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Sol Y Canto juice up their Latin beat

by Don Fluckinger

When you're staring down 200 French Marines, it's best to do what you're told, even if they're asking you to do a song in French and you're a Puerto Rican-born lead singer of a Latin band specializing in Afro-Caribbean rhythms. Last time Sol Y Canto played Mechanics Hall for a free, lunchtime "Brown Bag" concert series (they play again next Wednesday at noon), that's what happened.

When Jean D'Arc made Boston her last stop on a round-the-world jaunt, somehow the ship's crew made its way to Worcester to hear live music. Sitting stiffly in the front of the hall, the Marines watched the band work through their mix of Puerto Rican bomba music, Spanish flamenco, Colombian cumbia, and Cuban son.

"This woman who was with them came up to me and said, `I know this is weird, and I know you are a Latin group, but could you do a song in French?'" says lead vocalist/small percussionist Rosi Amador in a perfect French affect. "It just happens that I was a French major in college, and then I learned awhile back to sing [the Edith Piaf classic] `La Vie En Rose.' No one else in the band knew it, so I sang it a capella. They gave me a standing ovation. At the end of the show, the captain of the ship brought me a dozen roses and kissed me on both cheeks. It was absolutely hysterical."

It's a perfect example of the band's adaptableness. Not content to concentrate on just one genre or region, the group jump around the Latin rhythmic continuum, making for a spicy mix of different beats when they perform live.

"There are just so many compelling reasons to present a variety of rhythms," she says. "We're particularly driven by the African influence in many of the rhythms we do. Why limit ourselves to one or two when you can cover more?"

The group formed in 1993 when Rosi and her husband, Brian Amador, finished a 10-year stint in the critically acclaimed Boston band Flor de Cana. Rosi's voice and percussion add to Brian's guitar playing, forming the base of Sol Y Canto's music.

Although they typically perform as a sextet, Rosi and Brian have found themselves playing more duo shows lately. The sextet are great, Rosi says, quickly adding that the duo format can be just as rewarding -- and more challenging -- because it focuses more attention on them. Her voice is clear, beautiful, and expressive; those who were lucky enough to see the sextet perform several outdoor sets two weeks ago at the Lowell Folk Festival -- or heard them broadcast live on the radio -- will marvel at the way they sound at Mechanics Hall, where the acoustics are much more favorable.

The guitar Brian plays with the sextet is wired so he can hear himself above the other musicians. For duo shows, he plays a different guitar, a custom model assembled by Maine luthier specifically for his flamenco playing. "That's an enormous source of pleasure for him when we do duo concerts," Rosi says, adding that as a duo they play more folkloric material. "We really hear ourselves, and it allows him to play an instrument that was created specifically for him. The sound of that instrument is so warm and beautiful. It's amazing."

Brian trained in classical guitar, which he played while growing up in New Mexico. Versed in the Spanish traditions and also in the back-beat of rock and roll, he did not take on the Latin beats until Flor de Cana. Rosi's mother, a singer and dancer in Puerto Rico, quit the stage to start a business with her husband and raise Rosi.

Together with Argentine bassist Fernando Huergo, saxophone player Jon Weeks, Uruguayan pianist Eduardo Tancredi, and always upbeat Panamanian percussionist Renato Thoms, the couple have recorded two Sol Y Canto albums for Rounder Records, Sancocho and Sendero Del Sol. From straightforward ballads to cancions to tangos to many other styles, the variety of Sol Y Canto's repertoire reveals a breadth of musical understanding.

"For us the challenge is not only how to interpret it but what instrumentation to use," Rosi says. "If we don't have all the exact instruments, we only give ourselves permission to do the rhythms we can authentically represent. We don't necessarily do them in a completely traditional way, but we try and stay as faithful to the roots as possible."

Now, the musical careers of Rosi and Brian Amador take another twist. Alisa and Sonia, the couple's twin daughters, take center stage in the life of Sol Y Canto. Touring has slowed down somewhat. Although the group have not written off life on the road, they now run their own agency for side income and focus on playing more local shows. That means Latin-music fans living in central Massachusetts will get to see more Sol Y Canto shows. In addition to the Brown Bag concert, the group will also perform on August 16 at the Bull Run, in Shirley.

"Even without the French Navy, it was a wonderful audience at Mechanics Hall," Rosi says. "And the acoustics are superb in there, so it will be a pleasure to come back."

Sol Y Canto perform a free show at Mechanics Hall at noon on August 13.