Review: The La Jolla Music Society Presents the Spanish Harlem ORCHESTRA at The Conrad

The La Jolla Music Society has featured exceptional musicians in many genres over the years. Best known for staging classical concerts, since the opening of its intimate home at The Conrad the Society has also welcomed an outstanding variety of some of the best in dance, opera, jazz, and world music. The Spanish Harlem Orchestra, winner of three Grammys, is the latest example of the latter.

The band is celebrating 25 years of success as an exponent of “hardcore” salsa both in its

                                                                         Oscar Hernández

recordings and at live concerts. Pianist, leader and arranger Oscar Hernández has a fourth Grammy for a quintet album and has worked with dozens of well-known Latin musicians over the years including Ray Barreto, Tito Puente, Rubén Blades and Celia Cruz.

About an exceptionally enthusiastic third of the audience at the La Jolla concert appeared to be familiar with many of the tunes on the concert’s program. Half a dozen excited and very fit audience members were dancing in the aisles from beginning to end. Song introductions were most often in Spanish, to the delight of the many there who spoke it.

Among the tunes the orchestra played and has recorded were “Ven Goza Conmigo,” “Cuando Te Vi” and, from their latest album, “Swing Forever.”

As a longtime fan of Latin jazz and an admirer of its recordings, I was looking forward to hearing the orchestra live in the inviting environment of the La Jolla Music Society’s Conrad Center. But for the first time in my many visits to The Conrad, its outstanding acoustics worked to the disadvantage of the performers.

The band prides itself on exciting in-your-face salsa. But 90 minutes of similar tempos and over-dominant brass may not have given newcomers a true impression of how good and how much fun the orchestra is.

                                         Marco Bermudez, Carlos Cascante, and Jeremy Bosch

In its many well-mixed recordings and YouTube clips, the band’s three vocalists are together for most arrangements, alternating solo and harmonized singing. Brass and Latin percussion are either part of a mix of equals or strictly backing the vocal line. Piano, bass and baritone sax provide a near continuous harmonic foundation for the melodies.

In this concert, the mix was off. The band is on a tour and may not have had a lot of time to experiment with microphone placements and sound balances. In the relatively small hall, over-miked brass often made it difficult to hear the singers clearly and reduced the impact of Hernandez’s Latin piano comping and an outstanding percussion section of timbales, congas and bongos.

The program consisted primarily of the orchestra’s originals and covers of tunes recorded by well-known salsa and bolero artists.

Halfway through the concert, Hernandez announced they were going to perform a few of his new arrangements for a Christmas album they were planning for next year. “The Christmas Song” was the closest to a change of pace. Jeremy Bosch sang in English with a smooth style reminiscent of crooners like Andy Williams, but the background remained loud up-tempo Latin, and lyrics were at times inaudible.

Bosch (no relation to Michael Connelly’s best-known fictional detective) fared better on an extended flute solo. He has impressive technique and tone, but again sometimes lost out in arguments with trumpets.

Leader and pianist Hernandez’s arrangement for his own swinging extended solo made light use of brass and was a concert highlight.

Cuatro virtuoso Ray Carrion was down from LA to sit in for a couple of tunes, and it was a treat to hear his Latin guitar with a sound somewhere between an ukulele and a sweet full-bodied guitar.

My curmudgeonly reservations aside, kudos to the La Jolla Music Society for scheduling the Spanish Harlem Orchestra. It’s one of the world’s best Latin bands. Any newcomers at the concert who doubt that should check out the energy and joy found on their recordings.

But next time, guys (it is an all-male band), balance the microphone levels.

Photos compliments of Spanish Harlem Orchestra.

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