Pop Music : Huayucaltia Short On Relevance, Vibrance

Not long ago there was hardly anything more politically correct than the kind of South and Central American music played by the Los Angeles group Huayucaltia. With the news often focusing on El Salvador, Nicaragua or Chile, and with Jackson Browne and Holly Near championing those cultures’ music, the sounds of zamponas and charangos represented to liberal North Americans the struggle for freedom and human rights.

Now global attention is elsewhere, but the more Huayucaltia attempted to cosmopolitanize its music Saturday at At My Place, the less relevant and vibrant it seemed. The accomplished, international sextet employs dozens of plucked, struck and blown folk instruments (including, at one point, what appeared to be the jawbone of an ass), but most of the arrangements are anchored by Peruvian Ciro Hurtado’s flamenco-classical guitar.

This chamber-group-like format is to Andean tradition much what the Chieftains’ approach is to Celtic. But while the Chieftains never forget that their music is rooted in the pubs, only in a lively encore did Huayucaltia’s music really recall its mountain village origins. Still, the music was often quite lovely, notably “Chasqui,” an almost Celtic melody sung gorgeously by Cindy Harding. But the staid, somber presentation tended to wash out the music’s natural colors.

Huayucaltia will return to At My Place to headline a benefit for injured photographer Mary Ann Dolcemascolo on March 22, while Hurtado will perform at Cafe Largo on Saturday.