Bamboleo Stays in the Swing of Things

The Conga Room is not exactly the first place that comes to mind to hear jazz. And the Cuban band Bamboleo may be more memorable for its front line of four spectacular singers than for its jazz qualities.

But that’s only on the surface. In fact, there’s a lot more jazz cooking at the Conga Room than one might surmise, and Bamboleo--once you get past the compelling visual and aural impact of its singers--is a surprisingly fine jazz ensemble. All this because the music’s rhythms and improvising are such a vital, if not always acknowledged, element in the torrent of sounds pouring out of Cuba.

Friday night at the Wilshire Boulevard club, Bamboleo--arriving late for a packed, eagerly enthusiastic crowd--gave a performance that was as rich with a subtext of jazz as it was with its spectacular presentation of Cuban pop. There was, of course, no avoiding the libido-popping performances of the four lead singers, especially the group’s two shimmying, hip-grinding, head-shaven women. Individually and as a group, they are among the most impressive figures in pop music--any pop music, anywhere.

But the surge of the music, the energy that kept the rhythm alive, was provided by Bamboleo’s powerful four-man horn section and the body-moving drive of its rhythm players. Over and over again, the tight, carefully constructed, superbly performed arrangements exploded around the vocals with driving, jazz-phrased accents. And the rhythms, building off the metric clock of the essential Cuban clave, added jazz’s swing to the dance-inducing qualities of salsa.

Occasionally, one of the horn players stepped forward to take an impressive solo. At other times, they interacted with the singers, dancing a few steps in unison, their performance easily blending entertainment values with indomitable musicality. In that sense, Bamboleo’s capacity to find the linkages between convincing jazz playing, danceable rhythms and visually compelling images harked back to an early jazz period: the swing era. Although both the music and the rhythms were different, the intentions were admirably the same--to deliver creative, imaginative music in a form that touches and enlightens audiences.