WSO pops with some salsa spice

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/01/2021 (2022 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra brought sizzle to the stage as it featured Winnipeg’s Papa Mambo, a.k.a Rodrigo Muñoz, with his three-piece salsa band including vocalist/keyboardist Amber Epp and guitarist Victor Lopez as the latest offering in its ongoing Pops series.

The Chilean-born classical guitarist/percussionist/composer/vocalist first established a loud ‘n’ proud, 10-piece party band in 1989 that has now appeared at every jazz festival in Canada, as well as performing to sold out audiences with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, and WSO back in 2011.

Saturday night’s livestreamed concert could be in no better hands than the WSO’s remarkably versatile Associate Conductor Julian Pellicano — another huge fan of salsa since age 12 — who lay down tempi, effortlessly cued string orchestra and band musicians with aplomb, clacked on his own claves during several numbers as guest percussionist, and grooved like a gaucho throughout the entire one hour program comprised of 13 works.

With all players masked and the individual band members separated by large Plexiglass shields to maintain provincial health and safety protocols, Muñoz set up each tune with fascinating historical context and background lore, with the mostly laid back show often feeling more a kinder, gentler musical travelogue through the sunny climes of Latin America than a red hot combustion of multicultural forces.

Let this program also be added to the ever-growing list of shows one wishes to hear again in a post-pandemic world, that invariably suffered from the absence of audience energy including expected whoops, cheers, applause and likely dancing in the aisles. More stage banter (admittedly difficult through face masks and digital screens) and kibitzing typical of these types of shows would also have been welcomed.

Highlights included, well, virtually any of the pieces that showcased Epp, with her fluid, mesmerizing vocals magically shape shifting through an entire rainbow spectrum of tonal colours, from throaty, sultry depths to delicately floating through the ether; scatting like Ella to infusing many of her interpretations with idiomatic nasal twang that compelled. It’s a wonder that this dynamo hailing from the rolling farmlands of Southern Manitoba didn’t once call the pampas of Latin America, home.

A few early show highlights became Toro Mata from the Afro-Peruvian Songbook, with its driving pulse further propelled by Muñoz’ congas, as did Bella Cubana with its sustained melody performed by the physically distanced strings juxtaposed against a strong backbeat of textural percussion. The latter piece also provided online listeners another taste of Lopez’ artful solos, first heard during Cuban ballad La Sitiera, and later in La Comparsa, among others, that included lush vocal harmonization by the trio.

After a hypnotic Madre Rumba, with the trio joined by Pellicano, Muñoz announced “Now we’re going to dip our toes into the Brazil songbook,” that signaled the arrival of one of the evening’s most memorable hits: an exquisite lullaby Para Ninhar, that featured Epp’s gorgeous vocalizing wafting across the stage like wisps of cigarillo smoke.

A less cohesive Casa Dora broke the spell, with Pellicano appearing to be having the time of his life during high-octane finale Mueve La Cintura Mulata, that injected greater energy into the show, which could have easily benefited from more of these no holds barred numbers.

The evening’s sentimental moment came with Sigue Soñando, composed more than 30 years ago by Muñoz while studying classical guitar at the University of Manitoba (then) School of Music. With its title translated as “Keep on dreaming,” one can easily imagine the musician’s own aspirations of launching his own salsa band took root — and has since borne rich fruit — during those formative years, given voice during this wonderful, revelatory work with hopefully many more to come from this local, national and international treasure.

Holly.harris@shaw.ca