Grupo Niche’s Fiery Effort Leaves Its Troubles in Past

A couple of years ago, things looked pretty grim for Colombia’s Grupo Niche.

Its songwriting mastermind and producer, Jairo Varela, was arrested and jailed for an alleged connection to a drug cartel. And although he continued to compose and record during his three years in prison, while in prison, the quality of the material started to falter for the first time in the band’s 20-year history. 1997’s “A Prueba de Fuego” was Niche’s weakest effort.

Judging from its fiery performance on Saturday at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel’s California Ballroom, where it appeared alongside tropical favorites Aniceto Molina and Sonora Dinamita, Grupo Niche is back on the right track. The band’s show was an hourlong seminar on the delectable details that make salsa such a glorious music.

Although Varela couldn’t make it (it is unlikely he will be granted a visa to enter the U.S. any time soon), his presence was felt Saturday in the clever orchestrations, catchy hooks and pop sensibility that make Grupo Niche the epitome of quality (and highly commercial) Afro Cuban music. Such hits as “La Negra No Quiere” (with its famously acrobatic opening trumpet line), “Sin Sentimientos” (slowly working a melodramatic crescendo into relentless dance fever) and “Cali Pachanguero” (its richly layered textures paying homage to the group’s birthplace) were peppered with songs from last year’s independently released “A Golpe de Folklore,” which includes some of the tastiest jams Varela has cooked up in recent memory.