk tales being told from the Mexican origin that can be told pretty much from pictures; you don’t need narration,” Moreno said. “It’s a really cool way to tell a story because music says what words can not. That’s how powerful music can be.”

Past ChamberLab concerts have included original works inspired by the University of Arizona’s NASA-funded OSIRIS-REx research; penning the soundtrack and playing along to the screening of the Buster Keaton silent film “The General”; and the intriguing 2013 concert “Pictures About Music About Pictures,” whose works were inspired by the art of Tucsonan Joe Pagac.

“This is craziness. I’ve always said we’re this boundary-breaking thing, and we are because we are composers from the rock world sneaking into the classical world and bringing their music into the clubs,” Black said. “Now we’re just going nuts. We’re going into the mariachi world and writing for a mariachi band. And then there’s the puppets.”

“It’s kind of an experiment and an exploration for us,” added Moreno. “We’re out of our element playing classical music.”

So how will the classical-inspired works on “Leyendas y Sombras” sound? Like mariachi.

“The notes structure is classical, but when it’s played with mariachi it will sound more mariachi,” said Moreno.

Saturday’s concert is supported by Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, Buffalo Exchange and Wesley Green.