Four Acts Show Wide Range of World Music in ‘North America’

The four installments of the Hollywood Bowl’s World Festival ’99 on Sunday were subtitled “North America,” because the acts--the Lakota Sioux Indian Dance Theatre, Nova Scotian fiddler Natalie MacMaster, Tex-Mex accordionist Flaco Jimenez and blues guitarist Lonnie Brooks--all spring from this hemisphere. But the range of sounds and rhythms was no less global than the previous festival offerings.

And it was interesting that the performance of the Sioux musicians and dancers initially seemed as exotic as an appearance by, say, a group of Tuvan throat singers. To their credit, however, the gorgeously costumed performers made a determined and largely successful effort to reveal some of the rich spirituality of their culture via the atmospheric drumming, passionate chanting and descriptive movements of their art.

MacMaster, one of Celtic music’s most dynamic performers, was positioned second on the bill, but she virtually stole the show. Filled with unstoppable energy, step dancing while she played, her set was pure musical wizardry, the work of an attractive young artist filled with potential world music star quality. And the moderate-sized audience, completely tapped into her captivating set of lively Celtic tunes, rewarded her with a standing ovation.

Jimenez is known, with considerable justification, as one of the great innovators in Tex-Mex conjunto, and his presentation displayed the music’s unusual melting pot of blues, folk music, country, mariachi and polka. But Jimenez went further, adding rock and a few touches of funk, blending it all together with his stirring, virtuosic accordion playing.

Brooks, winding up the eclectic program, was less appealing. Despite his impressive blues chops, his New Orleans roots and his years in the Chicago blues arena, his playing too often lacked personality, too often resonated with the sounds of B.B. King revisited.