AFRO-PORTUGUESE VIBES SERENADE CAL PLAZA; BAKA BEYOND THIS WEEK AT SKIRBALL

It’s been another good week for world music in LA this past week. I started off Wednesday with Son de Madera at Levitt Pavilion in McArthur Park. They are a traditional son Jarocho group from Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, currently on tour of the western US. After playing Cal Plaza downtown they played gigs in Santa Fe, NM, and Yoshi’s in Oakland before returning to LA last Wednesday. The style is simple, as you would expect from an extremely rural style of music, but the effect is rich. Two musicians playing assorted guitar/mandolin-like instruments and one bassist comprise the band, occasionally accompanied visually by Rubi’ del Carmen Oseguera dancing zapateado. They sing of life, love, and… politics in southern Mexico. Though they sing a rural style, these are no country bumpkins, and list among their influences Susana Baca, Hendrix (?), and Bob Dilan (sic), in addition to a slew of their compatriots. They were also joined occasionally by members of the local sometimes-son band Quetzal. Good stuff.

Grand Performances at Cal Plaza downtown was the hot ticket last weekend. In addition to the frequent evening performances, Cape Verdean troubadour Tcheka showed up midday Friday for a show on the way to Grass Valley for the California World Music Festival. Born Manuel Lopes Andrade on the island of Santiago, Tcheka grew up playing the local hybrid batuque music in the local hybrid environment. Though called the most ‘African’ of the Cape Verdean islands, there is in fact no evidence of African habitation prior to the Portuguese arrival. Thus the music reflects a mix of the different African groups brought over as slaves and the Latin influence of the Portuguese and later Brazilians. If this makes the music and culture less African, then that’s both blessing and curse. At 60 years, Cape Verde has by far the highest life expectancy of West Africa. Tcheka has succeeded in adapting the local music to modern times and tastes, especially the guitar, making an aboriginal drum-based style of music more melodic and suitable for ballads and story-telling. It has great affinity with some Brazilian music, i.e. the best Brazilian music. Give it a listen if you like that style of silky-smooth sometimes-sexy musica soave.

If all Afro-Portuguese music is a hybrid, then Waldemar Bastos mixes it up with an even heavier dose of the Latin, thus more romantic, component. On some songs you could close your eyes and imagine that you’re not in the jungle, not in a mud-walled village, not on some driftwood-strewn beach, but instead maybe at a fado fest at the market in old-town Lisboa on a Sunday afternoon still train-lagged from the long ride from Madrid the night before, waiting for the crowd to show up, trying to remember the differences between the Brazilian and Portuguese languages, trying to wake up, spilling hot espresso all over your notebook and pretending it doesn’t matter. This life is your fantasy after all. Bastos has seen much of the world, leaving his native Angola at an early age to never return, spending much time in Europe and the Americas, particularly Brazil. There he mingled with the cream of the musical crop and absorbed much of their influence. Recently sponsored in the US by David Byrne and his label Luaka Bop, Bastos has even taken to recording and singing some songs in English, though with mixed results. Recording in English is always a risky proposition for a foreign act. He shared the show at Cal Plaza last Saturday with Ricardo Lemvo and Makina Loca, whom I unfortunately had to forego. I’ve listened to their music, though, and he completes the circle to straight-ahead salsa. This brings up the old chicken-and-egg conundrum of existence: with Afro-Cuban music, which came first, Africa or Cuba? They’ll be at Levitt Pasadena again this Saturday. I’ll see you there.

This week looks like another good one for world music elsewhere in LA also. In addition to Ricardo Lemvo, Levitt Pavilion will host folk music of Eastern Europe with Harmonia on Friday. Levitt Pavilion at McArthur Park opens this week with local fusion-soneros Quetzal on Wednesday then continues with Korean court music on Thursday. Rogelio Mitchell will be at LACMA on Saturday evening from 5-7pm with music every bit as hybrid as his name- a ‘unique blend of reggae, soca, and jazz.’ But the hot ticket I’d say is Baka Beyond at Skirball Cultural Center, carrying the concept of ‘fusion’ to new heights, somehow not just mashing together, but actually combining African and Celtic music. The strange thing is, it actually works! I saw these guys last year at Edmonton Folk Festival and they don’t disappoint. That’s at 8pm and it’s free, parking only $5 if you carpool, $10 otherwise.

First things first though. Tonight Tuesday Pete Escovedo is playing in the courtyard up at Hollywood and Highland. That sounds good to me.