Pop Music Review : Ochoa Vibrantly Delivers Cuban Sounds

When a musical genre is as steeped in rural tradition as Cuban son, there’s no better setting for it than a live performance. There’s something a little sterile about listening to this music on a CD player when it was clearly intended as a communal experience, an opportunity for dancing, singing along and sharing the moment.

On Wednesday at the Roxy, Buena Vista Social Club alumnus Eliades Ochoa transported the capacity audience into the heart of Santiago de Cuba with a superb collection of sones, guarachas and boleros, interpreted with authentic flair by his excellent five-piece band.

A tall, plump man with a black hat and a perennial grin of contentment, Ochoa has the mannerisms of an American country singer, and his gratitude for the crowd’s attention was touching. He acknowledged the importance of the Buena Vista Social Club to his fortunes by offering a vibrant version of “Chan Chan,” the album’s opening track and a theme song of sorts for the whole Cuban “revival.”

But Ochoa’s powerful musicality can’t be pigeonholed. He invited Charlie Musselwhite, his opening act and a guest on Ochoa’s own album “Sublime Illusion,” on stage for two harmonica-enriched numbers, and he even performed a bolero version of the musty tango “Volver.” Like the rest of the singer’s repertoire, these stylistic innovations sounded as authentic as they were riveting.