review

What? A concert dubbed “Alma y Cancion” and no “ooooo-ooo-hoooo, baby, baby” lyrics? Guess that the Panamanian Spanish “alma” doesn’t translate to “soul” in the same sense that I learned it as an adolescent in the Detroit area. And besides, this was a benefit for the Catholic archdiocese, and whenever I think about the Supremes et al, Catholicism is not a concept the comes to mind.

Composer-pianist-singer Patricia Elena Vlieg’s soul music is something else. Rather than looking northward by the map and backward in time to Dozier, Holland and Dozier, her first set at the Teatro Nacional looked south to Brazil, and sometimes as far back in time, for its principal inspirations. But other than “The Girl from Ipanema,” there wasn’t much Brazilian music that I know.

That’s because for the most part Vlieg performed her own stuff, and that was one of the real treats of her January 30 performance. As a student at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music, she won the coveted Quincy Jones Award for composition and demonstrated to all present that for some people, that which is studied at school is not forgotten afterwards but built upon throughout a lifetime.

Not long before, I had caught Vlieg’s act in the nearby Plaza Catedral, at the Panama Jazz Festival. That was a different band, and mostly different music. It was, after all, a jazz festival, and naturally she mostly played jazz, albeit much of it with the same samba influences that we heard at this concert.

For this concert, which did have its jazzy moments, her band included a number of people who have distinguished themselves on the local jazz scene, but are also known to play salsa and other things. As in bassist Chispa Lawson, percussionist Omar Díaz, drummer Marcus Gilkes, guitarist Luis Bonilla, and saxophonist/flautist Luis Carlos Pérez. For some numbers, she included folks from Panama’s classical scene, a string section with Ioan Rotar on violin, Ariadna Núñez on viola and Eloy de Icaza on the cello; and a woodwind section with Reinaldo Alvarez playing the clarinet, Juan Castillo the oboe and Ariane Castillo the bassoon. For about half of the first set and all of the second, Patricia’s sister Ana Lucía Vlieg was onstage doing lead or backing vocals.

The first set started out very Brazilian, then got into things that sounded like the nuevo son genre, then back to Brazilian --- sometimes with jazzy touches --- and some things that sounded Spanish classical in inspiration, then back to Brazilian, then a sentimental vocal duet with her sister accompanied by piano only, then more Brazilian, including some scat singing elements and at one point a very strong saxophone lead.

After that it was intermission. I was up in the nosebleed section, the part with the better view of the Roberto Lewis ceiling that Tony Rajer so skillfully restored and not the best acoustics in the house, and when the lights were up there were a number of priests and nuns up there, too. Seems that old hippies working in non-mainstream media aren’t the only ones who adjust themselves to such poverty as lands them in the cheap seats --- in fact some people take vows about it. But really, other than a few situated behind posts there aren’t any bad seats in the Teatro Nacional.

The second set was very different from the first. It started out with the woodwind section, and after they left the strings came on. The Spanish guitar influence became marked at one point, and religious themes came to the fore in the lyrics, and in the things that Patricia and her sister said onstage between numbers. Many of the compositions in the second set vaguely reminded me of Carole King’s work. It was in this set that one got the greatest sense that this was, after all, a benefit for the Catholic Church.

The show ended in a return to South American influences.

The descent from the upper section was slow, as only one of the exit stairways was open, which is a safety concern that INAC really ought to look into. But this was a very Catholic crowd, so people filed out in orderly and friendly fashion with none of the usual rudeness that happens when Panama’s wealthier individuals are asked to wait their turn. And of course, in the $10 seats you don’t actually find the heavily bejeweled set. Where I was sitting, people had more culture than money.

All told, it was ten bucks well spent. Especially so, because in 1995, when The Panama News was just starting out, I had the occasion to interview the Vlieg sisters --- both of them still students at the time --- and to listen to the music that they were making at that time. Fast forward more than a decade to the Panama Jazz Festival and now this concert, and it was a demonstration of human progress that can incite or restore a certain sense of faith.

If you want to get a better sense of Patricia Elena Vlieg’s current musical directions than this review by a journalist with no formal education in music could possibly offer, get a copy of her recent CD “Origin.”

Also in this section:
Cool Internet sites
Patricia Elena Vlieg at the Teatro Nacional

News | Business | Editorial | Opinion | Letters | Arts | Review | Community | Fun | Travel
Unclassified Ads | Calendar | Outdoors | Dining | Science | Sports | Español | Front Page
Archives

 

Make the Executive Hotel your headquarters in Panama City --- http://ww.executivehotel-panama.com
Find the boat of your dreams through Evermarine --- http://www.evermarine.com