Carlos Luis Rivera (perc/vcl); Paco Rivera (perc/vcl); Alan Law (pno); Sarah Travena (sop); Paul Grainger (bs) + Zoe Gilby (vcl).
(Review by Lance).
The north east is blessed with a variety of Latin American influenced bands and always has been - some more authentic than others. I well recall listening, some years ago, to the Andean music of Apu busking at Monument and elsewhere (are they still around?). More recently we've seen the emergence of Hannabiell and Midnight Blue, Burundanga and now Havana Club 5.
If this gig had been at, say, Hoochie the dance floor would have been a mass of writhing dervishes such were the infectious rhythms generated by the band. The Splinter audience, in the main older and more reserved, remained firmly rooted to their seats although with no less enthusiasm - in this case loud applause and plenty of "Woo-hoos"
The Rivera boys, cousins I'm told, toured as support to Santana sometime in their history and their percussive skills are well deserving of such an accolade.
Recently a lady on tv broke the world record for cracking a 1000 tiles with her bare hands. It occurred to me, as Carlos pummelled away at the bongos, that he too could do that! Paco, who gave the appearance of someone who might sell you a lottery ticket on a street corner in Havana, did a cha cha cha or a meringue as he employed a variety of samba whistles, cabasas, wind chimes, agogo bells, and other percussive items to great effect.
I don't know if Alan Law has been to Havana but if he has he should have been given the freedom of the city or at least a big fat cigar - tonight he was on fire.
It was a relatively quiet night for Paul Grainger on bass guitar - doing just what was needed and leaving the show-boating to the others. Sarah had some impressive soprano solos - the opening No More Blues demonstrated fully her fluency with the instrument and the idiom.
As a bonus, we had Besamé Mucho from Zoe who coped admirably in a key too high for comfort. Her scat chorus in Geordiese was something else!
The band finished off with The In Crowd and that's what we were tonight - the in crowd!
Lance.
1 comment :
Sounds a fantastic gig - I'd planned to get there late - but was unavoidably detained on a boat going no-where on the Tyne. The end of the AV Festival was another cool gig - but for all the wrong reasons !
Post a Comment