The opening concert of the Stern Grove series this summer had a Latin beat. Johnny Polanco and Conjunto Amistad opened the show, followed by Rebeca Mauleon's Round Trip and then the headliners, Bamboleo from the island of Cuba.
Polanco's group was polished and smooth as they played straight-ahead Salsa, featuring songs from their recent CD, 'L.A. Amistad'. They had people in the capacity audience dancing, spilling out into the aisles--so that MC Chuy Varela had to direct them back to their places.
Rebeca Mauleón has been on the Bay Area Salsa and Latin Jazz scene for many years--she started playing professionally at the age of fifteen and is now thirty-something. Rebeca's piano work was as usual phenomenal. Her new group had songs in English, Spanish and African dialect, and branched out into reggae and flamenco. In fact, she had flamenco dancer, Monique 'La Monica' Fournier, on stage with her, and rumba dancer, José Barroso,the latter engaging her in a quick mambo after wowing the crowd with intricate steps. Brenda Boykin was notable on vocals, with a rich voice schooled in the Blues tradition.
The final set featuring Bamboleo was simply sensational. Before the show I listened a few times to their 1998 CD on Ahi Na'ma records, 'Yo no me parezco a nadie', and found it to be some of the hippest Salsa I had heard in a long time. Everything about their sound and appearance at the Grove was world-class sabor. I was reminded of the appearance of Son 14 from Cuba at the Cinco de Mayo Festival in Berkeley and then an after-party at the Mission Cultural Center over fifteen years ago, which also brought a breath of fresh--tropical--air.
Looking alike with shaved heads and nearly identical outfits, young singers Vannia Borges Hernández and María Elena Gutiérrez Aguilera were outstanding. If the steps they did with male vocalists Alejandro Borrero Ramirez and Armando Ihosvany Cantero Abreu are any indication of what goes on on the dance floors of Havana, the scene there is muy caliente! Half an hour into their set Roots of Salsa DJ Emiliano Echeverría said to me backstage, "This is going to be another Cuban revival!"


Photos © 1998 by Peter Maiden

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