La Bottine Souriante Goes to Work on Synthesis

If you really want to know the potential for the indefinable hybrid known as world music, look toward the Quebecois band La Bottine Souriante. The nine-piece ensemble’s appearance at the California Plaza’s Grand Performances on Friday night was a triumph, musically and as sheer entertainment--an object demonstration in combining such seemingly disparate elements as French traditional music, jazz and salsa.

La Bottine Souriante means “the Smiling Boot”--or the manner in which a sole peels away from a worn work shoe--a metaphoric reference to the group’s origins in working-class music. The playing of Michel Bordeleau, Andre Brunet and Yves Lambert, in particular, emphasized the band’s roots, as they shifted from violins to guitars, the music enriched by Lambert’s button accordion and stylistic lead singing. Bordeleau, amazingly, provided most of the rhythmic propulsion, tapping his feet on an amplified wooden board. In what would have been the drum solo climax for most groups, his foot-tapping exercise was more intriguing than a full-fledged workout from a battery of percussion.

What really made La Bottine unique, however, was the blending of these traditional sounds with a four-man horn section and jazz-tinged keyboards and bass. Song after song started with folk-like melodies that gradually, unsuspectingly, became underscored with brisk horn riffs. On some tunes, Denis Frechette doubled the violin tunes on his tenor saxophone before striking out on his own with solos that ranged between funky blues and roaring avant-garde sounds.

It was a chancy foray into musical synthesis, but it worked. Risking more than many world music bands, La Bottine Souriante has reached a level of achievement with the capacity to influence the growingly integrated styles that will emerge in the next century.