Pop : A Spirited ‘Mariachi’ at the Bowl

The third installment of the annual “Mariachi USA” festival at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday had the feeling of a colorful family outing, bubbling with music and dance, and overflowing with high spirits.

The most striking aspect of the four-hour-plus program was the remarkable range of styles that mariachi has come to encompass. The early part of the show featured competition-winning high school ensembles from Texas and California--Mariachi Oro y Plata, Mariachi Festival and Mariachi Olimpico--as well as the precocious Los Rayos del Sol, an enthusiastic band of grade-schoolers.

Among the major groups, the traditionalist orientation of Mariachi Cobre was followed by the more unusual repertoire of Mariachi Los Galleros (with the suave baritone singing of leader Pedro Rey) and Mexico’s Mariachi de America. But the program didn’t shift into overdrive until the arrival of the vigorous, hard-hitting rhythms of San Antonio’s Las Campanas de America and festival music director Jose Hernandez’s eclectic Mariachi Sol de Mexico (including his trademark reading of “New York, New York”).

The evening peaked with a superb performance by Aida Cuevas, one of Mexico’s best-known singers and a world-class artist. Her warm sound and expressive interpretation was especially appealing in several mariachi standards and charming English-language renditions of “Feelings” and “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

A final, climactic number--before the fireworks--showcased all the instrumentalists, assembled as the Mariachi USA Symphony, accompanying a too-brief kaleidoscope of dances by the Ballet Folklorico. Beneath the party atmosphere, the exuberant good cheer, and the vibrant sounds, “Mariachi USA’s” most significant accomplishment was the stimulation of a growing, justified sense of pride in a splendid musical heritage.