Torres Joyfully Celebrates Traditional Cuban Sounds

Here’s a moneymaking idea: If you own a trendy club on the Sunset Strip, you can maximize your space by having two shows at the same time. Book some big-shot artist to play the regular stage, and then cram as many people as you can into a tiny VIP room upstairs and charge them $20 a ticket.

That’s what happened Wednesday at the House of Blues when Buena Vista Social Club alumnus Barbarito Torres played two blistering sets in the venue’s Foundation Room.

The corner where the improvised stage was set up was clearly not designed with live performances in mind. Unless you positioned yourself right next to the musicians, you couldn’t see anything beyond the front line of standing listeners.

A virtuoso on the laoud, a small, 12-string instrument similar to a lute, Torres doesn’t let his technique get in the way of the uncomplicated joy of traditional Cuban music. Accompanied by a relaxed septet of consummate musicians, he offered selections from his U.S. debut album, “Havana Cafe.”

Torres was fortunate enough to have the irrepressible 83-year-old sonero Pio Leyva with him on a couple of tunes. A glass of whiskey in hand, the diminutive Leyva charmed the audience with a gutsy interpretation of the humorous “Corazon de Chivo.” And Torres kept the show alive by constantly switching genres, from dreamy bolero to earthy guaracha and back to the traditional son with an exuberant version of “El Cuarto de Tula,” from the original Buena Vista sessions.