Ryan ChartrandIt’s difficult to know what to expect from the name Viviana and Divas Latinas, which possibly explains why I was one of the few audience members without white hair or glasses.
It’s a shame that more students (and by more, I mean more than 20) didn’t go to this concert because it brought sounds that are not heard nearly enough on the Central Coast.
Flutist Viviana Guzman, vocalist Rosa Rojas, guitarist Gyan Riley and percussionist John Waller came together seamlessly to perform music from all over the world. They’ve only been playing together for about a year, but they’re so comfortable it was more like a jam session than a formal concert.
They focused on Latin beats such as mambo, tango and rumba, but also played Irish and Hungarian tunes. The catchy, upbeat songs made me wish I could dance, especially when Guzman and Rojas came out and danced during one of their earlier songs. It was incredible to hear so many different styles of music coming from so few instruments.
Guzman was the most amazing flutist I’ve ever heard (sorry, Jethro Tull) and used flutes made of jade, wood and nine-carat gold as well as an Irish tin whistle. For the Irish jig song, she played so fast that she must have been whistling by inhaling as well as exhaling; I couldn’t detect a second’s pause.
“If I may quote Dr. Ruth, size doesn’t matter,” she said of the whistle.
Guzman talked to the crowd before each song, explaining what instrument she was using and where the song came from. In her world travels, she has become accustomed to many types of flutes and music. Her goal is to collect beats of the world, she told the audience.
A few of the songs were even accompanied by photos she had taken during her travels, including some from Peru and China.
The group also played some of Guzman and Riley’s solo works, including one Guzman thought up while trapped in a pyramid in Egypt (apparently they close at 5 p.m.).
The audience could tell the group enjoyed playing together as they would talk to each other between songs or just grin outright while playing. For one song, Riley bluntly said that he had never used finger cymbals before. So, Guzman nodded her head alternately toward him and Waller to cue them during the song, to the crowd’s amusement.
The concert was brought to the Performing Arts Center by the San Luis Obispo Community Concert Association, which is now in its 70th and final season. The association’s goals have been to bring culture to the Central Coast, which one of the members said was a “cultural wasteland” back when the group was created.