Jaramar’s Otherworldly Singing Is Transporting

Maybe it’s true. Maybe Mexican singer Jaramar has been reincarnated, a visiting vocalist from centuries past. Her mystical performance Thursday at the Mayan Theatre, with its fitting pre-Columbian decor, certainly evoked the spirits of another time and place.

Delicate and elegant, Jaramar sings in ancient tongues we don’t comprehend. One moment she’s a Zapotec goddess from southern Mexico, another a Sephardic wanderer from 15th century Spain.

She doesn’t bother to translate. She simply transports her listeners on a sonic carpet ride. Where are we now? A mosque in the Middle East? A temple in Tehuantepec? Or sailing a timeless ocean in search of a seductive mermaid?

This concert could have used a time-travel guide. Jaramar (surname Soto) arises from an obscure school of musical specialists who delight in researching and re-creating the songs and poems of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Formerly a singer of nuevo canto (new song), she fell into the field by chance 20 years ago and felt she had discovered not only her calling but also her identity.

She worked for 10 years in a group called Ars Antigua with her husband Alfredo Sanchez, keyboardist-guitarist and artistic director. The Guadalajara-based couple has collaborated on setting to music the colonial-era poems of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz and the pre-Hispanic verses of Nezahualcoyotl, the poet-king of Texcoco.

Sanchez led an accomplished five-piece combo Thursday, featuring the enchanting clarinet of Natalie Braux and the stunning percussion of Hector Aguilar.

Looking doll-like in a flowing, lacy gown, Jaramar performed with a stylized poise, gracefully moving her arms and hands overhead like a flamenco dancer. She displayed exquisite control of her high vibrato, dramatically modulated with elastic ease.

In a welcome return to the 20th century, the second half of her two-hour set featured Mexican favorites such as the mournful “La Llorona” and the swaying “El Pescador,” by Lorenzo Barcelata.

Appreciative fans demanded one encore after another, refusing to let Jaramar return to whatever worlds she came from.