Sunday’s concert by the Trio de Colores Mariachi Band offered a colorful sampler of short pieces reflecting the Iberian influence on the popular music of Mexico and the music’s rich regional and cultural variety.
Trio de Colores is composed of a Colombian, Karin Stein, a Panamanian, Edgar East, and an American, Chicago-born Rudy Piñón. The three musical virtuosi perform everything from well-known mariachi music to lesser known Native American tunes and contemporary Mexican folk music and popular compositions.
This colorful threesome demonstrated the strong Spanish influence on Mexican folk tunes such as “La Petenera” from the state of Veracruz and “El Sinaloense” and “La Charreada” from the state of Jalisco, which all carry a European brand of harmonies in thirds and the rich string accompaniments first introduced from Spain: the harp, the guitarrón and the vihuela all trace their roots to Europe.
Piñón’s harp playing greatly enriched the bass lines of East’s guitarrón and Stein’s rhythmical vihuela. Yet the instruments, like the songs, are not European but products of the Americas.
Musical ideas brought from Spain added one element in the syncretism of European, African and Native American traditions that led to cultures all their own in Mexico. This cultural blending was particularly notable in the waltz “María Chuchita,” sung in the Native Pur’épecha language, and in the cumbia “El Mariachi Loco,” played to an Afro-Latin dance beat.
These songs showed Latin America as a land of mixed cultures with a unique voice in every region, depending on the particular blend that has taken place there.
The next concert in the Perry Fine Arts Series will feature the U.S. Air Force Band of Mid-America’s Freedom Winds at the Perry Performing Arts Center, 1200 18th St. in Perry. The performance is Sunday, Feb. 11 at 2 p.m.
Perry Fine Arts concerts are free and open to the public. Free-will donations are accepted. The Perry Performing Arts Center is handicapped accessible.
Once again, a superb concert but a very poor crowd. What will it take or what should it take to get Perry residents to attend these concerts? If this concert was held in Des Moines, hundreds would have attended and probably paid an admission fee. There were only about a half dozen Hispanics in attendance and no high school students. Why?