Pop Music : Inti-Illimani Blends Cultures at Bridges Auditorium

“No language is better than another. Some people say their language is the best, but that’s not true,” guitarist Marcelo Coulon said midway through Inti-Illimani’s concert Saturday at Bridges Auditorium in Claremont.

The Chilean folk group, which normally sings in Spanish, then proceeded to demonstrate the point. The group spoke to the audience in English between songs, but sang in Spanish, Italian and Aymara, one of the many native tongues of South America’s Andean region.

Inti-Illimani has often dealt with politics in its shows, but the focus this time was on traditional music. On instrumentals such as “El Vals” and “Ojos Azules,” the seven-piece band exhibited the appealing and original blend of jazz, New Age and Latin folk rhythms that has made it such a valuable unit.

But the music really came alive when the group added its colorful vocals, especially on such winning tunes as “Mulata” and “Sensemaya (Cancion Para Matar Una Culebra)” (Song to Kill a Snake By), a composition whose lyrics were written by the Afro-Cuban poet Nicolas Guillen.

But it was during “Fina Estampa,” a popular song by the late Peruvian composer Chabuca Granda, that Inti-Illimani best demonstrated its experimental side. Employing a caja (a percussive wooden box sounding much like a military drum) and a minimalist guitar, the group illustrated how one can blend the old and the new most winningly.