Festival ’90 : MUSIC REVIEW : L.A. FESTIVAL : Sounds From the Andes

If the Los Angeles Festival’s mission was to unite exotic art from the Pacific Rim with that in our own back yard, the concert at UCLA’s Sunset Canyon Amphitheatre Sunday night was a rousing success.

The musical base was rooted in the Andes, but the branches would reach well into the North American sphere of influence. The setting was outdoors and, except for the urban noises and whiffs of ozone, far more appropriate than that of a concert hall.

Allyu Sankayo--a seven-person group from Bolivia clad in colorful native costumes and headgear--served as an Andean control sample of sorts. The members delivered an engaging hour of stomping dance rhythms and haunting repetitive tunes, evoking the high altitudes with the ethereal sounds of the tarkas (a wooden flute) and Andean panpipes.

They would alternate on various winds, guitars, charangos and drums, topped off by the piercing voice of Miriam Mita.

With Huayucaltia, we entered a more cosmopolitan world, one that probably can be traced to the influence of the phonograph. This Los Angeles-based outfit is a vital, confident, sophisticated hybrid, one that uses the Andes as a jumping-off point for free-thinking excursions and blends.

The members isolate and segue irresistible rhythms from all over Latin America; they are not afraid to use the synthesizer as an expressive additive color. The lead guitarist is an elegantly polished virtuoso named Ciro Hurtado, who can evoke flourishes of flamenco or the jazzy staccato runs of Al DiMeola with consummate ease.