The lively Boston-based ensemble Rumbarroco gave a rousing concert Saturday evening at the Helene Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts at UW-Milwaukee, part of the Early Music Now series. Titled “Fiesta: A Hispanic Heritage Celebration,” the program featured music in various styles from Spain and Latin America, and the fusion and aesthetic mutations and influences as it passed from culture to culture.
Seven players on Baroque instruments (viola da gamba, violin, early guitars, cornetto, theorbo, cuatro, bass and percussion) were joined by two singers in music that percolated with physicality and infectious rhythms throughout. Often improvising over chord progressions, the concert was a refreshing hybrid of Latin jazz and Baroque music, certainly not something I’d ever imagined. Fandango con Joropo, which may be by Antonio Soler, was mixed with a Venezuelan folksong in an arrangement by the ensemble’s director, Laury Gutiérrez, and it turned into a knock-out jazz all-stars improvisation fest. One amazing solo after another added to the giddy momentum of it.
Other selections came from 16th-to-18th-century Mexico, Venezuela, Guatemala and diverse Spanish sources. The exuberant joy of the players was beyond charming. Everyone in the audience was swept up in it and spontaneously cheered at the end.
