Latin funk

Mango Blue know the power of the beat

by David Ritchie

Among the reasons to celebrate Worcester's 150th birthday, city leaders point to a "deep appreciation of the cultural, religious and ethnic heritage of its people that has left us a legacy of greatness."

And this weekend presents a golden opportunity to show that pride, as the city fathers need only step out of City Hall to immerse themselves in the rich heritage of Worcester's Latino community. The eighth annual Latin American Festival, hosted by Centro Las Americas, will be presented Saturday and Sunday on Worcester Common, and if last year's festival is an indication, upwards of 50,000 people will attend. The festival celebrates the food, the dance, and the music of the Americas.

You'll hear a range of styles, from folkloric to contemporary; and no group better exemplify the diversity of programming than Mango Blue. Alex Alvear is the group's director, composer, and visionary, and he's assembled a stunning array of musicians, representing Ecuador, Italy, Israel, Colombia, Venezuela, Germany, France, and Puerto Rico. Among those featured in the 10-piece group are keyboardist Alain Mallet, also known as the producer of Jonatha Brooke and the Story; vocalist Chiara Civello, who has a promising jazz career; multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Gonzalo Grau, whose latest project is with the group Timba Loca; and saxophonist Miguel Zenón, who was recently awarded a full scholarship to the prestigious Julliard School.

Most of the members know each other from Berklee, and the mixture allows for an exchange that, Alvear says, "transcends ethnic boundaries, providing a new color in the Latin music palette, while making Latin music accessible to a diverse audience."

Let's eat Here's a rundown of some of what you'll see at the Latin American Festival, which will be held on August 15 and 16 from noon to 8 p.m. Call 798-1900 for info. Puerto Rico alcappurrias (green banana or yuca with meat stuffing) rice with pigeon peas codfish fritters pork pasteles (pork filled turnovers) Colombia arepas (cornmeal patties) chorizo (spicy sausage) morcillas (pork blood sausage seasoned with mint) Dominican Republic rice with coconut beef El Salvador pupusas (corn masa patties stuffed with pork) Costa Rica Gallo Pinto (rice with beans) casado (a dish that has everything in it) Peru stuffed potatoes carne al pincho (shish kebab with a characteristic sauce) empanadas (meat pie; a turnover with a sweet or savory filling) -- DR

From one country to the next, from one climatic region to the next, even from one town to the next, he notes, you'll encounter different foods, customs, behavior, and forms of artistic expression. Some are more African, some more indigenous, and then there are varying degrees of creolism. Puerto Rico is only two-thirds the size of Connecticut, but has an incredibly rich variety of regional music (See "I can name that tune,").

Alvear was first exposed to this rich variety when he arrived in Boston in 1986, which by then had become a magnet for world musicians, including those from Latin America. As a youngster in Quito, Ecuador, Alvear had started playing rock and roll but soon moved to traditional Andean folklore -- at that time, there were a lot of groups working on traditional approaches to Ecuadorian music. Then he got caught up in the growing Latin American "New Song Movement," a current of singer/songwriters writing new musical and poetic proposals with a strong social focus. Before leaving Ecuador, Alvear was involved in a number of influential projects. Salsa had yet to gain wide-spread popularity, and Alvear was at the forefront, co-founding the first band to play Cuban Son in his hometown of Quinto.

Still, he had no formal training, so at 26, he came to Boston, only the second Ecadorian to enroll at Berklee. It was here in Massachusetts, mostly on the streets, that Alvear was able to learn about Afro-Caribbean music. "Coming to the States was a major transition from the stuff I knew . . . the stuff I thought I knew." With the opportunity to play alongside such great musicians, he again co-founded and played with a number of bands -- salsa, merengue, Latin jazz, folklore, even rock bands -- always exploring his passion for different styles of music. "I didn't, for instance, want to get into Afro-Cuban folklore, though I love it. I mean, I'm not Cuban; and though I love jazz, I didn't want to focus on that. Coming up with Mango Blue was really the culmination of that quest, cause it brought together many styles of music that I'm really fond of and put them all together in one pot."

The band feature vocals, keyboards, bass, Latin percussion, drums, alto and tenor saxophones. Alvear runs down a list of influences from Earth Wind & Fire to Afro-Cuban folklore, salsa of many different schools to some R&B and jazz -- he summarizes it as Latin Funk. They incorporate a range of styles of Latin music, but they're trying to come up with new concoctions, new flavors or hybrids.

Despite that, he explains, the music is still rooted in the traditional. Whatever folkloric or roots elements that remain will be on the money -- the percussionists are masters of the traditional styles. "I don't intend at all to do the job or even try to emulate the masters. They're the ones who do it better than anyone. I try to do it with much respect for the tradition, but to try and give it a little twist with my approach." Alvear and Mango Blue intend to offer a new proposal on the scene.

Clearly, people are beginning to open up to the sounds of the world, Latin music in particular. Ten years ago, Alvear noticed that Latin shows in New England were attended almost exclusively by Latinos. Now mainstream clubs are offering Latin nights, and some give salsa and merengue dance lessons. Latin music is a music of celebration. "You can be talking about the saddest thing in life, but the beat is so driving. It would really take a special individual to not be moved to some degree by it."

Alvear points out that it doesn't matter if you know the dance step: "Latin music is participatory music. You go to see a Latin band play, and you have to get your butt on the floor -- it's the whole purpose of it, and it's why people enjoy it."

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I can name that tune

Trying to summarize the styles of music you'll hear this weekend is like trying to explain American politics, but here goes:

One thing that is common throughout the Latin continuum is that the more traditional Indian- and Spanish-roots styles feature a simpler beat, whereas the African-derived styles have more complex syncopation (to Anglo ears it can sometimes be difficult to find the down beat, but it layers together beautifully, and, by god, it gets people moving).

Andean Music is Latin America's oldest musical tradition. The traditional vocal style of the Andes was backed by drums and flutes, usually represented by panpipes known as the antaras or zampoñas -- stringed instruments were unknown before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors.

Rancheras are nostalgic and melodramatic songs of Mexican life. Mariachi bands dress in traditional costume and play guitars, violins, trumpets, and the guitarrón, a large acoustic bass guitar.

Jíbaro is the major folk music of Puerto Rico, rooted in the 16th- and 17th-century mixture of the Spanish, African, and Taíno Indian cultures. Jíbaro literally means country, and it still symbolizes the rural cultural identity of country life in the interior mountains of Puerto Rico. It's characteristically played with the cuatro (a Puerto Rican derivation of guitar with five double courses of strings), güiro (the gourd rasp), guitar, maracas, and voice. The seis song genre is considered the backbone of Jíbaro music, constructed around the Spanish décima poetic form -- 10 lines of eight syllables each and a fixed rhyming scheme of abbaaccddc. The trovador is a singer with a talent for spontaneously improvising such texts, ferreted out in improvisational contests.

Bomba is an African-based music developed at the end of the 17th century in the Puerto Rican town of Loiza. Bomba flourished on the northern coast wherever West Africans worked, since Bomba dances were where enslaved Africans celebrated (and planned rebellions). The music is call and response, but it's more about dance: a circle of dancers take turns challenging the drums, creating a dialog with their movements, answered by the solo drummer who "talks" to them, mimicking them -- in a way they're always trying to outwit one another. Female bomba dancers typically dance with their skirts raised showing their slips, originally to ridicule the fancy attire worn by plantation ladies.

Plena historically refers to working-class story songs, known as el periodico cantado (the sung newspaper), from the southern part of Puerto Rico. Its origin goes back about 100 years to the growing urban centers populated by displaced plantation workers after the abolition of slavery. Plena's roots are in the West African heritage, influenced by Jíbaro music, the native Taíno Indians, and the music of Europe and the Caribbean Islands. Plenas are emotional and anecdotal two-step dances, featuring different sized hand drums called panderetas or pleneras (tambourines with no cymbals), and güiro, with a chorus and a lead singer expanding on a repeated theme (call and response).

Cumbia began as the folkloric dance music of the black community in the Atlantic coastal regions of Colombia -- African rhythms combined with the Latin melodic structure to create an irresistible backbeat with a syncopated melody. The ensembles have developed from percussion and vocals to big bands with horns and keyboards, and Cumbia has become one of the most popular styles throughout Latin America. The dance sometimes resembles the early shuffling steps, but in clubs nowadays people perform salsa dance steps to the music.

Merengue has become the national dance music of the Dominican Republic and one of the most popular Latin beats in the world. Traditionally played with a tambora (a double-headed drum), güiro, and button accordion, today's merengue (a cousin of salsa) is big-band dance music with saxophone, guitar, keyboard, percussion, horns, and vocals.

Salsa is contemporary syncopated dance music, a rainbow assortment of Latin rhythms and styles born out of the encounter of Cuban and Puerto Rican music with big-band jazz. The granddaddies of the salsa beat are son (the main dance and song form of Cuba) and rumba (Afro-Cuban dance music for voices and percussion). The American big bands came to Cuba in the '30s and '40s and influenced how Cubans interpreted and contemporized their own music, even what instrumentation was used. This new style evolved into its own thing in the '70s when salsa exploded in the Latin barrios of New York. Today it is global dance music, popular all over Latin America as well as in West Africa where it finds many of its roots. Likewise, where jazz fed into Cuban music to form salsa, salsa in turn has had an immeasurable effect on jazz.

-- DR